36 years ago, on 4 December 1979, one of the most tragic events to unfold in Islamic history came to an end. Of many things, it is a case study in relation to delusions of grandeur.
The following is one report on it.
When the Ka’ba Was Held Hostage – The Grand Mosque Siege
On Nov 20 1979, Masjid al Haram in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, was taken over by extremists in one of the most spectacular, controversial and heavily-censored events in modern Islamic history.
The dissidents declared that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of their leaders, Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, and called on Muslims to obey him.
The seizure shocked the Islamic world as hundreds of pilgrims were taken hostage, and hundreds of militants, security forces and hostages caught in crossfire were killed in the ensuing battles for control of the site.
The siege ended two weeks after the takeover began with militants and the mosque cleared. Following the attack, the Saudi state implemented stricter enforcement of Islamic code.
Juhayman al-Otaybi
The seizure was led by Juhayman al-Otaybi who declared his brother-in-law Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani to be the Mahdi. Otaybi was a preacher, a former corporal in the Saudi National Guard, and a former student of Sheikh Abdel Aziz bin Baaz, who went on to become the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia.
Juhayman had turned against Bin Baz and began advocating a return to the original ways of Islam, a repudiation of the West, an end to education of women, the abolition of television and the expulsion of non-Muslims.
He proclaimed that the ruling Al Saud dynasty had lost its legitimacy because it was corrupt, ostentatious and had destroyed Saudi culture by an aggressive policy of Westernization.
Juhayman al-Otaybi
Al-Otaybi and Qahtani had met while being imprisoned together for sedition, and during that time al-Otaybi claimed to have had a vision sent by God telling him that Qahtani was the Mahdi.
Their declared goal was to institute a theocracy in preparation for the imminent end of the world. Many of their followers were drawn from theology students at the Islamic University in Medina. Other followers came from Egypt, Yemen, Kuwait, and Iraq, and also included some Sudanese.
They preached their message in different mosques in Saudi Arabia without being arrested as the government was reluctant to confront them.
In fact, members of the ulema questioned Otaibi and Qahtani, but they were subsequently released as being traditionalists and not a threat.
Because of donations from wealthy followers, the group was well-armed and trained. Some National Guard troops sympathetic to the insurgents smuggled weapons, ammunition, gas masks, and provisions into the mosque compound over a period of weeks before the attack.
Seizure
In the early morning of 20 November 1979, the imam of the Grand Mosque, Sheikh Mohammed al-Subayil, was preparing to lead the prayers for the fifty thousand worshipers who had gathered for prayer.
Around 5:00 am, he was interrupted by insurgents who procured weapons from under their robes, chained the gates shut and killed two policemen who were armed with only wooden clubs for disciplining unruly pilgrims. Arms were also smuggled into the mosque in empty coffins to avoid detection.
The number of rebels has been given as “at least 500″ and “four to five hundred”, which included several women and children who had joined al-Otaybi’s movement.
Members of Juhayman’s group after capture
At the time, the Grand Mosque was being renovated. An employee of the organization was able to report the seizure to the outside before the insurgents cut the telephone lines.
The insurgents released most of the hostages and locked the remainder in the sanctuary. They took defensive positions in the upper levels of the mosque, and sniper positions in the minarets, from which they commanded the grounds.
No one outside the mosque knew how many hostages remained, how many militants were in the mosque and what sort of preparations they had made.
At the time of the event, Crown Prince Fahd was in Tunisia for a meeting of the Arab Summit and then commander of National Guard Prince Abdullah was in Morocco for an official visit. Therefore, King Khalid assigned the responsibility to Prince Sultan, then Minister of Defense and Prince Nayef, then Minister of Interior, to deal with the incident.
Siege
Soon after the seizure, about a hundred security officers of the Ministry of Interior attempted to retake the mosque, and were decisively turned back with heavy casualties. The survivors were quickly joined by units of the Saudi Arabian Army and Saudi Arabian National Guard.
By the evening, the entire city of Mecca had been evacuated. Prince Sultan appointed Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, then head of the Al Mukhabaraat Al ‘Aammah (Saudi Intelligence), to take over the forward command post several hundred meters from the mosque, where Prince Turki would remain for the next several weeks.
However, the first order of business was to seek the approval of the ulema, which was led by Abdul Aziz bin Baz. Islam forbids any violence within the Grand Mosque, to the extent that plants cannot be uprooted without explicit religious sanction.
Bin Baaz found himself in a delicate situation, especially as he had previously taught al-Otaybi in Medina. Regardless, the ulema issued a fatwa allowing deadly force to be used in retaking the mosque.
With religious approval granted, Saudi forces launched frontal assaults on three of the main gates. The assaulting force was repulsed, and never even got close to breaking through the insurgents’ defences. Snipers continued to pick off soldiers who showed themselves. The mosque’s public address system was used to broadcast the insurgents’ message throughout the streets of Mecca.
An elite Pakistani unit called “Rahbar” was rushed to Mecca, under command of General Pervez Musharraf (then a Major) from Pakistan on Saudi Government’s request.
Masjid al Haram under attack
In the middle of the day, Saudi troops abseiled from helicopters directly into the central courtyard of the mosque. The Saudi soldiers were picked off by insurgents holding superior positions. After failure of this exercise, Pakistani commandos split/showered water all over the Grand Masjid floors even in minarets.
This situation was very surprising for the insurgents who did not know what was going to happen next. On having water all over the floors of the Grand Masjid, Pakistani Army Commandos released electric current in the water and insurgents suspended their activities and start changing their positions to save themselves from the electric shocks.
During this time Pakistani Army Commandos were dropped by helicopters into the Grand Masjid in different locations and they easily captured many of the insurgents alive.
Officially, the Saudi government took the position of not aggressively taking the mosque, but rather to starve the militants. Nevertheless, several unsuccessful assaults were undertaken, at least one of them through the underground tunnels in and around the mosque.
By 27 November, most of the mosque had been retaken by the Saudi National Guard and the Army, though they suffered heavy casualties in the assault.
In the catacombs under the mosque, however, several militants continued to resist and tear gas was used to force them out. Several of the top militants escaped the siege and days later sporadic fighting erupted in other parts of the city as authorities tried to capture them.
The battle had lasted for more than two weeks, and had officially left “255 pilgrims, troops and fanatics” killed and “another 560 injured … although diplomats suggested the toll was higher.” Military casualties were 127 dead and 451 injured.
Aftermath
The rebels’ leader, Juhayman, was captured, and he and 67 of his fellow rebels – “all the surviving males” – were tried secretly, convicted and publicly beheaded in the squares of four Saudi cities. The executions were decreed by King Khalid after the edict issued by ulema.
This sad incident in modern Islamic history goes to show what extremes people can go to in the name of religion. No matter how noble the cause or intention, we mustn’t allow ourselves to fall into extremism. If we do not follow the correct guidance and we follow our whims and desires, we may end up being misguided by Shaytan along the path of destruction. May Allah guide us all and save us from all forms of extremism. Ameen.
Allah knows what happened there, with the man's claims etc, it happened a year before i was born so i really can't say i was there at the time, he did however appear to have quite a zeal for the establishment of the rule of Allah.
Although the french commandos later denied the claim, some did make the following observations in published books:
According to Lawrence Wright in the book*The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,
A team of three French commandos from the Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) arrived in Mecca.
Because of the prohibition against non-Muslims entering the holy city, they converted to Islam in a brief, formal ceremony.
The commandos pumped gas into the underground chambers, but perhaps because the rooms were so bafflingly interconnected, the gas failed and the resistance continued. With casualties climbing, Saudi forces drilled holes into the courtyard and dropped grenades into the rooms below, indiscriminately killing many hostages but driving the remaining rebels into more open areas where they could be picked off by sharpshooters. More than two weeks after the assault began, the surviving rebels finally surrendered
I think most of us know that it is treachery worthy of capital punishment and worse than riddah to pretend to accept Islam with the intention of commiring riddah afterwards.
Here's some background on Otaybi who's family had initially helped the king of the time in reaching the throne;
Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi (Arabic:جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي 16 September 1936[1][2]*– 9 January 1980) was a religious activist and militant who led the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, to protest against the Saudi monarchy and their ruling, in the last months of 1979.
Otaybi was born in al-Sajir, Al-Qassim Province, a settlement established by King Abdulaziz*to house*Ikhwan bedouin tribesmen who had fought for him. This settlement (known as a hijra) was populated by members of Otaybi's tribe, the 'Utaybah tribe, one of the most pre-eminent tribes of the Najd region.
Many of Otaybi's relatives participated in the Battle of Sabilla during the Ikhwan uprising*against King Abdulaziz, including his father and grandfather, Sultan bin Bajad Al-Otaibi.
Otaybi grew up aware of the battle and of how, in their eyes, the Saudi monarchs had betrayed the original religious principles of the Saudi state. He finished school without fluent writing ability, but he loved to read religious texts.
He served in the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 1955 to 1973. He was thin and stood 6' 1½" (187*cm) according to his friends in the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Then he moved to Medina and studied at Islamic University. It is when he met with Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Qahtani.
Otaybi, upon moving to Medina, joined the local chapter of a Salafi group called Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba (The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong). The group was headed by the Islamic University's president, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz. Ibn Baz used his religious stature to arrange fundraising for the group, and Otaybi earned money by buying, repairing, and re-selling automobiles from city auctions.
Otaybi lived in a "makeshift compound" about a half hour's walk to the Prophet's Mosque, and his followers stayed in a nearby dirt-floored hostel called Bayt al-Ikhwan ("House of the Brothers"). Otaybi and his devotees obeyed an austere and simple lifestyle, searching the Quran and Hadith for scriptural evidence of what was permissible not only for their beliefs but in their day-to-day lives.
Otaybi was perturbed by the encroachment of Western beliefs and Bid‘ah (بدعة, innovation) in Saudi society to the detriment of (what he believed to be) true Islam. He opposed the integration of women into the workforce, television, the immodest shorts worn by Soccer players during matches, and Saudi currency with an image of the King on it.
By 1977, ibn Baz had departed to Riyadh and Otaybi became the leader of a faction of young recruits that developed their own—sometimes unorthodox—religious doctrines. When older members of the Jamaa traveled to Medina to confront Otaybi about these developments, the two factions split from each other. Otaybi attacked the elder sheikhs as government sellouts and called his new group al-Ikhwan.
In the late 1970s, he moved to Riyadh, where he drew the attention of the Saudi security forces. He and approximately 100 of his followers were arrested in the summer of 1978 for demonstrating against the monarchy, but were released after ibn Baz questioned them and pronounced them harmless.
He married both the daughter of Prince Sajer Al Mohaya and the sister of Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Qahtani.
His doctrines are said to have included:
1. The imperative to emulate the Prophet's example—revelation, propagation, and military takeover.
2. The necessity for the Muslims to overthrow their present corrupt rulers who are forced upon them and lack Islamic attributes since the Quran recognizes no king or dynasty.
3. The requirements for legitimate rulership are devotion to Islam and its practice, rulership by the Holy Book and not by repression, Qurayshi tribal roots, and election by the Muslim believers.
4. The duty to base the Islamic faith on the Quran and the sunnah and not on the equivocal interpretations (taqlid) of the ulama and on their incorrect teachings in the schools and universities.
5. The necessity to isolate oneself from the sociopolitical system by refusing to accept any official positions.
6. The advent of the mahdi from the lineage of the Prophet through Husayn ibn Ali to remove the existing injustices and bring equity and peace to the faithful.
7. The duty to reject all worshipers of the partners of God (shirk), including worshipers of*Ali,*Fatimahand*Muhammad, the Khawarij, and even music.
8. The duty to establish a puritanical Islamic community which protects Islam from unbelievers and does not court foreigners.
Juhayman said that his justification was that the House of Saud had lost its legitimacy through corruption and imitation of the West, an echo of his father's charge in 1921 against King Abdulaziz. Unlike earlier anti-monarchist dissidents in the kingdom, Juhayman attacked the Wahhabi ulama for failing to protest policies that (he believed) betrayed Islam, and accused them of accepting the rule of an infidel state and offering loyalty to corrupt rulers in "exchange for honours and riches."
On November 20, 1979—the first day of the Islamic year 1400—the Grand Mosque in Mecca was seized by a well-organized group of 400 to 500 men under al-Otaybi's leadership. The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted more than two weeks before Saudi Special Forces broke into the Mosque. French Special Forces provided CB, a tear gas which prevents aggressiveness and slows down breathing. Juhayman al-Otaybi was executed as per Saudi law, in public, by the executioner's sword, on January 9, 1980 in Mecca.
Anyways, when the world began to erupt against American plotting, the Arab king did reel back from the institution of kufr in the land and made some positive changes:
On 9 January 1980, 63 rebels were publicly beheaded in the squares of eight Saudi cities (Buraidah, Dammam, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Abha, Ha'il and Tabuk). According to Sandra Mackey, the locations "were carefully chosen not only to give maximum exposure but, one suspects, to reach other potential nests of discontent.
Saudi King Khaled however, did not react to the upheaval by cracking down on religious puritans in general, but by giving the ulama and religious conservatives more power over the next decade. He is thought to have believed that "the solution to the religious upheaval was simple -- more religion."
First photographs of women in newspapers were banned, then women on television. Cinemas and music shops were shut down. School curriculum was changed to provide many more hours of religious studies, eliminating classes on subjects like non-Islamic history. Gender segregation was extended "to the humblest coffee shop". The religious police became more assertive.
Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
When you create an account, we remember exactly what you've read, so you always come right back where you left off. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and share your thoughts. Sign Up
Hide
Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
Bookmarks