Juhayman al-Otaybi

Juhayman al-Otaybi
Born	(1936-09-16)16 September 1936
Died	9 January 1980(1980-01-09) (aged 43)
Conviction status	Executed
Children	3

Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi (Arabic: جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي‎) (16 September 1936 – 9 January 1980) was a religious activist and militant who led the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Islam's holiest site, in the last months of 1979.

Biography

Otaybi was born in al-Sajir, Al-Qassim Province, one of the settlements established by King Abd al-Aziz to house Ikhwan bedouin tribesmen who had fought for him. The al-Sajir settlement (known as a hijra) was populated by members of Otaybi's tribe, the 'Utaybah tribe, one of the most pre-eminent tribes of the Najd region. Many of Otaibi's tribesmen participated in the Battle of Sabilla during the Ikhwan uprising against King Abdulaziz, including his father and grandfather (who was killed). Otaybi therefore grew up listening to stories of the battle and of how the Saudi monarchs had betrayed the original religious principles of the Saudi state. He served in the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 1955 to 1973. He was thin and stood (187 cm) according to his friends in the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Then he moved to Madinah and studied at Islamic University. It is when he met with Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Qahtani. 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.

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

His doctrines are said to have included:

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, Qurayshi 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.
8. The duty to establish a puritanical Islamic community which protects Islam from unbelievers and does not court foreigners.

Juhayman's charge against the Saudi leadership

Juhayman said that his justification was that the Al Saud had lost its legitimacy through corruption and imitation of the West, an echo of his father's charge in 1921 against Abd al Aziz.

Takeover of the Grand Mosque

Main article: Grand Mosque Seizure

Juhayman's Officers

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^{[citation needed]} attempted to break into the Mosque finally using armored personnel carriers. French Special Forces^{[citation needed]} advisers assisted in strategy. Tear gas, and extensive small arms fire was used^{[citation needed]}.

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.

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.

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.^{[citation needed]}

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

See also

• 'Utaybah

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

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. 
• Lacroix, S., & Holoch, G. (2011). Awakening Islam: The politics of religious dissent in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
• Krämer, Gudrun (2000). "Good Counsel to the King: The Islamist Opposition in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco". In Joseph Kostiner. Middle East Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. pp. 257–287. ISBN 1-55587-862-8. 
• Lacey, Robert (1981). The Kingdom. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-147260-2. 
• Lunn, John (2002). "Saudi Arabia: History". The Middle East and North Africa 2003 (49 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-85743-132-2. 
• 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. 
• Trofimov, Yaroslav (2007). The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51925-0. 

External links

• Interview with a first-hand witness clarifying the development of Juhayman and his movement