1979: Remembering 'The Siege Of Mecca' (It was one of the events that gave rise to al-Qaida)

npr.org ^ | August 20, 20096:00 AM ET | Morning Edition

[Trumpinator]

http://www.amazon.com/Siege-Mecca-Uprising-Islams-Holiest/dp/0307277739

The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam’s Holiest Shrine

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

What gave rise to Al-Qaeda was the US giving Afghanistan’s Al-Qaeda weapons, money and training in the 1980s.

[Trumpinator]

Of this there is no doubt.

[BBell]

Precisely. I was all for arming the mujaheddin during the 80’s but in hind sight I see what a big mistake it was.

[Eagles6]

From what I recall the saudis did little but hire Infidels, the French eventually flooded the lower levels and dropped high voltage cables into the water to end it.

[Rockingham]

The 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca refutes claims that Islamic terrorism was evoked by the US in order to challenge the Soviets in Afghanistan. Plainly, the 1979 attack stemmed directly from the radicalism inherent in Saudi Wahhabism, from the fissures in Saudi society, and from Islam’s poor fit with the modern world.

[justa-hairyape]

Good thing we learned that lesson and never repeated that mistake again. So will ISIS seige the Vatican or the British House of Parliament ?

[BBell]

Good thing we learned that lesson and never repeated that mistake again.

[GladesGuru]

Turn Mecca into Meccatite.

[norwaypinesavage]

Since this story comes from NPR, how do we know it’s true?

[zek157]

As was virtually everything we have done since.

Bring on the madji.

[Excellence]

I consider myself to be well informed and I never knew about this.

[zek157]

Absolutely true. Read the book and you will never look at the religion of peace the same. Will also make you wonder how the various administrations got it so entirely wrong the last 40 years. Wahabbiism is a deadly virus.

[rfreedom4u]

Somebody should have leveled that mosque back then.

[gr8eman]

Exactly!

[DUMBGRUNT]

“In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.”

Richard M. Nixon

[Bigg Red]

Ditto

[Trumpinator]

The 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca refutes claims that Islamic terrorism was evoked by the US in order to challenge the Soviets in Afghanistan. Plainly, the 1979 attack stemmed directly from the radicalism inherent in Saudi Wahhabism, from the fissures in Saudi society, and from Islam’s poor fit with the modern world.

The Afghan war allowed these primitives to be professionally trained, organized and funded by the CIA. That's the take away from Afghanistan. They learned how to operate and created channels of support from the Afghan war thanks to the CIA.

[Trumpinator]

The story does not come from NPR. Yaroslav Trofimov, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, talks about the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque at Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is the holiest site in Islam, and gunmen held it for two weeks. It was one of the events that gave rise to al-Qaida, and Yaroslav wrote about it in his book 'The Siege of Mecca.'