Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

by Kim Ghattas

Although Juhayman and his gang were Muslims, an argument could be made they were acting like disbelievers. The clerics were now working on the text to make their case. More and more pilgrims were managing to escape. One Iranian pilgrim had fled and managed to make it all the way back to Tehran, where he spoke to journalists. He added credence to theories of a Shia takeover by saying the rebels had described the Mahdi in line with Shia beliefs, as the Twelfth Imam, hidden for eleven centuries and now returned to establish God’s kingdom on earth. The Iranian pilgrim said he didn’t buy any of it. Speaking either of Juhayman or Qahtani he said: “The moment I met this guy, I knew he was fishy.” On the third day, the wannabe Mahdi died. He had survived a dangerous game of capturing grenades thrown at him by Saudi soldiers and throwing them back at the troops—until one of them exploded in his hands, shredding his body.