March 11: The Hanafi Muslim Siege

Twelve African-American Hanafi Muslims surrendered to police on this date in 1977 after a two-day siege involving three buildings in Washington, DC (B’nai B’rith headquarters, city hall, and the Islamic Center of Washington). One hundred and forty-nine people were held hostage, more than 100 of them Jews, and a security guard and radio reporter were killed. The Hanafis’ demands were that the film, The Message, the Story of Islam (starring Anthony Quinn), be destroyed as blasphemous, and that they be given custody of several prisoners who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing seven members of the family of their leader, Hamaas Khaalis, a national secretary of the Nation of Islam (NOI) who had split off to form the Hanafi Muslim sect. His “disloyalty” to NOI had precipitated the murder of his family members, including five of his children and one grandchild. A Jewish judge had officiated at the killers’ trial, and Khaalis was dissatisfied with the sentence. Three ambassadors from Muslim countries negotiated the surrender of the Hanafi Muslims — Egypt’s Ashraf Ghorbal, Pakistan’s Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan, and Iran’s Ardeshir Zahedi.

“That the toll was not higher was in part a tribute to the primary tactic U.S. law enforcement officials are now using to thwart terrorists — patience. But most of all, perhaps, it was due to the courageous intervention of three Muslim ambassadors...” —Time magazine