reath, "I shoulda known. Already, delusions of
grandeur."

"Holy Mackerel," Cliff protested. "Aren't we ever serious around this
place? You two will wind up gagging with the firing squad."

Crawford chuckled softly but let his face go serious. "Sorry, Cliff.
What's on your mind?"

Cliff said impatiently, "From the radio reports, the Arab Union is
consolidating its position. El Hassan is being discredited by the
minute. Your followers were in control for a time in Mopti and Bamako,
but they're falling away because of lack of direction. The best way I
can put reports together, the Reunited Nations is in complete
confusion. Everybody accusing everybody of double-dealing."

Isobel said dryly, "Any other good news?"

Cliff said glumly, "Rumors, rumors, rumors. Half the marabouts in
North Africa are proclaiming a jihad in support of the Pan-Islam
program of the Arab Union. Listen, Homer, we've got to get the
backing of the Moslem leaders."

Homer Crawford grunted. "We need Islam in this part of the world like
we need a hole in the head. That's one of the things already wrong
with North Africa."

"What's wrong with Islam? It was probably the most dynamic religion
ever to sweep the world."

"_Was_ is right," Crawford growled, now on one of his favorite peeve
subjects. "The Moslem religion exploded out of Arabia with some new
concepts that set the world in ferment from India to Southern France.
For all practical purposes Islam _invented_ science. Sure, the Greeks
had logic and the Romans had engineering--without applying the
Greek-style logic. But the Arabs amalgamated the two concepts to yield
experimental science. They were able to take the intellectual products
of a dozen cultures and wield them into one. For a hundred years or so
it looked as though they had something."

When he hesitated for a moment, Isobel said, questioningly, "And ..."

"And they couldn't get away from that Q'ran of theirs. They took it
seriously. They started off in their big universities, such as those
at Fez, being the greatest scientists and scholars the world had ever
seen. But the fundamentalists won out, and in a couple of hundred
years the only thing being taught at Fez was the Q'ran. To even
suggest that all necessary information isn't contained therein, is
enough to have you clobbered. Islam became the most reactionary force
to suppress progress in the civilized world. In fact, by this period
in world history, we don't even think o