Manson And Juhayman

Here is something that I suspect but cannot prove. So I am going to let readers see what they think.

We saw this recently in "The Mahdi Plot", January 2025, but this is about another possible aspect of it.

In 1979 the year 1400, on the Islamic Calendar, was soon to begin. There were those who thought this meant someone would show up to revitalize and purify the Islamic religion. On November 20, hundreds of militants entered the Grand Mosque in Mecca, it is also called the "Sacred Mosque", which is the most important place in Islam. They pulled guns from under their robes, and in coffins, and took over the mosque. Many of the other pilgrims were taken as hostages, although most of those were soon released.

The leader of the seizure was named Juhayman. A proclamation was made that his brother-in-law, who was among the militants, was the Mahdi, a messianic figure, and all Moslems were to obey and follow him. They considered the Saudi Government as illegitimate because of the western influences that it allowed in.

The operation had been well-prepared and well-planned. There are many underground rooms at the mosque, that had been stocked with food and ammunition. The minarets made an ideal position for snipers. The first efforts to regain control of the mosque were futile, and suffered heavy casualties. Both the king and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia were out of the country at the time.

This event didn't register with Americans more than it did simply because it was going on at the same time as the Iran Hostage Crisis, which began with the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the taking of it's staff as hostages on November 4. I remember when this seizure was on the news every night. The lead story would be whatever new developments there were in the hostage crisis, and then this would follow.

The two events were not connected, although it might be said that they were part of the same general atmosphere. Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, accused America of being behind the seizure of the Grand Mosque. The militants who seized the Grand Mosque were Sunni Moslems and expressed no support or solidarity with Khomeini's Shiite revolution.

The seizure went on for two weeks. French special forces were used as advisors, according to the official account of the story, and supplied grenades and chemicals with which to assault the militants in the underground rooms of the mosque. Only Moslems are officially allowed in the city of Mecca, although curious non-Moslems have long made a game of having a look at it in disguise.

It was no easy task. Many of the militants had military experience. They were well prepared and trained, and highly motivated. They were ready for martyrdom. The Saudi forces tasked with recapturing the mosque suffered heavy casualties. What might finally have dampened the spirit of the militants was that the one who was supposed to be the Mahdi was killed.

This event changed Saudi Arabia. It put more emphasis on it's strict Wahhabist strain of Islam than it had during the 1970s. Later in the month of December would come the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This would provide the battle theater for the new atmosphere of Jihad, or holy war.

It just so happens that the Grand Mosque was being renovated when the seizure took place. The name of the construction company was Bin Laden. Salem Bin Laden provided diagrams and blueprints to the Saudi forces that were very helpful in facilitating the recapture of the mosque.

Salem Bin Laden had a younger brother, named Osama. Osama Bin Laden would join the Jihad in Afghanistan. In 2001, 22 years after the seizure of the Grand Mosque, Osama Bin Laden would launch his own operation, the attacks of 9/11.

Do you really believe that the seizure of the Grand Mosque, in 1979, isn't what put the idea in the youthful Osama Bin Laden's mind about someday launching his own earth-shaking operation against what he considered to be opposing his version of Islam?

But where did Juhayman and his militants come up with the idea of this cataclysmic event in order to announce the appearance of the Mahdi? Nothing like this had ever been done before. The so-called "Mahdist State" had existed in Sudan, in the late Nineteenth Century, although it wasn't globally recognized. But nothing at all like the seizure of the Grand Mosque.

I have suspected that Juhayman didn't just come up with this fantastic idea out of the blue. Sixteen days before the seizure of the Grand Mosque, the U.S. Embassy in Iran was similarly seized. But Juhayman's plan was large-scale and complex and was clearly in the works well before then.

Ten years before this seizure of the Grand Mosque a remarkably similar event happened on the other side of the world, in Los Angeles. It involved two sets of horrific murders, rather than the seizure of the Grand Mosque.

In the midst of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s a would-be musician, who had spent much of his life in jail, found that he had the ability to attract followers mostly among the many young runaways and dropouts who went to California. His name was Charles Manson.

The group, which became known as the Manson Family, believed that Charles Manson was Jesus. In the Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the "Son of Man". Manson changed his middle name to "Willis" so that his name spelled "Charles Will is Man son".

The original city of Jerusalem had come back under Jewish control, in 1967, which is foretold in Bible Prophecy, for the Last Days. There was a lot of racial tension in America at the time and the Manson Family decided that a race war would be the Apocalypse described in the Bible, that would be followed by the Return of Jesus to reign over the earth. 

They thought that the Beatles White Album was echoing their thoughts that Manson was Christ. The apocalyptic scenario was called "Helter Skelter", after the song on that album. They thought that the song on the album "Revolution 9" was referring to Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation. They repeatedly tried to contact the Beatles, to get them to join the Manson Family.

The Manson Family developed a plan to get the Apocalypse underway, after which Charles Manson would reign as Christ over the earth. They would commit two sets of horrific murders in Los Angeles, and set it up to look as if black militants had done it, by such props as writing "Pig" on the wall in blood of the victims. This was to prompt black militants to commit more such murders of wealthy white people.

On August 8, 1969, the group killed everyone at a house party. The victims included the well-known actress, Sharon Tate. The following night they killed a grocer and his wife in their home. My information is that Charles Manson himself never actually killed anyone.

The country was horrified at the murders. America had the greatest day in it's history, putting astronauts on the moon for the first time, and then, within three weeks, this horror happened. 

No one knew who committed the murders. Maybe black militants did do it. But there is an old saying that "The life expectancy of a secret is inversely proportional to the number of people that are in on it". Susan Atkins, one of the Manson Family, was arrested on other charges. While in prison she reportedly boasted to her cellmates about the murders.

Back to Juhayman in Saudi Arabia. Juhayman was close to the same age as Charles Manson, two years younger. In 1969, when the Manson Family murders took place, he was serving in the Saudi National Guard. Saudi Arabia was an ally of America.

Could Juhayman have heard about this crazy, murderous, absurd attempt in Christian America to promote someone as Jesus Christ and set off the biblical Apocalypse that would bring Him to reign over the earth? Could the seizure of the Grand Mosque, and promotion of the Mahdi among them, ten years later be Juhayman's true Islamic version of this misguided insanity that had happened in Christian America?

One of Juhayman's most important objectives was to rid Islamic lands of negative American influences. To have that goal, he must have had some familiarity with American culture, and the Manson killings were very widely reported in the media during the 1970s.

According to some reports there were some black Americans, who had converted to Islam, among Juhayman's militants who seized the Grand Mosque. These would have been part of the racial uprisings that the Manson Family had tried to turn into the Apocalypse, and may have told Juhayman about it.

The Manson Family murders occurred less than a week before the greatest counter-culture event of the 1960s took place. This was the music festival at Woodstock. What is so interesting is that Woodstock very much resembled the Haj Pilgrimage to Mecca. Their hearts were certainly in the right place. 400,000 people got together at Woodstock for three days and there was not a single act of violence.

We can see the influence of the American 1960s counter-culture on the Middle East in how the Iranians protesting against America in 1979 very much resembled young Americans protesting against the Vietnam War ten years before. Bell-bottom pants were even in style in Iran at the time.

Juhayman and his militants were very much counter-culture at the time they seized the Grand Mosque and promoted the Mahdi among them. They were adamantly opposed to the Saudi Government.

I very much suspect that Juhayman had heard about the Manson episode and it was at least part of what gave him the idea of initiating his own event that would shock the world and introduce it to the Mahdi. I don't think it's logical that he would have come up with this idea out of the blue. His effort was to be the true Islamic version of this crazy, absurd, sinful and, drug-addled attempt to introduce Jesus in supposedly Christian America. 

There is a strong resemblance between Juhayman (top) and Manson (bottom), both pictured after their captures. From the Wikipedia articles "Juhayman al-Otaybi" and "Charles Manson". This was the most widely circulated photo of Charles Manson. Did Juhayman style himself as the Islamic version of Manson, who would get things right? This would prove the superiority of Islam over Christianity and America, and begin the reign of the Mahdi.

Many of Juhayman's associates supposedly had dreams that their candidate was the Mahdi. This would replace the Manson Family belief that the Beatles were indicating that Charles Manson was Jesus by coded messages in their White Album.