C
ontemporary acts of terrorism may take many forms. The phenomenon has
transmogrified over the past 40 years from aircraft hijacks through to suicide bombing and now remotely detonated vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Terror tactics are even now developing. It is likely that the frequency of attacks may increase in the future but that these may be of a less complex or less sophisticated nature. There again, perhaps cavity bombers, swarm attacks and cyber threats may represent the next iterations of the terrorist armoury as we approach the next decade of the 21st century.
On Tuesday, 20th November 1979, the focus of the World’s media and diplomatic attention was very firmly centred upon the situation in Iran where the Tehran US Embassy hostage situation was about to enter its third week.
On that same morning, however, an event, arguably of even greater significance, took place in the holiest of all Islamic shrines, namely in the Grand Mosque in the city of Mecca, where the annual Hajj pilgrimage had just come to an end.
The date and timing of the event was even more significant as November 1979 was not only the start of the new year but also the new century of 1400 in the Islamic calendar.
This article will describe the events which began that day. The siege which took place during the following two weeks, and the bloodshed and carnage which followed as the situation was resolved, influenced the thinking of many, including one young man by the name of Osama Bin Laden.
Osama’s thinking had already been influenced by the teaching of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which had been welcomed into Saudi by the King following their rebellious efforts in Egypt. The siege was the first ever large scale significant jihadist action and saw the lighting of a fuse which ultimately resulted in the 9/11 atrocity and other terror attacks in Europe. It could thus be said to have ultimately spawned the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan where so many lives have now been lost.
Perhaps as many as 100,000 of the million or so pilgrims who had conducted their Hajj visit that year remained in Mecca after the end of the official pilgrimage period. These pilgrims wished to see in the New Year and indeed the new century.
As morning prayers began at the Grand Mosque at around 6 am it was noticed that some groups of pilgrims were carrying coffins. There was nothing unusual in this respect – many sought the blessings of the Imam for their dead relatives at this most holy of Islamic sites. What was not understood at the time was that these coffins in fact contained a variety of weapons, grenades and ammunition supplies which would fuel the bloody siege about to begin.
8 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – S P RING 2014
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The of terror
This was a terror event aimed at launching the jihad or holy war against the Saudi state. It was staged in response to Saudi governmental acceptance of Western, predominantly American, infidels who were being allowed into the Kingdom in response to the discovery of 25% of the world’s oil reserves sitting below the Saudi desert.
The nominal excuse given for the siege was in fact quite bizarre. It was widely believed that the Mahdi, the saviour and redeemer, would at some time return to earth on God’s orders to lead the Muslim world in triumph. The leader of this uprising, Juhayman al Uteybi was a 43-year-old ultraconservative Bedouin and a retired corporal in the National Guard who took violent objection to the western presence and preached venomously against the government.
Juhayman was known as a troublemaker by the religious authorities and intelligence services but they failed to act until it was too late despite having had him arrested, questioned but subsequently released. Juhayman used the prophesy of the return to earth of the Mahdi as the catalyst for his assault but the links were tenuous in the extreme.
A young student in Juhayman’s circle of followers named Mohammed Abdullah al Qahtani was born in a settlement in Asir from where many of the 9/11 hijackers originated. Al Qahtani wrote poetry, he was pale skinned, had a red mark on his head and held the same name as the Prophet. He also had reason to hate the Saudi state after having had his fingernails pulled out by the police when he was falsely arrested for a theft he did not commit whilst working in a hospital. Some of Juhayman’s group, now hundreds strong, suggested that al Qahtani resembled the Mahdi in name and looks.
Many followers claimed to have had strange dreams and to have seen al Qahtani standing proudly in the Grand Mosque worshipped by thousands as being the saviour sent by God Himself.
Meanwhile, they began to improve their shooting and combat skills as they prepared for a showdown with the Saudi State using weapons and bullets purloined by Juhayman from the National Guard armouries.
Just as prayers were finishing on the morning of 20th November, the rebels opened their coffins and produced their weapons. Shots
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