Word: meccas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Khomeini's inflammatory rhetoric played a major part in the wave of Muslim fanaticism and anti-American violence that swept far beyond Iran. In Saudi Arabia, possessor of the world's greatest reserves of oil and American dollars, a band of extreme religious zealots seized the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, the holiest shrine in all Islam (see WORLD). In Pakistan, a mob enraged by radio reports claiming that the U.S. had inspired the attack on the Mecca mosque stormed and set fire to the U.S. embassy. They left the modernistic, 30-acre compound a gutted ruin. Two Americans were killed...
Indeed, even while the Pakistani attack was going on, Khomeini's office made a statement over Iranian radio blaming the Mecca violence on "criminal U.S. imperialism." It added: "The Muslims must. . . expect this kind of dirty act by American imperialism and international Zionism." There was not a shred of evidence for the accusation, and U.S. State Department Spokesman Hodding Carter promptly described it as an "outright, knowing lie." Indeed, the assailants were fundamentalist Muslims whose opposition to all Western influence is similar to Khomeini's archaic views. But though the U.S. has no quarrel with Islam, the report...
Angered by false radio reports that Americans were responsible for the seizure of the Sacred Mosque at Mecca, some 10,000 Pakistanis attacked the U.S. headquarters, throwing bricks arid setting cars afire. It was 1 p.m., and not until about an hour later did police appear; they found themselves outnumbered, and left. The rioters, many of them students, crashed into the embassy, trapped some 90 employees in a vault room and set the building afire. There were cries of "Kill the American dogs...
...attack on Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre would be to Christians, or a profanation of the Wailing Wall would be to Orthodox Jews. Last week, a day before the beginning of the Islamic New Year, a mysterious band of Muslim fanatics seized the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, taking an unknown number of hostages. At week's end, the situation at the Sacred Mosque was unclear. Government officials in Riyadh said that Saudi armed forces, including the crack National Guard commanded by Prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, were in "complete control" of the mosque. Other sources, however...
...gold, was erected to God by Abraham and that it was cleansed of idols by the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 630. The Ka'ba is the chief focus of prayer and ritual during the hajj, the annual pilgrimage that this year drew more than 2 million Muslims to Mecca...