ABSTRACT
Al-Khuli was raised in a deeply religious milieu. As a child, he attended services in the mosque often and took religious lessons there. The fact that his uncle was a founding member of the Muslim Brothers fired him with a desire to observe Islamic law: ‘I was very religious, though not fanatic … This proclivity was reinforced by the very religious atmosphere of our neighbourhood, al-Saiyidah Zinab. I thought that my religious belief would help me succeed in life'. Nevertheless, as a young man, he found it relatively easy to abandon religious observance. The turning point came in 1944, when he was introduced to Marxist ideas at a summer camp in Alexandria. 1
