Black Wave

by Kim Ghattas

  while in prison Qutb had read: Heikal, Autumn of Fury, 126.

  “going about like black tents”: Ibid., 241.

  “and no religion in politics”: “Waqfatu hisaben ma’il nafs wa muhasabat kol ‘abith bi ‘amni misr” [Self-accountability for those who endanger Egypt’s security], Al Ahram, September 6, 1981.

  the autumn of fury: Title of Mohammad Heikal’s book about Sadat’s assassination.

  Farag had broken his leg: Heikal, Autumn of Fury, 251.

  this was a question of survival: Author interview with Nageh Ibrahim.

  “rise as the Iranian masses”: Heikal, Autumn of Fury, 252.

  “death of the traitor mercenary”: “Al-sadat shaheedan fi rihabi-llah” [Sadat a martyr in God’s care], Asharq al-Awsat, October 7, 1981.

  the nucleus of the new order: Heikal, Autumn of Fury, 262.

  armed forces to stay neutral: Ibid., 263.

  a calm sense of achievement: G. Khoury (presenter), “Al-Mashhad: Sheikh Hani Fahs” [television series episode], Al-Mashhad, BBC Arabic, September 18, 2014.

  the investigators’ wrath: Ibid.

  By 1985, he was in Jeddah: Wright, Looming Tower, 69–70.

  the silence was eerie: W. E. Farrell, “Sadat Is Interred at Rites Attended by World Leaders,” New York Times, October 11, 1981.

  Syria’s official newspaper, Tishreen: “Misr tadfunu al-yawm wa ilal abad ramz al-khiyanah” [Egypt today bids farewell forever to the ultimate traitor], Tishreen, October 11, 1981; “Janazaton amrikiya-isra’iliyya lil sadat” [An American-Israeli funeral for Sadat], Al-Thawra, October 11, 1981.

  6: No Dupatta

  “My sole aim”: L. M. Simons, “Pakistani General Pictured as Reluctant Coup Leader,” Washington Post, July 12, 1977.

  “Who can say there is no freedom here?”: S. Ayaz, The Storm’s Call for Prayers: Selections from Shaikh Ayaz (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 26.

  Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the father of the nation: F. Ispahani, Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities (Noida: HarperCollins India, 2016), 8.

  His first law minister: Ibid., 27.

  “you are free to go”: M. A. Jinnah’s speech on August 11, 1947, in “Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates,” Government Printing Press, 1948.

  brandished Pakistan as a citadel: Ispahani, Purifying the Land of the Pure, 28.

  Mawdudi was dismayed by the fall: N. F. Paracha, “Abul Ala Maududi: An Existentialist History,” Dawn, January 1, 2015.

  Mawdudi’s ideas about Islam: based on V. Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); and P. Jenkins, “Clerical Terror,” New Republic, December 24, 2008.

  “Give to the drinkers, O wine bearer”: Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism, 141.

  The Pakistani scholar and Khomeini met: V. Nasr, The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 254 n29.

  the intervention of Saudi Arabia: J. M. Dorsey, “Pakistan’s Lurch Towards Ultra-Conservativism Abetted by Saudi-Inspired Pyramid Scheme,” Eurasia Review, April 23, 2017.

  During the elections of 1970: Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism, 45.

  Mawdudi was suddenly useful: Ibid., 46.

  Even when Zia spoke: Pakistan Horizon 31, no. 2/3 (Second and Third Quarter, 1978): 232–74.

  connections in Mecca and Medina: Nasr, Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution, 60, 236 n23.

  Pakistan’s biggest English-language daily: “Dawalibi Coming to Advise Ideology Body,” Dawn, September 25, 1978; “Renowned Muslim Jurists to Assist Pakistan,” Dawn, October 5, 1978.

  He had also served as: Dawalibi’s life story is reconstructed from interviews with his sons Hisham and Nofal in Riyadh; and Vassiliev, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, 272.

  reason with retrograde clerics: Vassiliev, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, 272.

  Dawalibi despised Bin Baz: Author interview with Nofal Dawalibi, Riyadh, February 2018.

  there was grandiose talk: Embassy Islamabad, “Saudi Religious Advisor Visits Latest Manifestation of ‘Islamania’,” Wikileaks Cable: 1978ISLAMA09483_d, dated October 2, 1978, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978ISLAMA09483_d.html.

  Zia had made a forty-eight-minute speech: “Measures for Nizam-i-Islam,” Dawn, February 10, 1979.

  King Khaled of Saudi Arabia: “Islamic Laws,” Dawn, February 28, 1979.

  a Pakistani jurist doing a review: Interview with Syed Afzal Haidar, former member of the Council of Islamic Ideology.

  bars, brothels, and breweries: “Ighlaq kol l-barat wa buyuti l-bagha’ fi Pakistan” [Closure of all bars and brothels in Pakistan], An-Nahar, February 14, 1979.

  Zia spoke to CBS television: “Zia to Consult Military Council, Cabinet,” Dawn, February 17, 1979.

  A week later, Mawdudi received: “Shah Faisal Award for Maudoodi,” Dawn, February 20, 1979.

  should the young thief of a mosque: W. Claiborne, “Zia’s Islam Metes Strict Tolls,” Washington Post, December 6, 1982.

  Women screamed “Death to Zia”: P. Niesew, “Pakistan Stunned by Bhutto Execution,” Washington Post, April 5, 1979.

  Pakistani television had shown ballet: S. Kothari, “From Genre to Zanaana: Urdu Television Drama Serials and Women’s Culture in Pakistan,” Contemporary South Asia 14, no. 3 (2005): 289–305.

  She told her co-presenter: Author interview with Mehtab Rashdi, Karachi, October 2017.

  When Zia banned makeup: N. F. Paracha, “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” Dawn, February 14, 2013.

  Benazir and her mother lived: F. Prial, “Pakistan Keeps Bhutto Family Behind Barbed Wire,” New York Times, November 15, 1980.

  They sent orders to the provincial government: Author interview with Mehtab Rashdi, Karachi, October 2018.

  Pakistanis were starting to suffocate: This characterization is based on descriptions from a number of Pakistanis who were young teens or adults in that period.

  tensions grew within families: N. F. Paracha, End of the Past (Lahore: Vanguard Books, 2016), 19–20.

  Clerics were gaining influence everywhere: Haqqani, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, 169–70.

  History was also being rewritten: Ispahani, Purifying the Land of the Pure, 97–98.

  During the 1960s and early 1970s: The description, statistics, and laws on the position of women in Pakistan are taken from A. Weiss, “Women’s Position in Pakistan: Sociocultural Effects of Islamization,” Asian Survey 25, no. 8 (August 1985): 863–80.

  The uncompromising attitudes: “Entertainers in Pakistan: Mehtab Channa,” Dawn, December 3, 1979.

  They faced off with the police: J. Stokes, “Pakistani Women Stage Protests Against Proposed Islamic Laws,” Globe and Mail, March 3, 1983.

  But the polling stations had been deserted: “Pakistani Leader Gets 98% of Referendum Vote,” New York Times, December 21, 1984.

  For ten long minutes: R. Massey, “Obituary: Iqbal Bano,” Guardian, May 11, 2009. Recordings of the concert are also available online.

  7: Karbala in Beirut

  At eleven in the morning: C. Collins, “Chronology of the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon, June–August 1982,” Journal of Palestine Studies, special issue, vol. 11, no. 4–vol. 12, no. 1 (Summer/Autumn 1982): 135–92.

  several thousand Shias: Blanford, Warriors of God, chapter 1.

  Israeli soldiers would walk around: Ibid., prologue.

  a hunting rifle and shot: F. Ajami, The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generations Odyssey (New York: Vintage, 1999), 99.

  in his 1957 poem “The Bridge”: Ibid., 27, quoting a translation by Issa Boulatta.

  “Where are the Arabs?”: Ibid., 26.

  leaving behind a love letter: R. Rahim, In English, Faiz Ahmed Faiz: A Renowned Urdu Poet (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2008), 358–59.

  When Sheikh Sobhi Tufayli: Blanford, Warriors of God, chapter 2.

  and his “radiant prese
nce”: P. Claude, “Mystery Man Behind the Party of God,” Guardian, May 13, 2005.

  five thousand Iranians: Chehabi, Distant Relations, 213.

  The statue of President Nasser: H. Saghieh and B. Al-Sheikh, Shu’ub al Sha’ab al Lubnani [Peoples of Lebanese people] (Beirut: Dar al Saqi, 2015), 72–79.

  out of precaution: Chehabi, Distant Relations, 218.

  Some reports talk of families: Saghieh and Al-Sheikh, Shu’ub al Sha’ab al Lubnani, 72–79.

  wearing military fatigues under their clerical robes: Blanford, Warriors of God, chapter 2.

  Montazeri was a typical: Chehabi, Distant Relations, 193.

  three hundred volunteers: “Ready to Fight, Iranians Wait in Vain for Trip to Lebanon,” Globe and Mail, December 11, 1979.

  closed the airspace: Chehabi, Distant Relations, 207.

  declared Montazeri mentally deranged: Ibid.

  he did make it: “Iranian Volunteers Seen in Lebanon,” Globe and Mail, January 5, 1980.

  thousands marched in the streets: R. Wright, Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam (New York: Touchstone, 1985), 159.

  Their recruiters were more canny: Blanford, Warriors of God, chapter 2.

  people like Sheikh Tufayli: Ibid.

  a band of a hundred women: B. Graham, “Islamic Fundamentalism Rises,” Washington Post, October 5, 1984.

  “And whoever takes Allah”: Quran, 5:56, from English Translation of the Holy Quran, Ali and Aziz.

  They wanted to show: C. Dickey, “Young Lebanese Seek New Martyrdom: Suicide Bombers Emerge as Martyrs,” Washington Post, May 12, 1985.

  “I am a future martyr”: Ibid.

  Wearing red headbands: T. Smith, “Iran: Five Years of Fanaticism,” New York Times, February 12, 1984.

  a celebrated open letter: F. Ajami, “Iran: The Impossible Revolution,” Foreign Affairs 67, no. 2 (Winter 1988): 135–55.

  Karbala cannot be used to justify “war”: Ajami, Dream Palace of the Arabs, 152.

  Fahs was shaken: Author interview with Badia Fahs, Beirut, March 2018.

  8: Shia Kafir

  The two men met only once: A. Rieck, The Shias of Pakistan: An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 441 n373.

  one of the first Pakistani religious students: Ibid., 221.

  $225 million in seed money: “Historic Announcement,” Dawn, February 11, 1979. The fund was 2,250 million Pakistani rupees in 1979, which was equivalent to $225 million according to the exchange rate then.

  would next distribute punch cards: S. Auerbach, “Pakistan’s Official Turn to Islam Collides with Tradition,” Washington Post, September 8, 1980.

  Sunni groups in Karachi: Rieck, Shias of Pakistan, 204.

  banks across the country: D. Denman, “Zia’s Tax Opposed,” Guardian, June 28, 1980.

  they had called on outside support: M. Abou-Zahab, “The Politicization of the Shia Community in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s,” in A. Monsutti, S. Naef, and F. Sabahi, eds., The Other Shiites: From the Mediterranean to Central Asia (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), 103; and citing S. A. Tirmazi, Profiles of Intelligence (Lahore: Fiction House, 1995), 272, 283.

  Pakistan had looked to Iran: A. Vatanka. Iran and Pakistan: Security, Diplomacy and American Influence (London: I. B. Tauris, 2015), 6.

  the ISO would be directly linked to: Ibid., 241.

  four thousand students: Abou-Zahab, “Politicization of the Shia Community in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s,” 101.

  He went to visit Khomeini: Author interview with Hussaini companion Shia Allama Iftikhar Naqvi, Islamabad, October 2017.

  Pakistan became a huge source: Abou-Zahab, “Politicization of the Shia Community in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s.”

  He thought Khomeini was blessed: Fuchs, “Relocating the Centers of Shi’i Islam,” 504.

  new tradition of “Jerusalem Day”: Rieck, Shias of Pakistan, 223.

  “Wahhabis who wrap themselves”: S. W. Fuchs, “Third Wave Shiʻism: Sayyid ‘Arif Husain al-Husaini and the Islamic Revolution in Pakistan,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 24, no. 3 (July 2014): 493–510.

  “cold black eyes” peering: R. Tempest, “City of Evil Countenances,” Gazette (Montreal), May 17, 1986.

  establishinga small Arabistan: “Asharq al-Awsat Interviews Umm Mohammed: The Wife of Bin Laden’s Spiritual Mentor,” Asharq al-Awsat, April 30, 2006.

  the unity of the Islamic nation: J. Khashoggi, “Arab Mujahideen in Afghanistan—II: Maasada Exemplifies the Unity of the Islamic Umma,” Arab News, May 14, 1988.

  give the Soviets their own Vietnam: S. Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (London: Penguin, 2005), 50–51.

  the American Club, which opened in 1985: K. Brulliard, “Khyber Club’s Bartender Had Front-Row Seat to History in Pakistan,” Washington Post, February 7, 2012.

  Jamal sat in the garden: Author interview with Khashoggi in Washington, DC, July 2017.

  why was Jamal helping the kuffar: B. Rubin, “The Jamal Khashoggi I Knew,” War on the Rocks, October 26, 2018, available online at https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/the-jamal-khashoggi-i-knew/.

  was Abdallah Azzam: The descriptions of Azzam, his relationship with Bin Laden, and their joining forces with money and a fatwa are condensed from Wright, Looming Tower, 109–11 and 117–19. The author also relied heavily on the work of Thomas Hegghammer, including T. Hegghammer, “Abdallah Azzam and Palestine,” Die Welt des Islams 53, nos. 3–4 (January 2013): 353–87.

  by raising a fortune: Wright, Looming Tower, 117.

  religious edict that turned modern tradition: T. Hegghammer, “The Rise of Muslim Fighters: Islam and the Globalization of Jihad,” International Security 35, no. 3 (Winter 2010/2011): 53–94.

  a quarter of a million: Wright, Looming Tower, 452 n122.

  estimated total of thirty-five thousand over the course of the war: A. Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 129.

  So was his chief of staff: Wright, The Looming Tower, 119–20.

  Saudi Airlines gave huge discounts: T. Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism Since 1979 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 21.

  Azzam’s salary was paid: Ibid., 41.

  In Cairo, the office: Wright, The Looming Tower, 112.

  Saudi individuals raised: Coll, Ghost Wars, 83–84.

  The governor of Riyadh: B. Riedel, The Prince of Counterterrorism (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

  he made his views known: Rubin, “The Jamal Khashoggi I Knew.”

  the number of registered Afghan refugees: M. Safri, “The Transformation of the Afghan Refugee: 1979–2009,” Middle East Journal 65, no. 4 (Autumn 2011): 587–601.

  Saudi charities built hundreds of religious madrassas: Coll, Ghost Wars, 86.

  rise in the number of graduates: J. Malik, Colonization of Islam: Dissolution of Traditional Institutions in Pakistan (Delhi: Manohar, 1998), 230–32; Fuchs, “Relocating the Centers of Shi’i Islam,” 269.

  The quality of teaching could not keep up: V. Nasr, “The Rise of Sunni Militancy in Pakistan: The Changing Role of Islamism and the Ulama in Society and Politics,” Modern Asian Studies 34, no. 1 (February 2000): 139–80.

  no publisher in the Arab world: Mohammad Zayn al Abidine Suroor interview, Al-Hiwar TV, July 31, 2008.

  he ordered three thousand copies: Ibid.

  the most influential cleric: B. Haykel, “Al-Qa’ida and Shiism,” in A. Moghadam and B. Fishman, eds., Fault Lines in Global Jihad (New York: Routledge, 2011), 191.

  amply fulfilled the hopes: Fuchs, “Relocating the Centers of Shi’i Islam,” 256.

  not only encouraged such vitriol: Nasr, “Rise of Sunni Militancy,” 160.

  Saudi embassies from Islamabad: Nasr, The Shia Revival, 163–66; interview with former militant Mansour Nogeidan, Dubai, April 2017.<
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  As a secular Baathist: S. Helfont, “Saddam and the Islamists: The Ba’thist Regime’s Instrumentalization of Religion in Foreign Affairs,” Middle East Journal 68, no. 3 (Summer 2014): 352–66.

  The Pakistani delegation was the largest: Ibid.

  “Those people only understand”: Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, speech available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Lo-CxhGrI.

  with the tacit approval of Zia: K. Ahmed, Sectarian War: Pakistan’s Sunni-Shia Violence and Its Links to the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 116–17.

  In 1986, the sectarian poison: Ahmed, Sectarian War, 116–17.

  The local tribes mobilized: Rieck, The Shias of Pakistan, 229; M. Abou-Zahab, “Sectarianism in Pakistan’s Kurram Tribal Agency,” Terrorism Monitor 7, no. 6 (March 2009).

  Both Saddam and King Fahd: Details surrounding the circumstances of Zaheer’s death, transfer to Saudi Arabia, and funeral are from an interview with his son Ebtessam Elahi Zaheer, Lahore, August 2018.

  protests erupted over his death: “Blood for Blood, Anti-Zia Rioters Yell,” Gazette (Montreal), April 1, 1987.

  the Saudis became wary of Shia soldiers: R. M. Weintraub, “Saudis to Send Pakistani Unit Back Home,” Washington Post, November 28, 1987; “Gulf War: Shifting Sands,” Economist, December 12, 1987.

  massing six hundred thousand troops on the border: “Military Escalation Continues Amidst US-Soviet Consultations,” Asharq al-Awsat, August 15, 1986.

  9: Mecca Is Mine

  On this day, July 31, 1987: Interview with Sami Angawi, Jeddah, February 2018.

  rose a Hilton Hotel: D. Howden, “Shadows over Mecca,” Independent, April 19, 2006.

  1.8 million pilgrims participated: S. M. Badeeb, Saudi-Iranian Relations 1932–1982 (London: Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies (1993).

  King Fahd launched: D. B. Ottaway, “Fahd Adjusts Step to March of Islam,” Washington Post, November 27, 1984.

  The Saudi-endorsed translations: K. Mohammad, “Assessing English Translations of the Qur’an,” Middle East Quarterly 12, no. 2 (Spring 2005): 58–71.

  The arched gateway, known as: M. N. Mirza and A. S. Shawoosh, The Illustrated Atlas of Makkah and the Holy Environs (Center of Makkah History, 2011), 218.