MIDDLE EAST: Sacrilege in Mecca

Agony and hysteria as zealots seize the Sacred Mosque

It was as great a sacrilege to devout Muslims as an attack on Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre would be to Christians, or a profanation of the Wailing Wall would be to Orthodox Jews. Last week, a day before the beginning of the Islamic New Year, a mysterious band of Muslim fanatics seized the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, taking an unknown number of hostages. At week's end, the situation at the Sacred Mosque was unclear. Government officials in Riyadh said that Saudi armed forces, including the crack National Guard commanded by Prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, were in "complete control" of the mosque. Other sources, however, suggested that some of the invaders were holding out.

News of the incident set off a wave of anger and hysteria throughout the Muslim world. There were outrageous rumors, later spread by no less a figure than Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, that the U.S. and Israel were behind the attack. Enraged mobs from Turkey to Bangladesh attacked American diplomatic missions and staged anti-American demonstrations. Most serious was the rioting in Pakistan, where two American servicemen were killed in the burning of the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. The attack on the Sacred Mosque probably had no direct connection with the recent events in Iran.

Yet the violent antiWestern, anti-American reaction of the mobs reflected the uncertain currents of emotional fervor that the Ayatullah has helped loose within the volatile world of Islam.

The Sacred Mosque is a gigantic holy place that can hold as many as 300,000 worshipers. At the center of its courtyard, which is 40 acres in size, is the Ka'ba. Muslims believe that this cube-shaped structure, covered always by a black cloth embroidered in gold, was erected to God by Abraham and that it was cleansed of idols by the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 630. The Ka'ba is the chief focus of prayer and ritual during the hajj, the annual pilgrimage that this year drew more than 2 million Muslims to Mecca.

Last Tuesday marked the eve of the first day of the year 1400, according to the Islamic calendar. Accounts of the mosque takeover vary, but it appears that a band of about 200 armed men entered the courtyard, filled with 50,000 worshipers, shortly before the start of dawn prayers. The men wore the traditional black robes and red-and-white checked headdresses of the National Guard irregulars. They carried coffins—a common enough sight, since mourners often bring coffins to the mosque for dawn prayers before burial. These coffins apparently contained pistols, rifles, submachine guns, hand grenades and daggers.

The group was led by a man in his early twenties, whose name was said to be Mohammed Abdullah al-'Utaibah. At the beginning of the call to prayer, the young man asked the imam who was leading the service to declare him the new Mahdi—the Islamic messiah. According to the belief of some Muslims, the Mahdi is supposed to appear during the new century. The imam refused; in the ensuing scuffle his assistant was shot and killed.

"We are the followers of the Savior," cried the invaders, as they charged across the great square and surrounded the Ka'ba.