How 1979 Changed the Muslim World

I just finished a wonderful book by Kim Ghattas called The Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East. Ghattas grew up in Lebanon and, as a journalist, gained incredible access to key figures in the Muslim world and in the West. In her book, she tries to answer a question she hears from so many people in many Muslim-majority countries: what happened to us? Many Westerners are ill-informed about the countries discussed below and often think these places have always been torn by conflict and war but the people living there know better – namely, that things have gone wrong in recent decades. She shows how these changes came about and the devastating impact on peoples and cultures. I can’t do the book full justice but here are a few highlights:

The Ayatollah Khomeini took over as the theocratic leader of Iran in 1979. Photo credit: Wikipedia.org, Public Domain

The Iranian Revolution

Many know that Iran’s people rebelled and forced the Shah, Iran’s dictatorial leader, to flee the country. Ghattas shows how multiple opposition groups with different ideas set aside their differences and came together to force the Shah out. But she also shows how, through a series of events, the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the reins of power and how others underestimated his politically savvy and how ruthlessly he would use power to crush opposition and to enforce a new kind of dictatorship. By the time they realized their mistakes, it was too late. This dramatically altered not only Iran’s future but the whole region’s. Ghattas claims no one realized at the time how the revolution would change everything for everyone in the region.

The Rivalry with Saudi Arabia

Khomeini was Iran’s leader but he desired to be perceived as the leader of the Muslim world. Khomeini’s natural rivals were the Saudis, whom he despised but who had status as the guardians of the holy land of Mecca and of Medina (the places where Muhammad had lived). The Saudis resented this challenge and a new rivalry was born with enormous implications. It fostered a competition of puritanism with each showing it was more pure (more religious, more extreme) than the other. In addition, the Saudis (who are Sunni Muslims) started funding anti-Shia rhetoric to discredit Iran’s Shia leaders as not really Muslims. Saudi money and influence meant this new Shia-hatred was exported throughout much of the Muslim world with horrific consequences. The two regional powers have spent forty years vying for influence in places like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, sending money and violent men with dire results for these countries.

King Khalid of Saudi Arabia originally welcomed the Iranian Revolution but he soon realized that Khomeini was no friend. Photo credit: Wikipedia.org, Public Domain

The Siege of the Kaaba in Mecca

In November 1979, about 600 Muslim radicals who opposed the Saudi leaders, seized the Kaaba in Mecca and captured hostages. The radicals held it for two weeks before finally being killed. The seizure humiliated the Saudis who required Western nations’ help to finally defeat the radicals. Khomeini and others said custodianship of the two holy sites of Mecca and Medina should be international.

The Saudis realized they had a domestic problem with radicals. Their response was to make concessions to the most religiously conservative clerics including establishing the religious police and imposing even more conservative values in return for the clerics upholding the Saudis’ role as the leaders of the country. Saudi Arabia was already quite conservative but it became much more so.

Saudi soldiers fighting to take back the Grand Mosque of Mecca. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org, Public Domain

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979. The Saudis see an opportunity. They need to placate the powerful conservative religious clerics but they also have this problem of realizing they have many extremists within their borders. The solution becomes to support a holy war against the atheist Soviets which the clerics champion and which makes the Saudis the great defenders of Islam. And so they Saudis send money, weapons, and export many extremists to Afghanistan to defend the faith.

This holy war attracts men from many countries and, for the next decade in Afghanistan and the bordering provinces of Pakistan, these military camps will blend an extremely conservative form of Islam (Saudi inspired) with a culture of militarism and violence, training and radicalizing men who then go home to Egypt, Syria, Iraq or elsewhere.

Three mujahideen in 1985. With American military support, they would thwart the Soviets. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org, Erwin Lux – Private collection; also uploaded to Flickr, CC BY-SA 3.0

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Meanwhile in Pakistan, President Bhutto was overthrown in a military political coup and replaced by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Ul-Haq wants to Islamicize the somewhat secular society and seeks Saudi help in remaking the constitution and implementing an extremely strict version of shariah law that includes harsh forms of punishment such as stoning adulterers.

Ul-Haq invites Saudi money and the Saudis grow the number of madrassas from a few hundred to almost 7000 by 2001, all of them spreading fairly extreme Saudi theology.

Moreover the Soviet war against Afghanistan makes Pakistan a valuable ally to the Americans and to all opposing the invasion. Money flows in but so do extremists and weapons, taking over whole towns and bringing new radical clerics.

The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan gave Ul-Haq powerful friends and billions of dollars. Photo credit: Wikipedia.org, Public Domain

Shia-Sunni Conflict

A key feature of Ghattas’ book is that the Sunni-Shia violence we see in so many places is all quite new, occuring after these key events in 1979. In Pakistan, Ul-Haq targets the Shia minority which comprises 15% of the population. In February 1979, massive Shia protests force Ul-Haq to back down. But the Saudi ideology that Shias are not Muslims spreads and, for the first time, many in Pakistan are taught something new – namely that Shias are infidels who deserve to die. Hence, in Pakistan, the first modern sectarian killings between Sunnis and Shias happen when Ul-Haq sends Sunni militias to kill Shias. It was a terrible harbinger of things to come.

The animosity between Iran and Saudi Arabia would lead both countries to export doctrines of hate as well as sending men and guns to places like Lebanon and Syria. Shia-Sunni violence would explode to the point that many in the West think this is normal.

Since 2001, more than 2600 Shias have been violently killed in Pakistan, many buried in this cemetery. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org, Prince.aliabbas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

There’s More

There’s much more in her book. She shows how the Iranian revolutionaries trained with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the impact of the Iran/Iraq war, how ISIS emerged, and key players and events in Egypt. It’s a sweeping book and well worth your time.

The Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East. Photo credit: Amazon.ca

Lessons

Certainly one main takeaway is that things were not always like this and need not be so in the future. The current crises are mostly recent and things really can change in a short few decades. Second is the impact key actors can have. A few key radicals and key leaders have harmed so many people and decimated so many lives. Political leaders and language can have unbelievable consequences and can change societies. And third is a lament – for the people of these countries. whether in Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon or elsewhere, have suffered a lot.