Religion: The Propaganda Pilgrims

Hamid Raschid, 42, and Rusi Nasar, 37, are Moslems. They knew each other in their native Russia, both contrived to escape from the Russian army in World War II, both eventually found their way to the U.S. This year they decided to go on a hadj—the pilgrimage to Mecca enjoined by the Koran upon every able-bodied Moslem.

But this was to be a hadj with a double mission. Hamid and Rusi had read with anger about the propaganda pilgrimages staged by the Russians during the hadj season. Three times since World War II, Moscow had sent Communists from among Russia's large Moslem...

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