Juhayman al-Otaybi

Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi (Arabic: جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي; ‎16 September 1936 – 9 January 1980) was a Saudi religious dissident and ex-soldier who led the Ikhwan during their Grand Mosque seizure in 1979. He and his followers besieged and took over the Grand Mosque of Mecca on 20 November 1979 (1 Muharram 1400) and held it for two weeks. During this time, he called for an uprising against the House of Saud and also proclaimed that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of the Ikhwan's leading officials. The incident led to widespread unrest, culminating in large-scale anti-American riots throughout the Muslim world, particularly after Iranian religious cleric Ruhollah Khomeini of the Islamic Revolution falsely claimed over a radio broadcast that Juhayman's insurgency at the holiest Islamic site had been orchestrated by the United States and Israel.

As his militants seized the Grand Mosque of Mecca and took hostages, Juhayman publicly denounced the House of Saud as corrupt and illegitimate, accusing the country's royals of pursuing alliances with "Christian infidels" and importing secularism into Saudi society. The nature of his allegations echoed that of the charges that his father had brought against Ibn Saud in 1921. Unlike earlier anti-monarchy dissidents in Saudi Arabia, Juhayman directly attacked the country's ulama for failing to protest against Saudi government policies that betrayed Islam; he accused them of accepting the rule of an infidel state and of offering their loyalty to corrupt rulers "in exchange for honours and riches" amidst broader discontent against what he perceived as their un-Islamic teachings.

Consisting of 300 to 600 well-organized militants under Juhayman's leadership, the Ikhwan took hostages from among the worshippers at the Grand Mosque and fought against the Saudi military's attempts to retake it, leading to approximately 800 casualties in total. The Saudi government requested urgent aid from France, which responded by dispatching advisory units from the GIGN to the site. After French operatives provided them with a special type of tear gas that dulls aggression and obstructs breathing, Saudi troops gassed the interior of the Grand Mosque and successfully forced entry. Juhayman, who had been captured during the assault, was sentenced to death by Saudi authorities and subsequently executed by beheading .