ABSTRACT
1979 was a momentous year for politics in the Middle East. In February the Iranian monarchy was abolished in an Islamic revolution. A month later, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and U.S. President Jimmy Carter gathered on the White House lawn to sign the Camp David Accords, establishing peace between Egypt and Israel. Through the accord, Egypt became the first Arab state to recognise the state of Israel. In July, Saddam Hussain took over as president of Iraq, where his aggressive and opportunistic authoritarianism led to a brutal war with the new Islamic Republic of Iran. In November, a group of Islamist zealots seized the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to realise apocalyptic visions of the return of the Mahdi. 1 They were defeated only after Saudi authorities called in French commandos to raid Islam’s holiest site. Then, on Christmas Eve, a few days after the last rebels were driven out of the Grand Mosque, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, sparking a decade-long conflict in which scores of Arabs eventually mobilised to embark on jihad. 2
