All language subtitles for 1979.the.year.of.the.islamist.revolution.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

In December 1977,

President Carter visited his
Cold War ally in the Middle East.

the Shah of Iran.

At the banquet held
in his honour, he raised a toast.

"Iran, because of the
great leadership of the Shah,

is an island of stability in one
of the more troubled areas of the

world."

The Middle East was
certainly troubled.

Through the 1970s, the region had
become an ideological battleground.

On the one hand, there were those
like the Shah, allied to the West.

We'll call them the liberalists.

On the other hand, were
allies of the Soviet Union,

like the Baathists in Syria and Iraq,
or the Communists in Afghanistan.

We'll call them the leftists.

The leadership of both camps
was broadly authoritarian.

Both pursued a secularizing,
modernizing agenda for their young,

rapidly growing populations,

as they flooded from the countryside
to the cities to get a slice of the

Middle East's new wealth.

And in these cities flashed the signs
of advancing technology and trade.

Shopping malls, neon
lights and nightclubs.

Women were gaining new
rights and going into new jobs.

Even in conservative
countries like Saudi Arabia,

young women were
becoming teachers and doctors.

There seemed to be little future
for the religious conservatives, who

called for a return to the old ways,

or for revolutionary Islamists, who
wanted to bring fundamentalist Islam

onto the world stage.

History was marching
in another direction.

Yet by 2001, for many across
the region, bin Laden was a hero.

And the ideology of
political Islam, or Islamism,

had grabbed the imagination
of the entire Middle East.

The meteoric rise of this ideology
can be traced back to the events of

one explosive year.

We begin our story thirteen
months after Carter's visit to Iran.

Just outside Paris,

acolytes have flocked to see a man
who was busy changing history, the

Iranian ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini.

He'd been in exile for thirteen years.

During those years,

he had been coordinating
with dissidents inside Iran.

And he had finally succeeded in
igniting a revolution against the

Shah.

Now he was courting the media,

in preparation for the triumphal
return that God might be granting

him.

In Iran, violent demonstrations had
become an almost daily occurrence.

A flood of oil money had
caused hyperinflation,

huge inequality and
unprecedented corruption.

More profoundly, millions of people
felt uneasy about the rapid change,

foreign change, foreign
goods and decadent foreign ways.

Khomeini was a figurehead around which
all groups opposed to the Shah had

coalesced.

Across the other side of
the Gulf in Saudi Arabia,

another charismatic would-be
revolutionary was plotting the

overthrow of his king.

Juhayman al-Otaybi had been on the
run from the Saudi authorities for

nearly two years.

He was a fanatical conservative
who longed for the days of jihad.

Hiding in Kassim and the Nejd with a
small band of followers, he was now

writing a tax on the monarchy.

The rulers have used religion to
justify their worldly interests.

We've put an end to jihad, paid
allegiance to the Christians,

and brought Muslims to
evil and corruption."

Over the next few months,

he would be finalizing his
plans to overthrow the king.

In France, as the days ticked by,
Khomeini continued to work with the

media,

encouraging the belief that he was a
Gandhi-like old man, and keeping his

statements vague.

In fact, Khomeini's
vision for the Muslim world,

the so-called
"Velayat-e-Faqih", was radical.

Clerics traditionally
stayed out of politics,

but he wanted a theocracy
with himself as its pinnacle.

The Shah had just fled Tehran.

The traditional edifice of the
monarchy with its capitalist,

liberalizing ideology had
lost the trust of the people.

Islamists,

conservatives and leftists alike
wanted to rethink how society should

be run.

There were a few who
wept for what was to come.

That evening, U.S.

statesman Henry Kissinger pointed out
the implications for the region on

American television.

I believe that the collapse of
a pro-Western, pro-modern, and

pro-American government in in Iran,
because that is what the Shah was,

will have a profound effect on
Saudi Arabia, on the sheikhtans, on

Kuwait, and on areas further away.

But few people in Washington shared
Kissinger's gloomy forecast for the

Middle East.

They were more excited by another
radical development in the region.

We have no desire to be
the world's policeman.

But America does want to
be the world's peacemaker.

I am determined, as President,

to use the full beneficial influence
of our country so that the

precious opportunity for lasting
peace between Israel and Egypt will

not be lost.

Following the Camp David
Accords the previous year,

peace talks between Israel and Egypt
were progressing well, something

many never dreamed possible.

But there was still much
this year that Carter

and
his envoys needed to do.

At 7am, Ruhollah Khomeini
returned home with a letter.

the hesitant steps of a man of 79.

His cavalcade was greeted by one of
the largest crowds ever gathered.

[MUSIC]

In a few weeks,

these Iranians would be given a
chance to vote on making Iran an

Islamic Republic.

And what was wrong with being
Islamic or being a Republic?

Only a few knew about
Khomeini's Islamist vision.

It was a vision for the entire
region,

and he was already forging some
surprising foreign alliances.

Yasser Arafat,
leftist leader of the PLO,

was the first foreign
dignitary to to visit Khomeini.

Arafat had a long relationship
with the Iranian revolutionaries.

He had let them use his terrorist
training camps in Syria, Lebanon,

and Iraq.

Is the Palestinian resistance
feeling stronger now

that it is backed by Iran?

Definitely it changed completely the
whole strategic policy in this area,

upside down completely.

The Palestinian cause would
be central to the Iranian

revolutionaries.

They now gave the looted
Israeli embassy to the PLO.

Iran's Islamists were transforming
a cause of the Arab nationalists of

the left into a religious duty.

It was part of their
bid to lead all Muslims.

Iran's new foreign
minister, Ebrahim Yazdi,

had barely said farewell to Arafat
when he was hosting a new delegation.

And this time there were no cameras.

The visitors were given a
tour of revolutionary Tehran.

These guests were Muslim
Brotherhood and other

international Islamist leaders.

Despite being Sunnis, the visitors
had much in common with the Shia

Islamist revolutionaries,

not least their admiration for the
seminal Sayyid Qutub, who extolled

the use of violence
against enemies of the religion.

They met Khomeini in private,

then they asked him to
lead the whole Islamic world.

Khomeini,

reluctant to compromise his shia
beliefs, refused to commit himself.

But Iran was messianic
about its revolution,

and the delegation was pleased to
learn that some were already

talking about spreading
their revolution abroad.

And that Egypt was a target.

Even now,

Egypt's liberalist pro-Western
President Sadat was hosting

President Carter to
pursue peace with Israel.

It was a challenge to all who
refused to engage with the Israelis.

The crowd may have been
excited at the prospect of peace,

but Sadat was taking a huge gamble.

There were many Egyptians
who hadn't turned out to

welcome President Carter.

Sadat was being attacked
by both Arab nationalists,

who dreamed of a unified Arab
nation across the Middle East, and by

Islamists, who dreamed of a unified
Muslim nation across the Middle East.

Moreover,

Sadat was reversing the socialist
policies of the past towards a free

market, and the economy
was still in dire straits.

So it wasn't just to protect the
American president that security was

so high.

At Cairo University,

there had recently been huge
student demonstrations calling for an

Islamic government and
protesting against the Carter visit.

US journalists had reported
back home on the mood.

Already there have
been some incidents.

A bomb went off at the nightclub here
at the Sheraton Hotel last month,

a protest against what's
seen as "Western immorality."

Other bombs have been found,

and all this has made the
police extremely jittery.

But peace, Sadat felt, was in
the best interests of Egypt.

He needed to turn around the economy,

regain land lost to Israel in the
conflict, and stop the waste of

young lives caused by decades of
war.

Much depended on his work with Carter.

"You are held here with the
highest esteem as one of the greatest

statesmen of our time.

Your courage..."

And in trying to make peace,

Sadat also risked
opposition from his Arab neighbours.

In Lebanon, where the
PLO had its power base,

the organisation was holding a general
strike against Carter's visit.

Offices and shops were shut.

We will continue our struggle,

even the military struggle, or
the political struggle, against

agreement.

But in Cairo,

the discussions continued
productively over the following

days.

Finally there was left only
one matter of uncertainty.

How would Sadat's ally,
Saudi Arabia, react to peace?

Construction projects across Egypt
testified to its dependence on Saudi

economic support.

So Carter sent his
National Security Advisor,

Zbigniew Brzezinski, to
Riyadh for high-level talks.

They knew that their ally,

although increasingly
liberal, was still conservative.

Saudi Arabia would be reluctant to
move against the region's

anti-Israel consensus.

The peace process between the
Israelis and the Egyptians, that was

something which we Iran
sounded ready to support that,

minimally not to obstruct it, and we
worked very hard to try to get their

assurances that they would
give support to that effort.

At the meeting,
Brzesinski talked frankly.

Undermining Sadat
would help the Soviets.

None of us want to see a
pro-Soviet regime in Egypt.

All of this is said as a friend.

We know that the peace treaty
is causing you difficulties,

and that you face pressures.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince
Saud al-Faisal, was reassuring.

No country more than Saudi
Arabia wants the success of President

Sadat.

No country would be
more hurt by his failure.

He would like to see Egypt as
the leader of the Arab world, with

moderate forces flourishing.

Saud went on to explain that his
country would follow a circumspect

line.

It would punish Sadat only by
supporting the consensus that wished

to suspend Egypt from the Arab
League.

It now looked like the signing of the
accords could take place in a matter

of days.

Brzezinski flew to Cairo to
let Sadat know the good news.

He took the opportunity to
give a press conference.

America wanted doubters in the region
to understand why peace with Israel

was so important.

A peace treaty which will open
the doors to greater prosperity,

more progress, more
stability in the entire region.

We feel that we are on the eve of
an important new era in this part of

the world.

But some wanted a very different,
new era for this part of the world.

A few days earlier,

Islamist revolutionaries
shared exciting news from

Peshawar in Pakistan.

They were announcing the escalation
of their uprising in neighboring

Afghanistan, and events
in Iran gave them hope.

Afghan Islamists were using the
mountainous tribal areas on the

border with Pakistan as as a base to
attack communist government targets.

As in Iran,

the Islamists were fighting
alongside conservative Afghans.

They had united to oppose the reforms
pushed through by the hardline

communist government in Kabul.

The government had upset many by
passing new laws to abolish the

veil, child marriage,
and the selling of brides.

They had promoted women's rights,

and forced through a radical
program of land redistribution.

But the brutal enforcement of
their policies won the government no

friends.

By spring 1979,

townspeople and villagers
across Afghanistan

had lost
trust in the government.

And as in Iran, the links to
foreign governments, in this case the

Soviets,

allow traditionalists and Islamists
to stir up further animosity against

change.

In Moscow, the government's
Soviet allies were highly concerned.

The Politburo listened to a report
from Foreign Minister Gromyko.

The situation in
Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply.

The insurgents infiltrating from
Pakistan and Iran have joined forces

with a domestic counter-revolution.

The latter is dominated
by religious fanatics.

Under no circumstances
should we lose Afghanistan.

Soviet divisions were put in
a state of battle readiness,

and orders were given to start a huge
delivery of military vehicles and

equipment, and to send in
hundreds of additional advisors.

They were gratefully received
by desperate Afghan commanders.

No one knew whether this additional
support would be enough to tip the

balance in the fighting.

Now President Sadat and Prime
Minister Begin will sign three

copies of the Treaty of Peace
in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

Egyptians watch the news.

Despite Sadat's fears,

the general reaction, for
the moment, was encouraging.

"It's a very great, important event

for the Middle East,

and it's all right, very good."

Moreover,

the response to the peace treaty from
the rest of the Arab world was more

muted than expected.

In Syria,

President Assad and the Soviet
Foreign Minister Gromyko were in

talks.

Together they
reaffirmed their opposition.

In Paris, a Jewish restaurant was
bombed, probably on Syrian orders.

and in Iran, a
demonstration was organised.

In West Beirut,

the PLO leader Yasser Arafat was
still against any negotiation with

Israel.

He held a press conference and
accused Sadat of betraying the

Egyptian people.

"The Arab League would suspend Egypt
and move its headquarters away from

Cairo.

But that was as expected.

The regional response to Sadat
had been little more than noise,

and Sadat arranged for
celebrations on his return to Cairo.

The crowd were delighted.

Sadat's success made the old
ideology of leftism irrelevant.

On that very same day in Iran,

although few knew it yet, the leftists
were also being made irrelevant.

They had agreed to a
referendum called by Khomeini.

Iranians were asked,

"Should Iran become an Islamic
Republic?" But they were given no

details of what it involved,
and no alternative options.

But in accepting a referendum, the
left were agreeing to exactly that.

It was an overwhelming
victory for Khomeini.

He still needed to push through
his doctrine a velayat-e-faqih

into the constitution.

But that would come later.

For now, Iran was an Islamic republic.

The government of God
had officially begun.

Across the Middle East,
Islamists were delighted.

In Jordan,

a Palestinian lecturer in Sharia at
Amman University was also energized

by the news from Iran.

This was Abdullah Azzam,
the future father of jihad,

someone who will play an
important part later in our story.

Over in Riyadh,

King Khalid of Saudi Arabia was
trying to get the measure of this

new Islamic Republic.

Was Iran, he wondered,

trying to compete for
leadership of the Muslim world?

He sent Khomeini a telegram.

I am happy to express my sincere
congratulations as you announce the

establishment of the
Islamic Republic in Iran.

Certainly this announcement has
been warmly received in Saudi Arabia,

being committed to the ideology,
the method and the application of

Islamic principles.

A few days later,

he sent a high-level delegation to
meet Khomeini and present him with a

Koran.

But Khomeini responded with
veiled criticism of Saudi Arabia's

relationship with the arrogant West.

The meeting was recorded.

It was an ominous sign.

In suggesting that Saudi
Arabia was insufficiently Islamic,

Khomeini seemed to be offering his
own leadership to the Muslim world.

The supreme leader
was becoming bolder.

Throughout May,

he escalated anti-American and
anti-Israeli demonstrations.

These demonstrations helped spread
revolutionary fervor across the

region.

In Iraq, the Dawa party, old allies
of Khomeini, took to the streets.

Violent clashes erupted
every Friday in Najaf,

outside the home of Mohammed
Bakr al-Sadr, known as the Iraqi

Ayatollah Khomeini.

But the ruthlessness of the Iraqi
Ba' athists

soon stopped Shia
Iraq following the Iranian model.

The revolution in Iran
also affected Syria.

In Aleppo,

a cadet school was attacked
by the militant wing of

the Muslim Brotherhood.

They killed 60. Many
more were hospitalized.

It marked the start of a three-year
terrorist campaign to overthrow the

Ba'athist government.

And again, the Islamists would
be met with ruthless oppression.

An estimated 30,000 people would die.

To return to our year of 1979,

in Egypt the summer
temperatures were kicking in.

A new session of
Parliament was opening.

Sadat was bolstering
support for his peace deal,

reassuring
disappointed Arab nationalists.

He needed their applause.

As in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria,

Islamists had begun to
threaten the government.

The CIA's internal analysis,

written a few weeks
previously, summed up the danger.

Sadats decision to allow the Muslim
Brotherhood a significant degree of

freedom to operate may contain
the seeds of future trouble.

There are obvious parallels between
the devout Muslim fundamentalism

exhibited by the Brotherhood in
Egypt and the emotional following

commanded by the
Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.

Many Muslim Brotherhood
members were getting restive.

Fiery preachers like Omar
Abdul Rahman, the blind sheikh,

who would later become involved in
terrorism against America, denounced

Sadat as an infidel.

But Sadat primarily feared the
country's 400,000 students,

where the Muslim Brotherhood
had been growing.

Student action soon
reached beyond the campuses.

The student Islamists would
also organize events featuring

counterculture figures like Sheikh
Imam, who sang songs praising the

Iranian Revolution.

And that summer,

a medical student published
"Humayni, the Islamic and Alternative

Solution."

In just two days, it
sold 10,000 copies.

The author was a young Fatih Shakaki.

Like Azzam,

he had been a disillusioned
Palestinian leftist who had joined

the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now travelling back and forth across
Cairo, anonymous among its vast

crowds,

he secretly began to establish the
infamous Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

At the same time,

a group of young men were secretly
meeting to establish Egyptian

Islamic Jihad.

Their goal was to overthrow Sadat's
government and replace it with an

Islamic state.

Among the members was a 26-year-old
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the future

ideologue for al-Qaeda.

As Sadat left Parliament that summer.

He felt he now had to
make a difficult choice.

Faced with this Islamist discontent,

he could hope it dies away, or become
more autocratic and clamped down.

Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan,

despite their extra Soviet equipment
and help from Soviet advisors,

morale in the Afghan
army was plummeting.

Afghan army brutality against
the rebel collaborators only

strengthened their resolve.

Afghanistan was stepping
closer and closer to collapse.

In light of the news from
Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iran,

the Saudi government started to think
about the mood of its own people.

Was the gradual
liberalization sustainable?

Was there a threat of rebellion?

Their foreign minister
remained outwardly confident.

Do you think what's happened
in Iran could ever happen here?

Not on the same reasons.

We believe that we have a
cohesiveness in here, that the

stresses and strains of development
and both economic and all the

fields, economic,

social or political, we have enough
of a cohesion between the leadership

in this country and the government
in this country and the people to be

able to absorb the stresses and
strains of development without

violent change.

But U.S.

Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John
West,

found out the real mood of their
ally.

He visited Abdul Rahman
Mansouri, Deputy Foreign Minister,

and was told that Saudi foreign
policy was under top-secret review.

He said that he felt the first
priority should be to concentrate on

the Saudi government's internal
situation to ensure maximum stability.

I told him that I thought that
was indeed wise and that the most

frequently asked question in the
U.S. during my consultations was,

"Will Saudi Arabia go the way of
Iran?" Mansouri, in what I thought

was an unusual burst of candor,
said, "The highest priority within

Saudi Arabia was to ensure
that such did not happen.

He said the next two years
were going to be most critical,

and the actions taken or not
taken would probably determine the

survival of the monarchy.

But events were already
overtaking the Saudi government.

Juhayman and his band of fanatical
conservatives now had a plan.

They would seize the
Holy Mosque of Mecca,

proclaim the arrival of the
Mahdi, and overthrow the government.