Juhayman al-Otaibi

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Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaibi (1936[1] – 9 January 1980) was a salafi militant who led the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, in the last months of 1979.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Quseim[2] to the Otayba tribe[3], he served in the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 1955[4] to c. 1973[5], leaving to study at the University of Medina. There he attended lectures by Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz and attracted a personal following composed mostly of local Saudis with an admixture of foreign students[6]. In 1974 he left the university, along with a number of his followers, returning to his hometown in Najd. For several years his group—styled the Ikhwan, after the Wahhabi brotherhood instrumental in Ibn Saud's rise to power—preached its Salafist doctrines and distributed pamphlets (which had to be printed in Kuwait[7]). These included "The Law of Loyalty and Obedience: Corrupt Government"[citation needed] and Saba Rasail ('Seven Letters'), the latter of which outlined the basic tenets of Juhayman's ideology:

  1. The imperative to emulate the Prophet's example—revelation, propagation, and military takeover.
  2. The necessity for the Muslims to overthrow their present corrupt rulers who are forced upon them and lack Islamic attributes since the Quran recognizes no king or dynasty.
  3. The requirements for legitimate rulership are devotion to Islam and its practice, rulership by the Holy Book and not by repression, Qurashi tribal roots, and election by the Muslim believers.
  4. The duty to base the Islamic faith on the Quran and the sunnah and not on the equivocal interpretations (taqlid) of the ulama and on their "incorrect" teachings in the schools and universities.
  5. The necessity to isolate oneself from the sociopolitical system by refusing to accept any official positions.
  6. The advent of the mahdi from the lineage of the Prophet through Husayn ibn Ali to remove the existing injustices and bring equity and peace to the faithful.
  7. The duty to reject all worshipers of the partners of God (shirk), including worshipers of Ali, Fatimah and Muhammad, the Khawarij, and even music and technology.
  8. The duty to establish a puritanical Islamic community which protects Islam from unbelievers and does not court foreigners.[8]

In the late 1970s he moved to Riyadh, where he drew the attention of the Saudi security forces. He and approximately 100 of his followers were arrested in the summer of 1978 for demonstrating against the monarchy, but were released after ibn Baz questioned them and pronounced them harmless[9].

He married both the daughter of Prince Sajer Al Mohaya and the sister of Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Qahtani.[citation needed]

[edit] Juhaiman’s Charge Against the Saudi Leadership

Juhaiman said that his justification was that the Al Saud had lost its legitimacy through corruption and imitation of the West, an echo of his grandfather's charge in 1921 against Abd al Aziz. Juhaiman's accusations against the Saudi monarchy also drew inspiration from Ayatollah Ruhollah Musaui, Khomeini's diatribes against the Shah.

[edit] Takeover of the Grand Mosque

On November 20, 1979 — the first day of the Islamic year 1400 — the Grand Mosque in Mecca was seized by a well-organized group of 1,300 to 1,500 men under al-Otaibi's leadership.

The siege lasted two weeks before Saudi Arabian special forces attempted to break into the Mosque. They employed many methods to break down the doors of the Mosque, including tanks, but failed in the end due to the doors' strength. The Minister of Defence, Prince Sultan, finally called the Pakistani Army to handle the situation. As a Muslim country, Pakistan was eager to offer help. It was General Zia-ul-Haq at that time who directed the Pakistan Army and who finally captured the mosque with the help of French paramilitary forces. Some theories suggest that Egyptian Special Forces were used as well. Upon entering the mosque, it was full of dead bodies and waste. The fleeing rebels tried to escape through water tunnels around the mosque, which were then flushed with water to bring the rebels out. 67 people, including Juhayman himself, were captured alive and later beheaded by the Saudi Government.

In recent years, Saud bin Hamoud al-Otaibi has claimed to emulate Juhayman. [citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑  Krämer, p. 262; Graham and Wilson, p. 57
  2. ↑  Abir, p. 150
  3. ↑  Lacey, p. 481; Ruthven, p. 8; Abir, p. 150
  4. ↑  Graham and Wilson, p. 57
  5. ↑  Quandt, p. 94, gives 1972 as the date of his resignation; Graham and Wilson, ibid., say 1973; Dekmejian, p. 141, says "around 1974"
  6. ↑  Dekmejian, p. 143; Lacey, p. 483; Krämer, p. 262, p. 282 n. 17
  7. ↑  Lacey, p. 482
  8. ↑  Quoted and summarized in Dekmejian, p. 142
  9. ↑  Lacey, p. 483; Graham and Wilson, p. 57

[edit] References

  • Abir, Mordechai (1988). Saudi Arabia in the Oil Era: Regime and Elites Conflict and Collaboration. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-0643-4.
  • Dekmejian, R. Hrair (1985). Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-2329-1.
  • Graham, Douglas F., Peter W. Wilson (1994). Saudi Arabia: The Coming Storm. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-394-6.
  • Krämer, Gudrun (2000). “Good Counsel to the King: The Islamist Opposition in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco”, Joseph Kostiner: Middle East Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 257–287. ISBN 1-55587-862-8.
  • Lacey, Robert (1981). The Kingdom. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-147260-2.
  • Quandt, William B. (1981). Saudi Arabia in the 1980s: Foreign Policy, Security, and Oil. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. ISBN 0-8157-7286-6.
  • Ruthven, Malise (2000). Islam in the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513841-4.
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