After the first visit of Faisal bin Hussein to Damascus in early 1915, the societies were suspected by Djemal Pasha of conspiracy and treason against the Ottoman Empire.
Al-Faruqi was arrested and sent to the First Army in Istanbul and sent to the Gallipoli front but he defected to the British on 20 August 1915 after spending only 10 days in his unit.
Al-Faruqi was a member of the secret society al-'Ahd, the anti-Ottoman Arab nationalist organisation founded and headed by Aziz Al-Masri, then based in Cairo, and claimed he represented the Arab army officers in Damascus, whereas in reality Yasin al-Hashimi was the leader of the Damascus al-Ahd's antenna.
[1] He urged the British to support an independent Arab state as outlined in the Damascus Protocol during the correspondence with Hussein.
Al-Faruqi's claims solidified British Egypt's conceptions that the Arab world was ready for a revolt.