The Siege of Mecca

Title: The Siege of Mecca – The Forgotten Uprising

Author: Yaroslav Trofimov

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2007 (First)

ISBN: 978-1-846-14060-0

Pages: 260

The Grand Mosque at Mecca is the holiest shrine of Islam, containing Kaaba. It is to this place of worship that Muslims anywhere in the world turn their faces to, when they supplicate five times a day. Established by the Prophet himself, the mosque commands unadulterated respect from all believers of the Islamic faith. This book narrates a shocking incident in 1979 when a group of ultra-orthodox Sunni militants swooped on the mosque, taking hostages of pilgrims and didn’t budge for two weeks, during which time the Saudi royal regime faced its greatest threat to stability in seven decades of assuming power. The book explains the historical background when the house of Saud rose to the throne, the discontent among hardcore elements against percolation of modern conveniences like radio and television and the ‘polluting’ presence of foreigners in the aftermath of oil exploration, the meticulous planning and execution of the attack, how the Saudis managed to evict the rebels in a bloody onslaught and the repercussions the incident evoked in other parts of the world like strengthening of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim countries and the rise of Islamic terrorism spearheaded by organisations like Al Qaeda. Being the foreign correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, who has reported extensively from the Middle East, Trofimov has put together a riveting book with insightful comments about the course of radicalism following the carnage at Mecca in 1979.

The tribe of Quraysh occupied the neibourhood of Mecca from time immemorial. Prophet Mohammed, who was a  member of the tribe, preached the tenets of Islam there, but were not accepted by his fellows. He fled to Medina and organised recapture of the holy city. Ever since, the shrine at Mecca was under Muslim control. The Arabian peninsula came under the possession of Ottoman Turks, from whom it was wrested by Jordanian kings. In 1902, Abdelaziz, who was later to claim the whole of Arabia began to annex territories to his widening kingdom. The crack troops which helped him in this venture was the Wahhabis who practiced a strict form of Islam with no music, alcohol or tobacco. The Ikhwan, who were the extreme elements in the coalition mercilessly mowed down infidels and fellow Shiites alike. Their cruelty knew no bounds, and one of their favourite acts of decimating civilian populations was the slicing open of pregnant women’s wombs. This tactic they employed everywhere they went, including Karbala in Iraq and other fringe societies on the Arabian coast. When Abdelaziz consolidated his kingdom, he had had to rein in these blood thirsty warriors, sometimes through violent means, causing a rift between them.

Juhayman al Uteybi, the leader of the 1979 uprising, was born in a Bedouin tribe and worked in the inner security corps which provided personal cover for the royals. Being a firebrand himself, his ideas were moulded into fanatical shape by a blind scholar Bin Baz, who opposed every modern idea or artefact and still believed the earth to be flat. The Wahhabi clerics practiced a measure of guarded tolerance to the perceived vices of the royal family like allowing foreigners in the country and personal frolicking in European tourist spots. Juhayman found this contradiction eroding the moral sanctity of the Ulema’s teachings. Also, he didn’t have a fat paycheck from the government unlike the senior clerics. His split with the official clergy came in 1977, prompting him to clandestinely bring out a book from Kuwait and distribute it in the kingdom. Titled ‘Seven Epistles’, it provided the material for officials to take action against his gang. Mabaheth, the secret police, swept the leaders in jail in 1978, but released them without framing charges, on the intervention of Bin Baz himself. Little did they know that the genie they are releasing from the bottle was going to turn unmanageable.

Islam expected the arrival of a Mehdi, redeemer, to appear on earth when sin and injustice filled it. Juhayman projected his brother in law, Mohammed Abdullah to be the Mehdi. As per tradition, the Mehdi is to appear in the Grand Mosque at the turn of the century and the year 1400 in the Islamic calendar was just turning up on Nov 20, 1979. On that day, a group of rebels led by Juhayman took the Grand Mosque by force in a pre-dawn attack. Poorly guarded as the Haj season was over, the mosque fell to them pretty easily. Shooting and killing of guards ensued and the sacred precincts of the Holy of Holies was desecrated with human blood. Juhayman proclaimed Abdullah as the Mehdi at the shrine. Saudi government suppressed the news at first, by cutting off all international telephone lines but this proved ideal for wild rumours to circulate. Accusations of all sorts flung far and wide, with the assailants falsely identified as Iranian shiites, American sponsored militants and even Jews. This caused repercussions in other countries too. Pakistan was the worst, where hordes of ultra-religious fanatics from the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad stormed the U.S. embassy and set it alight, killing three employees.

While in Mecca, Saudi authorities tried desperately to storm the compound and wrest control back. Their two attempts to inflitrate in the first 48 hours horribly went wrong, with the captains and a large number of soldiers falling dead before well-aimed enemy bullets. After three days of attacks and counterattacks, Saudi troops broke open the defensive perimeter and retook the above-ground structures of the shrine, after killing Mohammed Abdullah, the self-proclaimed Mahdi. But dissidents withdrew to labyrinthine cellars in the basement level galleries called Qaboos and put up a brave defense. All attempts, including limited amount of chemical warfare failed to evict them from the hideouts. Without a cohesive strategy or tactical manouvres, the Saudi National Guards were being killed in droves. The underground galleries saw the wiping off of royal troops fighting in narrow corridors. The siege went on for days and the Saudis finally sought professional help from the French. GIGN, the elite French commando force responded by sending three trainers and a planeload of chemicals and weapons. On the morning of Dec 4, exactly two weeks after the standoff began, the authorities were able to assume full control of the shrine. Juhayman, the firebrand leader who sent hundreds of others to sure death, meekly surrendered in the end and pleaded for mercy to the king, in vain. All adults in the captured rebels were beheaded as per Sharia law. The final death toll released officially put the toll at 270, including 127 soldiers, 117 rebels and 26 pilgrims caught in the crossfire.

The author paints this incident in 1979 as a major factor which contributed to the rise of Islamic terrorism. In a bid to channel away the frustration of extreme radicals within the kingdom, Saudi Arabia bankrolled Wahhabi-controlled religious universities and the proxy war against Soviets who occupied Afghanistan in Dec 1979. America saw this invasion as a golden opportunity to divert Islamists’ opposition to them towards the Russians and succeeded in this venture. Aided in warfare by CIA and in cash by the Saudis, Afghani Taliban humbled the Russian troops. Recruits flew in from everywhere in the Islamic world, one of them a shy 22-year old man from Saudi Arabia named Osama bin Laden! The age of Al Qaeda was dawning.

The book is very pleasant to read with witty remarks and enlightening comments. It succinctly brings the readers up to date on the history of Arabia. Nobody can present the history of a nation in so few words, without missing any of the important points. The book presents a rational and insightful narrative about the origins of terrorism and Al Qaeda in the aftermath of the Mecca uprising. Trofimov, however does not rise above the sense of superiority frequently exhibited by Western authors when handling topics of Asian origin. The book extolls in every sentence the viewpoint of an American man who is a firm part of the establishment.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star