Juhayman al-Otaybi

Juhayman al-Otaybi Arabic: جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي‎‎
Juhayman al-Otaybi in captivity
Born	(1936-09-16)16 September 1936 Al-Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia
Died
Military career
Allegiance	Saudi Arabia (1955–1973)
Service/branch	National Guard (1955–1973)
Years of service	1955–1973
Rank	Leader of Alsalfih almohtsbah
Battles/wars	Grand Mosque seizure

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 Mecca, Islam's holiest site, to protest against the Saudi monarchy and the House of Saud.

Biography

Otaybi was born in al-Sajir, Al-Qassim Province, a settlement established by King Abdulaziz to house Ikhwan bedouin tribesmen who had fought for him. This 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 Otaybi's relatives participated in the Battle of Sabilla during the Ikhwan uprising against King Abdulaziz, including his father and grandfather, Sultan bin Bajad Al-Otaibi. Otaybi grew up aware of the battle and of how, in their eyes, the Saudi monarchs had betrayed the original religious principles of the Saudi state. He finished school without fluent writing ability, but he loved to read religious texts.

He served in the Saudi Arabian National Guard from 1955 to 1973. He was thin and stood 6' 1½" (187 cm) according to his friends in the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Then he moved to Medina and studied at Islamic University. It is when he met with Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Qahtani.

Otaybi, upon moving to Medina, joined the local chapter of a Salafi group called Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba (The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong). The group was headed by the Islamic University's president, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz. Ibn Baz used his religious stature to arrange fundraising for the group, and Otaybi earned money by buying, repairing, and re-selling automobiles from city auctions.

Otaybi lived in a "makeshift compound" about a half hour's walk to the Prophet's Mosque, and his followers stayed in a nearby dirt-floored hostel called Bayt al-Ikhwan ("House of the Brothers"). Otaybi and his devotees obeyed an austere and simple lifestyle, searching the Quran and Hadith for scriptural evidence of what was permissible not only for their beliefs but in their day-to-day lives. Otaybi was perturbed by the encroachment of Western beliefs and Bid‘ah (بدعة, innovation) in Saudi society to the detriment of (what he believed to be) true Islam. He opposed the integration of women into the workforce, television, the immodest shorts worn by Soccer players during matches, and Saudi currency with an image of the King on it.

By 1977, ibn Baz had departed to Riyadh and Otaybi became the leader of a faction of young recruits that developed their own—sometimes unorthodox—religious doctrines. When older members of the Jamaa traveled to Medina to confront Otaybi about these developments, the two factions split from each other. Otaybi attacked the elder sheikhs as government sellouts and called his new group al-Ikhwan.

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 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.

Grievance for takeover

Juhayman said that his justification was that the House of Saud had lost its legitimacy through corruption and imitation of the West, an echo of his father's charge in 1921 against King Abdulaziz. Unlike earlier anti-monarchist dissidents in the kingdom, Juhayman attacked the Wahhabi ulama for failing to protest policies that (he believed) betrayed Islam, and accused them of accepting the rule of an infidel state and offering loyalty to corrupt rulers in "exchange for honours and riches."

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 Mecca was seized by a well-organized group of 400 to 500 men under al-Otaybi's leadership. The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted more than two weeks before Saudi Special Forces broke into the Mosque. French Special Forces provided CB, a tear gas which prevents aggressiveness and slows down breathing.

Juhayman al-Otaybi was executed as per Saudi law, in public, by the executioner's sword, on January 9, 1980 in Mecca.

See also

• 'Utaybah
• Sayyid Qutb
• Shahid

Notes

1. ^ Lacey 1981, p. 481; Ruthven, p. 8; Abir, p. 150
2. ^ Quandt, p. 94, gives 1972 as the date of his resignation; Graham and Wilson, ibid., say 1973; Dekmejian, p. 141, says "around 1974"
3. ^ Dekmejian, p. 143; Lacey, p. 483; Krämer, p. 262, p. 282 n. 17
4. ^ Lacey 1981, p. 483; Graham and Wilson, p. 57

Works cited

• Lacroix, S., & Holoch, G. (2011). Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.