The Siege of Mecca

The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam’s Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda by Yaroslav Trofimov, Anchor, 2008. 

Saudi Royal Family

During the second half of the twentieth century, the Saudi royal family developed some liberalizing trends:

• the outlawing of slavery in 1962,

• tolerance of Shias living in the eastern part of the Arabian peninsula,

• the importation of foreign infidels to work in the oil industry,

• alcohol,

• cigarettes,

• television and cinemas showing Western programs and films,

• the education of women,

• the employment of women in jobs outside the home.

Juhayman bin Seif al Uteybi

This provoked dissension in the rural and poor Arabs called the Ikhwan (brothers), who had helped the House of Saud gain power in the first half of the twentieth century. Many Ikhwan members felt the Saudi liberalizing trends had betrayed Islam. Some Ikhwan decided they must force the decadent Saudis back to pure Islam. The leader of these Ikhwan rebels was Juhayman bin Seif al Uteybi, who wrote a book expressing his Islamic fundamentalism called The Seven Epistles, which was published in 1978 in Kuwait. The book was smuggled into Saudi Arabia and got Juhayman arrested by the Saudi authorities, who saw him as a threat to their rule. However, Sheikh Abdelaziz Bin Baz, dean of Medina’s Islamic University, persuaded the Saudi government to free Juhayman and his followers from Saudi prison.

Grand Mosque of Mecca

This book describes how in 1979 a group of Islamic fundamentalists seized the Grand Mosque of Mecca in order to protest the liberalizing trends in Saudi Arabia. Only Muslims are allowed to enter the holy city Mecca, birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. The Kaaba is in the courtyard of the Grand Mosque of Mecca. The Quraysh built the Kaaba before the birth of Muhammad. The Kaaba contains a magical Black Stone, which may be a meteorite.

Capture

In November, 1979 the Ikhwan rebels, led by Juhayman bin Seif al Uteybi, captured the Grand Mosque of Mecca. They proclaimed one of themselves as the long awaited Mahdi, and tried to force the Saudis to return to their more conservative ways. Under siege by Saudi soldiers, the rebels hid out in the underground tunnels of the Qaboo, under the Grand Mosque. With soldiers trained by French special forces, the Ikhwan rebels were eventually killed and captured. Many of the captured were executed.

Regression

The rebels succeeded in their goal of moving the Saudis backwards. Shortly after the Mecca uprising, women announcers were removed from Saudi television. Many working Saudi women were fired from their jobs. The Saudi religious police (Mutawa) were given access to Western enclaves. Instead of cracking down on religious fundamentalists, the Saudis gave the religious fundamentalists more money to placate them. The religious fundamentalists used this money to spread Wahhabi ideas abroad.