The Week

• Incidental Intelligence: The “Constitution Room” in Stouffer’s Restaurant on Fifth Avenue in New York City has been renamed the “Lamplight Room.”

• Last week Radio Moscow blasted the Moslem religion—“a remnant of the past which the Soviet people have left far behind.” Gamal Abdel Nasser has the unchallenged reputation of being a devout Moslem. Upon leaving for Moscow he told the press he was confident he would find full freedom of religion in the Soviet Union; and no doubt, having returned, he will report that, as expected, he found that freedom. Nasser may be an easily deceived tourist, but he is not an uneducated man, and must be presumed to know that Communism is doctrinally atheist. But perhaps he thinks, as a good many others do, that the death of Stalin ushered in a new Communist phase of doctrinal accommodation. Perhaps he feels that such blasts as Radio Moscow’s are merely sound effects, sentimental repercussions coming in through the echo chambers of Marxist history, to embellish the pragmatic dogma of the new era. Or perhaps Nasser puts the assault on Islam out of mind altogether, the easiest recourse, surely, for a devout Moslem who has embraced an infidel. Or has Nasser, as political conductor, handed Allah a second fiddle?

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• Incidental Intelligence: The “Constitution Room” in Stouffer’s Restaurant on Fifth Avenue in New York City has been renamed the “Lamplight Room.”

• Last week Radio Moscow blasted the Moslem religion—“a remnant of the past which the Soviet people have left far behind.” Gamal Abdel Nasser has the unchallenged reputation of being a devout Moslem. Upon leaving for Moscow he told the press he was confident he would find full freedom of religion in the Soviet Union; and no doubt, having returned, he will report that, as expected, he found that freedom. Nasser may be an easily deceived tourist, but he is not an uneducated man, and must be presumed to know that Communism is doctrinally atheist. But perhaps he thinks, as a good many others do, that the death of Stalin ushered in a new Communist phase of doctrinal accommodation. Perhaps he feels that such blasts as Radio Moscow’s are merely sound effects, sentimental repercussions coming in through the echo chambers of Marxist history, to embellish the pragmatic dogma of the new era. Or perhaps Nasser puts the assault on Islam out of mind altogether, the easiest recourse, surely, for a devout Moslem who has embraced an infidel. Or has Nasser, as political conductor, handed Allah a second fiddle?