Saturday 8 December 2007

The siege of mecca



A tale the House of Saud would as soon forgetYaroslav Trofimov documents the siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Wahabbi militantsBy David Barett Special to The Daily StarSaturday, December 08, 2007

Review
BEIRUT: In a fascinating and occasionally unsettling thriller, Yaroslav Trofimov, a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, describes what could be termed the most under-reported event in modern Middle East history. While the world's attention was focused on the hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran, in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, another hostage crisis was developing in Mecca, the closed-off birthplace of Islam. What the Saudi state shrugged off as a "domestic crisis" was in fact the first large-scale operation by an international jihadi movement in modern times.
In "The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al-Qaeda," published last month by the UK's Allen Lane, Trofimov draws a background to the crisis based on history and the global issues that surrounded the attempt to usurp the House of Saud. He connects the siege of Mecca to the spread of hard-line Islamist movements in the aftermath, beginning with the Afghan-Soviet conflict.
However, the main attraction is the author's painstaking narrative of the siege of the Grand Mosque, and the internal politics of Saudi Arabia while the country's leaders tried to quell the most dangerous attack on their legitimacy in the history of the kingdom.
Juhayman al-Uteibi is not a household name, even in the minds of many who would claim to be well-versed in the history and politics of the Middle East. Yet it was Uteibi and a group of around 500 armed, hardcore Wahabbi followers who seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca on the first day of the Islamic New Year in 1400, or, on the Gregorian calendar, November 20, 1979.
The story relates how Uteibi and his followers seized the mosque and engaged in a bloody, two-week battle in a place where fighting and killing were believed to be strictly forbidden by the Koran. Uteibi's mission was fueled by distaste for the increasing liberalization of Saudi Arabia and what he viewed as the House of Saud's hypocrisy. The rebels included Mohammad al-Qahtani, whom the group insisted was the messianic figure of the Mehdi, placed on Earth to rescue true Muslims before to the coming of the apocalypse.
Numerous disastrous raids by the Saudi armed forces are detailed dramatically in "The Siege of Mecca," culminating in a CIA-assisted gas attack that failed miserably. Eventually, the Saudis resorted to secretly importing a French military team, entrusted with providing the Saudis with the necessary equipment and training to quell the fighting, which is believed to have caused more than 1,000 deaths. Whether or not the French ever set foot in the holy city of Mecca is still debated, with conflicting stories emanating from the men involved.
The ineptitude of the Saudi military apparatus during the crisis is clearly evident. Readers of Trofimov's book learn that the Saudi military is split into different factions to ensure that no one faction ever achieves a degree of power that could threaten the House of Saud's rule.
Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is known for its secrecy and its muzzling of the local press, some of the public statements announced during the crisis still make for shocking, and even occasionally humorous reading. One statement a few days into the battle claimed victory, yet at the same time pointed out that forces would continue to engage until the problem was solved.
In fact, the Saudi refusal to disclose the truth instigated a vicious worldwide rumor mill, with both the US and Iran accused of being involved in the siege from different quarters.
Ironically, despite public statements by Saudi officials deeming the rebels "infidels and heretics," the outcome of the crisis saw the Saudis actually taking steps to apply the same agenda that Uteibi had been fighting for.
The intriguing relationship between the ruling Saudi officials and the religious establishment is noted by Trofimov. Along with the narrative of the siege itself, this is perhaps the most captivating part of the book.
Islamic legitimacy is the key to the existence and survival of the Saudi dynasty. Uteibi and his men brazenly challenged that legitimacy. In its moment of crisis, the Saudi leadership was forced to turn to the religious establishment for a fatwa, or religious edict, underlining its authority and providing it with permission to carry out whatever mission was needed to end the siege.
In return, Saudis rulers rolled back the liberalization measures that had been slowly evolving in the 1960s and 1970s, at the request of the ulama.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef (who is still in that position to this day) announced that women news announcers would be removed from screens, and companies were told not to employ women at all. The religious police were given permission to raid western enclaves, areas they previously did not have permission to enter. Finally, a large influx of cash was awarded to the ulama and Islamic universities to aid the spread of the Wahabbi creed around the world.
Despite the failure of his mission, his arrest and his eventual beheading, Uteibi's goals were being implemented.
A notable inclusion in the latter part of Trofimov's book is the comments of an Al-Qaeda militant inspired by the writings of Uteibi. While expressing deep admiration for Uteibi's uprising, he notes that if the rebels had opted to attack government installations instead, they would have likely achieved more success. The siege of the Grand Mosque left many Muslims uneasy and the Saudi monarchy was seen to be defending Islam, whereas an attack on government property would have been viewed solely as an attack on the Saudi dynasty. The future of the House of Saud, based on these premises, would appear precarious.
It is impossible to fault the author for his descriptions of the siege or for divulging fascinating tidbits concerning the Saudi establishment. However, one can be irritated by his tendency to include unnecessary information, such as the numerous references to the planning and building of the mosque itself by the Bin Laden construction firm. One imagines that had this been any other contractor it would not have warranted a mention. Yet because the Bin Laden name ties in with Trofimov's thesis, it seems to have been inserted at every opportunity.
Also the author of "Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu," Trofimov furthermore takes as fact the claim that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was responsible for an assassination attempt on President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. While Nasser insisted this was the case, concrete evidence has never been produced to support these allegations.
Finally, in terms of criticism, the narrative occasionally includes comments that border on the melodramatic. Perhaps the author was hoping to market the book toward an audience that reads mass market thrillers over more academic texts.
The material here is so compelling that such comments could have been deleted without sacrificing the book's appeal. In fact, "The Siege of Mecca" makes for compulsory reading, whatever its admittedly minor faults. It sheds light on a topic rendered even more intriguing by the continued attempts to blot the event out of history by the Saudi authorities. Trofimov's disclosure of fascinating details and his engaging narrative combine to create a tour de force which, once you begin, is incredibly difficult to put down.
Yaroslav Trofimov's "The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al-Qaeda" is published by Allen Lane in the UK and Doubleday in the US. The book is available at Virgin Megastores throughout the Mideast

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