The terrorist, who lost the battle, but won the war

It was five o'clock in the morning on November 20, 1979. The ageing Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca was preparing for the day's prayer meeting. 

Meanwhile, the mosque's courtyard, where the audience could follow the day's ceremony, was slowly filling up. Many had spent the night on brought blankets in several of the mosque's thousands of rooms. But just as the Imam approached the microphone, he was pushed aside, and shots rang out in the mosque.

Then a tall thin man with dark half-length hair and a wildly growing beard called out:

"Fellow Muslims, we announce today the coming of the Mahdi … who shall reign with justice and fairness on Earth after it has been filled with injustice and oppression."

The tall, thin man was a terrorist, and his co-conspirators, hiding  among the worshipers, suddenly revealed the guns they had hidden under their suits. 

Sources:
weatherspark.com, BBC, data.worldbank.org, Bowen, W. H. (2014). The History of Saudi Arabia (2 ed.), Manea, E. (2008). The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Case of Saudi Arabia. The Limits of the Possible, Al-Rasheed, M. (2013). A Most Masculine State. Gender, politics and religion in Saudi Arabia, Sater, j. (2009). Human rights in Saudi Arabia. In S. Maisel, & J. Shoup III, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States, Sallam, A., & Hunter, M. (2013). Where is Saudi Arabian society heading? Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice,(Moaddel, 2006), Foley, S. (2010). The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam, www.alhakam.org, Vejen til 11. september af Lawrence Wright, www.globalsecurity.org, www.britannica.com, www.npr.org, Yaroslav Trofimov: The siege of Mecca (2007),  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, en.yabiladi.com, www.arabnews.com

Music used in this episode:
Egypt: provided by SoundPhenomenon / Pond5
Desert voices by ArtSlop_Flodur: https://pixabay.com/no/music/verden-desert-voices-11468/
Sudanese Desert provided by ExCantibusGaudium / Pond5
Voice of Arabia provided by SoundPhenomenon / Pond5
Arabic Sadness: https://pixabay.com/music/world-arabic-sadness-13404/ by https://pixabay.com/users/sergequadrado-24990007/
Arabic Ethnic Oriental African Adventure:  provided by eitanepsteinmusic / Pond5
Dramatic Suspense: https://pixabay.com/music/suspense-dramatic-suspense-116798/ by https://pixabay.com/users/ashot-danielyan-composer-27049680/
 Anuch – Our champion - Music from #Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/anuch/our-champion

Produced and narrated by Natasja Engholm
Male voices by Jon Lob
Creative input by Lars Hvidberg, www.whiteberg.dk 

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