Siege of Makkah 3

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Part 1 and 2 were earlier published on this blog, here is part 3:

I, for one, cannot find much fault with at least six of Juhayman's tenets. And depending on what he actually meant, I might be okay with another couple of them. The scholars of Saudi Arabia, for the most part, could find little wrong with any of his points. Afterall, Sheikh Bin Baaz was jailed in 1940 for a number of his fatawa, one of which was strong condemnation of putting the pictures of Saudi royalty on walls and the currency. Bin Baaz had also criticized King Faisal for bringing TV to the Kingdom and had more than once shown disapproval for women newscasters on Saudi TV. The scholars were also infuriated by women getting employment in the private sector, especially at ARAMCO, where women secretaries were commonplace until then.

Juhayman and his followers were well known to the scholarly community. They had attended many lectures and were very active in the field of Dawah. So when the scholars sat down in Madina to debate the issue of Juhayman and his followers, they couldn't find much fault with the ideals Juhayman preached. After all, many of them had given fatawa espousing the same views. They strongly believed, however, that the house of Saud, with all its deficiencies, is best placed to defend Islam against the forces of secularism and communism.

When Juhayman and his followers were arrested, it was Sheikh Bin Baaz himself who called Prince Nayef and asked him to release the group (Yaroslav Trofimov based on an interview with Prince Turki Al-Faisal).

The release, though, wasn't soon enough for the group. Many of them were severely tortured during the few days they spent in the Saudi prisons. One of them, a 25 year old Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Qahtani had his fingernails pulled out violently. Once release, the experience only strengthened Juhayman and his band in their belief that the Saudi government was illegitimate.

It is difficult, if not nearly impossible to find much accurate information on what exactly happened--you will still find people who should know better blaming this on the Shi'as of Iran--and I believe that we will never know all the details. I had passively searched on this topic, on and off, for many years. My father had first told me of this episode of Islamic history when I was about ten; he was was in Masjid Al-Haram hours before it was taken over and was present at the beheading of many of the accused. But even he knew very little. Searching the Internet proved more difficult--though I was able to find many references to Juhayman and his siege on websites related to mujahideen and militant groups within the Muslim world.

And then I came across "The Siege of Mecca" by Yaroslav Trofimov. Though the author tries to be objective, his frequent Wahhabi-bashing rants take away from his objectivity. Nevertheless, the facts he presented in his book are as close to the truth as anyone has ever been, and they are nearly indisputable as far as I can tell. He obtained previously classified documents from the CIA files, as well as letter and cables exchanged between President Carter, ambassador West and the Saudi government officials. He interviewed dozen of people present in the Masjid at the time. He interviewed many of the Saudi princes involved in the episode, especially Prince Turki Al-Faisal--the head of Saudi intelligence agency--as well as Saudi and French commandos who ultimately freed the Masjid from the militants. He interviewed Imam Subiel, who was the Imam of the Fajr prayer after which Juhayman seized the microphone from him. He even dug up surviving militants who were spared because they were only 16 at the time.

I cannot take everything he says word for word, but I am relating here whatever I believe to be accurate given independent research, which was primarily on the Internet, but also included looking through old newspapers at libraries in Mississauga, Toronto, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. I still have to give credit to the incredible research done by Trofimov.

And though Trofimov would argue that Juhayman became obsessed with the idea of Mahdi after he was tortured in 1978, there are many indications that he had been eagerly waiting for the Mahdi for many years.

Juhayman believed the Mahdi will appear near the end of time, on the first day of the new hijri century, and will take the oath of allegiance by the believers near Ka'baa, standing between the station of Ibrahim and the Hateem. Juhayman also believed that Mahdi will be from the family for the Prophet, a Qurayshi, and will bear the name of the Prophet--Muhammad bin Abdullah--and will have a red mark on his cheek, like the Prophet himself. After his experience in the prison, he became increasingly convinced that the end of the world must be near. So when Juhayman saw that with less than a year to go, there are no signs of the messiah, he actively started looking for one.

Among his followers was the young graduate of Kind Saud University, Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Qahtani. He had the right name. His features, if you tried real hard, were similar to those described in the books of Seerah as the Prophet's. And he had a red mark on his right cheek. He was an eloquent Khatib at a Masjid in the district of Malaz in Riyadh. Everyone who knew him believed that this kid was destined for greatness in the service of Islam.

There was one problem though. The tribe of Quraysh was from the Adnani branch of Arabs, the descendents of Prophet Ismail, whereas the Qahtanis were the indigenous population of Arabia from Yemen. A Qahtani Arab, according to Juhayman's understanding, could not have been the Mahdi and there was no one else Juhayman could see who would be fit to be al-Mahdi. He was in a quandary. That was until Saeed, the older brother of Muhammad, told Juhayman of his family's history.

TO BE CONTINUED