Juhayman Al-Otaybi - Takeover of The Grand Mosque

Takeover of The Grand Mosque

On November 20, 1979 — the first day of the Islamic year 1400 — the Grand Mosque in Makkah was seized by a well-organized group of 400 to 500 men under al-Otaybi's leadership.

The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted three weeks before Saudi Special Forces attempted to break into the Mosque finally using armored personnel carriers. French Special Forces advisers assisted in strategy. Tear gas, and extensive small arms fire was used.

Unofficial sources and alleged eye witness accounts tend to dispute these claims, attributing the successful end of the takeover to the flooding of the lower levels of the Grand Mosque by the Pakistani SSG. Claimants argue that the Holy Quran forbids blood shed within the holy site's boundary and also forbids non-Muslims to enter its boundary. Saudi scholars, therefore, would not have permitted the use of firearms or the direct entry of non-Muslim forces into the Mosque's boundary. However, it is important to note that the SSG's own site does not list this as one of its operations: SSG operations.

Upon entering the mosque, it was full of dead bodies and waste. The fleeing militants tried to escape through water tunnels around the mosque, which however were then flushed with water to bring the rebels out.

The surviving militants were arrested and 68 executed within 10 days.

When Juhayman was arrested he refused to speak to anyone until a group of scholars from Medina who were his teachers, led by Shaykh Muhammad al-Ameen ash-Shanqeeti, visited him in prison and embraced him and wept severely and asked him for his justification. Juhayman replied that he was motivated by the turmoil of that time and that he hoped that if they called on Allah and asked for forgiveness so that perhaps Allah would forgive them.

Juhayman and 67 members of his group were subsequently beheaded by the Saudi Government.