What do you think?
Rate this book
American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC
One of Publishers Weekly’ s Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 | A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
The riveting true story of America’s first homegrown Muslim terror attack, the 1977 Hanafi siege of Washington, DC.
On March 9, 1977, Washington, DC, came under attack. Seven men stormed the headquarters of B’nai B’rith International, quickly taking control of the venerable Jewish organization’s building and holding more than a hundred employees hostage inside. A little over an hour later, three more men entered the Islamic Center of Washington, the country’s biggest and most important mosque, and took hostages there. Two others subsequently penetrated the municipal government’s District Building, a few hundred yards from the White House. When the gunmen there opened fire, a reporter was killed, and city councilor Marion Barry, later to become the mayor of Washington, DC, was shot in the chest. The deadly standoff brought downtown Washington to a standstill.
The attackers belonged to the Hanafi movement, an African American Muslim group based in DC. Their leader was a former jazz drummer named Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who had risen through the ranks of the Nation of Islam before feuding with the organization’s mercurial chief, Elijah Muhammad, and becoming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s spiritual authority. Like Malcolm X, Khaalis paid a price for his in 1973, seven of his family members and followers were killed by Nation supporters in one of the District’s most notorious murders. As Khaalis and the hostage takers took control of their DC targets four years later, they vowed to begin killing their hostages unless their demands were the federal government must turn over the killers of Khaalis’s family, the boxer Muhammad Ali, and Elijah’s son Wallace so that they could face true justice. They also demanded that the American premiere of Messenger of God ―a Hollywood epic about the life of the prophet Muhammad financed and supported by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddhafi―be canceled and the film destroyed. Shahan Mufti’s American Caliph gives the first full account of the largest-ever hostage taking on American soil and of the tormented man who masterminded it. Informed by extensive archival research and hundreds of declassified FBI files, American Caliph tracks the battle for control of American Islam, the international politics of religion and oil, and the hour-to-hour drama of a city facing a homegrown terror assault. The result is a riveting true-crime story that sheds new light on the disarray of the 1970s and its ongoing reverberations.
The riveting true story of America’s first homegrown Muslim terror attack, the 1977 Hanafi siege of Washington, DC.
On March 9, 1977, Washington, DC, came under attack. Seven men stormed the headquarters of B’nai B’rith International, quickly taking control of the venerable Jewish organization’s building and holding more than a hundred employees hostage inside. A little over an hour later, three more men entered the Islamic Center of Washington, the country’s biggest and most important mosque, and took hostages there. Two others subsequently penetrated the municipal government’s District Building, a few hundred yards from the White House. When the gunmen there opened fire, a reporter was killed, and city councilor Marion Barry, later to become the mayor of Washington, DC, was shot in the chest. The deadly standoff brought downtown Washington to a standstill.
The attackers belonged to the Hanafi movement, an African American Muslim group based in DC. Their leader was a former jazz drummer named Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who had risen through the ranks of the Nation of Islam before feuding with the organization’s mercurial chief, Elijah Muhammad, and becoming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s spiritual authority. Like Malcolm X, Khaalis paid a price for his in 1973, seven of his family members and followers were killed by Nation supporters in one of the District’s most notorious murders. As Khaalis and the hostage takers took control of their DC targets four years later, they vowed to begin killing their hostages unless their demands were the federal government must turn over the killers of Khaalis’s family, the boxer Muhammad Ali, and Elijah’s son Wallace so that they could face true justice. They also demanded that the American premiere of Messenger of God ―a Hollywood epic about the life of the prophet Muhammad financed and supported by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddhafi―be canceled and the film destroyed. Shahan Mufti’s American Caliph gives the first full account of the largest-ever hostage taking on American soil and of the tormented man who masterminded it. Informed by extensive archival research and hundreds of declassified FBI files, American Caliph tracks the battle for control of American Islam, the international politics of religion and oil, and the hour-to-hour drama of a city facing a homegrown terror assault. The result is a riveting true-crime story that sheds new light on the disarray of the 1970s and its ongoing reverberations.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published November 22, 2022
54 people are currently reading
2800 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
November 4, 2024
Simmering political, religious, and racial tensions combine and erupt in three sieges led by the same strange Muslim group around Washington, DC after a years-long lead-up.
I'm new to Washington DC, and still learning my way around the place as a city where people actually work and live divorced from the role that it plays in the United States's government and politics. Part of that process has been learning more about the city's history. Like with many things about DC, I had never heard of this story before, but found myself utterly fascinated quickly.
This is a complicated story, made up of many now-forgotten strands which include among them the violent birth and evolution of the Nation of Islam, the growth of Muslim culture in the United States, and the expanding role of the Middle East in international politics. Mufti does an excellent job of juggling these balls, keeping the reader on edge until this strange story reach to its almost cinematic conclusion.
I also appreciated the nuanced portraits of those involved in the story - by getting inside the heads of the key players, we got front row seats to how everything slowly fell apart from the early days of heady idealism. Mufti does a good job of being compassionate without condoning their later actions, and I found myself almost nauseous at some of the things that befell the Hanafis.
I did wish that the author would have lingered a little longer on the denoument. For a story that seems to have been huge at the time, it rather sank without a trace afterward, and I would have been interested in further exploration of how exactly this happened.
I'm new to Washington DC, and still learning my way around the place as a city where people actually work and live divorced from the role that it plays in the United States's government and politics. Part of that process has been learning more about the city's history. Like with many things about DC, I had never heard of this story before, but found myself utterly fascinated quickly.
This is a complicated story, made up of many now-forgotten strands which include among them the violent birth and evolution of the Nation of Islam, the growth of Muslim culture in the United States, and the expanding role of the Middle East in international politics. Mufti does an excellent job of juggling these balls, keeping the reader on edge until this strange story reach to its almost cinematic conclusion.
I also appreciated the nuanced portraits of those involved in the story - by getting inside the heads of the key players, we got front row seats to how everything slowly fell apart from the early days of heady idealism. Mufti does a good job of being compassionate without condoning their later actions, and I found myself almost nauseous at some of the things that befell the Hanafis.
I did wish that the author would have lingered a little longer on the denoument. For a story that seems to have been huge at the time, it rather sank without a trace afterward, and I would have been interested in further exploration of how exactly this happened.
August 5, 2022
American Caliph by Shahan Mufti is a deeply researched and wonderfully written account of one of the strangest events in US history.
The story has everything from major sports, politics, and religious leaders to murder, kidnapping, and even filmmaking. Yet the reader never gets lost thanks to the way Mufti keeps the story moving and the intrigue just getting higher. Simply as a history book this is amazingly readable and will appeal to even those who normally might refrain from reading history.
This is also a look at both the African American experience in the country as well as the intersection of that community with Islam. Like any religion, local or national forms take on distinctly unique forms from whatever that religion's origins might have been. Just as white Evangelicalism bears little or no resemblance to Christian thought for most of the last two millennium, so too there are some major differences between the Islam of the groups discussed here and much of the religion's history. So only a fool would take this as some kind of "insight" into Islamic beliefs as a whole, or, heaven forbid, even consider presenting it to students as an introduction to Islam. Yes, I saw a short-sighted (to be as polite as possible) alleged educator (hope not, for the sake of those future students) suggest just that. There are many places where this book would contribute to some coursework, but not as an intro to Islam text.
I would highly recommend this to those who might not know very much about this event, and in the process of explaining the background this does serve as a (not 'the') history of African American engagement with Islam. The book is both highly readable and very informative.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
The story has everything from major sports, politics, and religious leaders to murder, kidnapping, and even filmmaking. Yet the reader never gets lost thanks to the way Mufti keeps the story moving and the intrigue just getting higher. Simply as a history book this is amazingly readable and will appeal to even those who normally might refrain from reading history.
This is also a look at both the African American experience in the country as well as the intersection of that community with Islam. Like any religion, local or national forms take on distinctly unique forms from whatever that religion's origins might have been. Just as white Evangelicalism bears little or no resemblance to Christian thought for most of the last two millennium, so too there are some major differences between the Islam of the groups discussed here and much of the religion's history. So only a fool would take this as some kind of "insight" into Islamic beliefs as a whole, or, heaven forbid, even consider presenting it to students as an introduction to Islam. Yes, I saw a short-sighted (to be as polite as possible) alleged educator (hope not, for the sake of those future students) suggest just that. There are many places where this book would contribute to some coursework, but not as an intro to Islam text.
I would highly recommend this to those who might not know very much about this event, and in the process of explaining the background this does serve as a (not 'the') history of African American engagement with Islam. The book is both highly readable and very informative.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
![Profile Image for [Name Redacted].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1347082397i%2F287915._UY200_CR0%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
February 13, 2024
Mufti does, I suspect, his best to accurately and fairly report on one of the forgotten moments in the struggle for Civil Rights in the United States. I grew up in the wake of this event, never realizing my life would have been otherwise without it, perhaps because my parents were living in London when it happened -- when I brought it up to my mother as I read this, she nodded and said "Oh, yes, i think i heard about that." Yet it helped define the course of the Nation of Islam and, in fact, of real Islam in the West... and, given the horrors perpetrated by members of the N.o.I. against the family of Khaalis, it is no surprise that his mind broke.
The same events that inspired the siege by the Hanafi Muslims even, as Mufti notes, changed the course of cinema, as the frustrated Muslim filmmaker whose cinematic debut served as the catalyst for the siege later funded John Carpenter's "Halloween" which wound up using some of the same techniques Akkad had used in the catalyzing film. Heady stuff.
But, see, the problem is that for all his pretenses of objectivity and fairness, for all his fascinating insights, Shahan Mufti is a partisan through and through. The book is full of half-truths where it serves his ideological ends. He writes off, for example, the conflict between the nascent U.S.A. and the Barbary Pirates as nothing more than greedy Americans protecting their trade interests -- completely ignoring that the actual conflict was over the Muslim seafarers capturing and enslaving U.S. citizens. He perpetuates the long-since debunked lie that the trans-Atlantic slave-trade was actually a matter of white plunderers sailing down and heading inland to capture unsuspecting Africans...when in fact the reality is that Europeans (and, later, Americans) purchased African slaves from the numerous slave-markets that dotted the West African coastline because those slaves had ALREADY been captured and enslaved by their fellow Africans and Muslim slave-traders (many of whom were one and the same). He omits the REASON that, unlike the other hijacked planes, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on 9/11/2001; he studiously avoids any discussion of the celebrations held throughout the Islamic world in the wake of the 9/11/2001 attacks; he whitewashes the purposes, agendas & deeds behind the Council for American Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.) and its rise to fame post-9/11; he obfuscates the reasons which New Yorkers and other Americans had for objecting to the "Ground Zero mosque", disingenuously presenting their objections as little more than a melange of racism and Islamophobia.
So we are left with a book that could have been a gem, a book that sheds light on an ignored incident in Americo-Islamic AND Black American history. But its author gets in his own way too often to wholeheartedly recommend it. And that frustrates me to no end.
The same events that inspired the siege by the Hanafi Muslims even, as Mufti notes, changed the course of cinema, as the frustrated Muslim filmmaker whose cinematic debut served as the catalyst for the siege later funded John Carpenter's "Halloween" which wound up using some of the same techniques Akkad had used in the catalyzing film. Heady stuff.
But, see, the problem is that for all his pretenses of objectivity and fairness, for all his fascinating insights, Shahan Mufti is a partisan through and through. The book is full of half-truths where it serves his ideological ends. He writes off, for example, the conflict between the nascent U.S.A. and the Barbary Pirates as nothing more than greedy Americans protecting their trade interests -- completely ignoring that the actual conflict was over the Muslim seafarers capturing and enslaving U.S. citizens. He perpetuates the long-since debunked lie that the trans-Atlantic slave-trade was actually a matter of white plunderers sailing down and heading inland to capture unsuspecting Africans...when in fact the reality is that Europeans (and, later, Americans) purchased African slaves from the numerous slave-markets that dotted the West African coastline because those slaves had ALREADY been captured and enslaved by their fellow Africans and Muslim slave-traders (many of whom were one and the same). He omits the REASON that, unlike the other hijacked planes, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on 9/11/2001; he studiously avoids any discussion of the celebrations held throughout the Islamic world in the wake of the 9/11/2001 attacks; he whitewashes the purposes, agendas & deeds behind the Council for American Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.) and its rise to fame post-9/11; he obfuscates the reasons which New Yorkers and other Americans had for objecting to the "Ground Zero mosque", disingenuously presenting their objections as little more than a melange of racism and Islamophobia.
So we are left with a book that could have been a gem, a book that sheds light on an ignored incident in Americo-Islamic AND Black American history. But its author gets in his own way too often to wholeheartedly recommend it. And that frustrates me to no end.
April 20, 2023
This story blew my mind. The most shocking thing about it is that no one remembers it. Even people in DC that I’ve talked to about it have no idea it happened. The closest any of them get, is that they know Marion Barry was shot–they just don’t know when or why.
In 1977, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the leader of a Black Muslim offshoot called Hanafi, and his men took over the B’nai B’rith, the Islamic Center of Washington, and the District Building, where all the governmental functions of the District of Columbia (including the mayor’s office and city council) took place. They took everyone hostage, 149 people total. Over two days Khaalis’s demands were partly met (to stop a biopic about Mohammad that was releasing that day in New York City) and partly not (to bring him the convicted murderers of his family, and the judge who presided over the case, and the head of the Nation of Islam, and Muhammed Ali). The city did not come to a standstill although that neighborhood did (a testament to the resilience of people in large cities who continue to function in the face of great obstacles). In this pre-cable-news time, most people, including many in the government, had no clue any of this was going on until the 6:00 News.
Over the course of the book. Mr. Mufti, who himself was born in American to Pakistani parents, and partly raised in Pakistan, traces Khaalis’s Muslim conversion, his rise in the Nation of Islam and subsequent falling out with him, his transition to the Hanafi sect, and eventually, the murder of seven of his family members by the Philadelphia Nation of Islam (it’s a horrific scene with the drowning of three babies.) While the perpetrators were caught, prosecuted, and found guilty, the repeated trials took a toll on him and his family, in particular his surviving adult daughter who had been shot in the head five times, and had to testify over and over again about the worst day of her life. He did not seem to take any closure from the conclusion, which weighed on him, and four years later, he snapped. He always claimed it was the film that pushed him over the edge, but Mr. Mufti makes it very clear it was several things, but mostly the massacre of his family, that precipitated this day.
I found this book to be an incredibly important read. It’s a complicated story at times, but never confusing in Mr. Mufti’s hands. He gives as much information about Khaalis as possible, including information about early possible mental health issues, but does not diagnose him. He has tried to speak with anyone and everyone humanly possible related to the case, from newscasters to convicted murderers to Khaalis’s men. Not everyone would talk to him, but the information he did get is astounding. Everyone should know about the first major case of domestic terrorism in this country, and the time that the capital of our country was captured by a rogue group of men. A riveting read.
In 1977, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the leader of a Black Muslim offshoot called Hanafi, and his men took over the B’nai B’rith, the Islamic Center of Washington, and the District Building, where all the governmental functions of the District of Columbia (including the mayor’s office and city council) took place. They took everyone hostage, 149 people total. Over two days Khaalis’s demands were partly met (to stop a biopic about Mohammad that was releasing that day in New York City) and partly not (to bring him the convicted murderers of his family, and the judge who presided over the case, and the head of the Nation of Islam, and Muhammed Ali). The city did not come to a standstill although that neighborhood did (a testament to the resilience of people in large cities who continue to function in the face of great obstacles). In this pre-cable-news time, most people, including many in the government, had no clue any of this was going on until the 6:00 News.
Over the course of the book. Mr. Mufti, who himself was born in American to Pakistani parents, and partly raised in Pakistan, traces Khaalis’s Muslim conversion, his rise in the Nation of Islam and subsequent falling out with him, his transition to the Hanafi sect, and eventually, the murder of seven of his family members by the Philadelphia Nation of Islam (it’s a horrific scene with the drowning of three babies.) While the perpetrators were caught, prosecuted, and found guilty, the repeated trials took a toll on him and his family, in particular his surviving adult daughter who had been shot in the head five times, and had to testify over and over again about the worst day of her life. He did not seem to take any closure from the conclusion, which weighed on him, and four years later, he snapped. He always claimed it was the film that pushed him over the edge, but Mr. Mufti makes it very clear it was several things, but mostly the massacre of his family, that precipitated this day.
I found this book to be an incredibly important read. It’s a complicated story at times, but never confusing in Mr. Mufti’s hands. He gives as much information about Khaalis as possible, including information about early possible mental health issues, but does not diagnose him. He has tried to speak with anyone and everyone humanly possible related to the case, from newscasters to convicted murderers to Khaalis’s men. Not everyone would talk to him, but the information he did get is astounding. Everyone should know about the first major case of domestic terrorism in this country, and the time that the capital of our country was captured by a rogue group of men. A riveting read.
May 12, 2023
Tense, extensively-researched, and gripping narrative of the 1977 Hanafi siege in DC. Mufti traces the history of Islam in America, which was predominantly Black until the late 70s and 80s, and skilfully explains the state of counter-terrorism at the time (minimal - no federal statutes or domestic plans even existed until after this). As a DC resident, it was fascinating to read about events in my city that are rarely mentioned now, but whose players are - Marion Barry, the Washington Star, Max Robinson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, etc. An excellent example of narrative nonfiction.
February 8, 2023
Lots of detail and history here, but perhaps too much
The books marketing and promotion seems to focus on the story of a Muslim Mystic, but the book casts a wide net and provides detail and history around the whole Muslim movement in the United States. Reads like a series of somewhat related short stories at times; other times it follows a reasonable timeline and tells a cohesive story. I though abut giving it a 3 at first, but the information is interesting so i gave it a 4 Star rating. However, it is a lot to slog through. The main story ends at about the 70% mark of the book and then comes the Epilogue for another 10% and then pages of pictures. The pictures might have been better scattered throughout the book were they would have been more relevant, rather than clustering them all together at the end.
The books marketing and promotion seems to focus on the story of a Muslim Mystic, but the book casts a wide net and provides detail and history around the whole Muslim movement in the United States. Reads like a series of somewhat related short stories at times; other times it follows a reasonable timeline and tells a cohesive story. I though abut giving it a 3 at first, but the information is interesting so i gave it a 4 Star rating. However, it is a lot to slog through. The main story ends at about the 70% mark of the book and then comes the Epilogue for another 10% and then pages of pictures. The pictures might have been better scattered throughout the book were they would have been more relevant, rather than clustering them all together at the end.
December 7, 2022
Live in a place long enough, and you begin to hear about local historical lore and think that tiny morsel you overheard is enough to know about the incident. Being a resident of Washington DC for 15+ years, I heard over the years about the District Government building being overrun by armed terrorists, but I always assumed it was a quirky one off situation. “American Caliph” opened my eyes to a riveting story involving the centuries old influence of Islam on the United States, the intra-political tensions of the civil rights movement and international attempts to influence U.S. foreign policy via domestic proxies. Tying it all together is one of the largest terrorist attacks up until that time in American history.
“American Caliph” is a meticulously researched labor of love, documenting how politics, religion, cult followings, illicit money and foreign king making culminated in a 1977 siege on three sites which symbolize so much of what makes the heart of Washington DC beat. I learned from “American Caliph” that much more than the District Government building, the heart of our local government functions, were overtaken on March 9, 1977. Also in the cross-hairs of the terrorists on that fateful day were the DC offices of B'nai B'rith, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations in the country and a player in U.S.-Israeli foreign relations, as well as the Islamic Center of Washington, founded by Arab diplomats in America as a home for Islam in our nation’s Capitol.
Proximity to the power of the American government draws diplomats and power brokers from every corner of the world to this District which also counts as arguably some of the largest, richest and most prominent communities of African-Americans in the entire nation. The work that “American Caliph” puts into the local, national and international layers of this story does every piece of the puzzle justice. The author honors Washington DC as a home of thousands of Washingtonians who reside outside of the world of politics and diplomacy, while also documenting these well recognized functions of the District. I pride myself on knowing the history of the community I have adopted as my own. “American Caliph” joins the ranks of books which will stay on my bookshelf as a testament to the rich influence, for good and for evil, of District residents on our nation’s history.
“American Caliph” is a meticulously researched labor of love, documenting how politics, religion, cult followings, illicit money and foreign king making culminated in a 1977 siege on three sites which symbolize so much of what makes the heart of Washington DC beat. I learned from “American Caliph” that much more than the District Government building, the heart of our local government functions, were overtaken on March 9, 1977. Also in the cross-hairs of the terrorists on that fateful day were the DC offices of B'nai B'rith, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations in the country and a player in U.S.-Israeli foreign relations, as well as the Islamic Center of Washington, founded by Arab diplomats in America as a home for Islam in our nation’s Capitol.
Proximity to the power of the American government draws diplomats and power brokers from every corner of the world to this District which also counts as arguably some of the largest, richest and most prominent communities of African-Americans in the entire nation. The work that “American Caliph” puts into the local, national and international layers of this story does every piece of the puzzle justice. The author honors Washington DC as a home of thousands of Washingtonians who reside outside of the world of politics and diplomacy, while also documenting these well recognized functions of the District. I pride myself on knowing the history of the community I have adopted as my own. “American Caliph” joins the ranks of books which will stay on my bookshelf as a testament to the rich influence, for good and for evil, of District residents on our nation’s history.
April 29, 2023
off the bat, i learnt a lot from this book. Its an informative entry into the world of american islam.
Though it deals with how a group of hanafi mjslims took over 3 buildings hostage in 1977, it traces the history of that conflict decades ago.
We meet Nation of Islam characters, specifically how Elijah came to dominate it (& enrich himself peronsally through it). Khaalis, the man who brokeaway from the Nation to a sunni (hanafi) version of islam was marked by the Nation's criminal elements (the Black mafia org) that had seeped into some chapters of the Nation. Ultimately, possibly under Elijah's OK, after some public letters of condemnation by Khaalis, his house was attacked and his children - grandchildren massacred.
The hostage crisis 4 years later was possibly a reaction to that attack than to force a ban on the messenger movie by an immigrant Muslim, Akkad (who shot it in Morrocco and Libya).
Finally, the crisis ended peacefully though 1 guy was shot. Khaalis died in prison, Nation of Islam broke off into another faction, Elijahs successor Wallace lost political capital in US mainstream while also declaring bankruptcy.
There have been attempts to take over the role of American caliph after Elijah, Khaalis and Wallace but there has been a leadership void mostly since the 80s.
Though it deals with how a group of hanafi mjslims took over 3 buildings hostage in 1977, it traces the history of that conflict decades ago.
We meet Nation of Islam characters, specifically how Elijah came to dominate it (& enrich himself peronsally through it). Khaalis, the man who brokeaway from the Nation to a sunni (hanafi) version of islam was marked by the Nation's criminal elements (the Black mafia org) that had seeped into some chapters of the Nation. Ultimately, possibly under Elijah's OK, after some public letters of condemnation by Khaalis, his house was attacked and his children - grandchildren massacred.
The hostage crisis 4 years later was possibly a reaction to that attack than to force a ban on the messenger movie by an immigrant Muslim, Akkad (who shot it in Morrocco and Libya).
Finally, the crisis ended peacefully though 1 guy was shot. Khaalis died in prison, Nation of Islam broke off into another faction, Elijahs successor Wallace lost political capital in US mainstream while also declaring bankruptcy.
There have been attempts to take over the role of American caliph after Elijah, Khaalis and Wallace but there has been a leadership void mostly since the 80s.
May 31, 2024
This is a fascinating story generally told well. It was especially interesting for me because I'd completely forgotten about it. I must have known about it at the time. I was a senior in high school and habitually read the newspaper. If I'd missed it, my father, who read the entire newspaper every day, would certainly have mentioned it. Mr. Mufti explains the complex background well, but I found it odd that he referred to his protagonist (Timothy McGhee) as Khaalis long before he changed his name. That gives the first part of the story an anachronistic feeling. Things really pick up as Khaalis gets embroiled in the religious politics of the Nation of Islam and its rival organizations. The brutal murder of seven members of Khaalis' family and the Hanafi attack in Washington play out in chilling fashion yet Khaalis' story ends with a whimper. The lack of massive bloodshed shouldn't be a let down, but in the book it felt oddly like one (only four persons died, two during the attack and two afterwards of their injuries.) The ending actually shows the complex character of Khaalis and his humanity which was often overshadowed by his violent emotions. There are some odd errors about minor events, such as McGhee simply "walking into a Catholic church in 1940 and being baptized" (pg. 34) and then "walking into one in 1946 and being married" (pg. 42). Then, as now, both Sacraments require formal preparation. On pg. 71, Mr. Mufti repeats the tired trope that the CIA "toppled" Mossedegh in Iran, an event that was far more complex than that. (See Iran and the CIA [2010] by Darioush Bayandor for a detailed examination of the 1953 military coup in Iran.) Those are minor points, and this books paints a good portrait of the U.S. on the cusp of the 'terrorism era' which, sadly, would soon engulf the Middle East and then spread beyond it. Highly recommended.
July 3, 2024
What if I told you that a Black American Muslim that was a religious leader for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- and financially supported by Jabbar -- took over a 100 hostages in over three locations in Washington DC in 1977 for over two days, killing and injuring multiple people, turning it into an international crisis. And then everyone just forgot about it like it didn't happen, like balloon boy or that one year in the 90s when swing dancing became really popular for no reason. Well this book is about that event. Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, a Nation of Islam member turned traditional Sunni Muslim, led a group of religious believers in Washington DC; all while battling his former Nation of Islam brethren literally and metaphorically for supremacy in the Black Muslim world, leading to horrific, tragic consequences for him and his family. This only led him to take matters into his own hand when he found the US Justice system wanting -- and finally being set off by a film about Prophet Muhammad by Moustapha Akkad. Shahan Mufti has penned a terrific narrative nonfiction about everything that led up to this event, the hostage crisis, and the denouement. I have to admit everything leading up to the event was the most interesting, in which Mufti gave great background on Khaalis, the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, Wallace Muhammad, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Moustapha Akkad, Gaddafi, etc. The cast of characters involved in this story can't be made up, which makes it all the more interesting. And Mufti knew how to weave the story together to keep the reader entertained. This, along with the Road to Jonestown, are the two best nonfiction books I have read this year. 4.75 stars.
January 15, 2023
A crazy story that I knew only glancingly--I knew, vaguely, that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was tangentially connected to a tragedy in the 70s. This fills in the whole story, with a fascinating angle of vision on struggles to lead, and even define, the American Muslim community since the 1950s, which has important international ramifications. The siege by Hanafis, as they called themselves, had to do with Moustapha Akkad's biopic of Muhammad. Among the many connections and ramifications Mufti notes, my favorite random bit is that, after the failure of this movie, Akkad financed John Carpenter's Halloween, whose POV camera angle for Michael Myers, he argues, derived from the POV used to avoid depicting Muhammad in Akkad's previous film. Not sure that's true--don't recall the Netflix episode on the film from The Movies That Made U saying so--but, boy, would I like it to be.
April 5, 2023
Such a crazy and compelling story that I didn't know about! How is this terrorist act not more famous? Because it didn't end in massive death and destruction? I admire the officials and Muslim leaders who negotiated peace with the Hanafis to give him a voice and platform to express his despair and torment. I had no idea of the violence between Black Muslims and Arab/immigrant ones in the 70s. I knew the Nation of Islam was basically a violent cult of personality under Elijah Mohammed, but their violence against the Hanafis (including the murder of little children) and ties to the Black Mafia are reprehensible. Not to mention some of their members were behind the mass killings in San Francisco. Elijah's son rehabilitated the organization, but Farrakan brought it down again.
The Middle East politics, the film, and the drama make this a must-read!
The Middle East politics, the film, and the drama make this a must-read!
Read
June 9, 2023Absorbing tale of the Hanafi Muslims an American sect of Sunni Muslim and its leader Haamis Khaalis and its/his long duel with the Nation of Islam for US precedence and how this fight led to Khaalis' decision to take over 3 buildings with hostages in Washington D.C. on March 9, 1977. This confusing siege is well described by Mufti and its many parts make for a tense standoff with police. The siege lasted just over two days when Khaalis agreed to surrender after he was granted a meeting with three foreign diplomats apparently this being the confirmation he needed that he was a person of worth. He was allowed to walk free from his crime but a few weeks later was arrested, convicted and sent to prison for life. It was in many ways the start of the US history with religious terrorism.
January 1, 2023
The best book I've read in years. This is a truly crazy story, involving the hostage-taking of more than 100 people in downtown DC by a Muslim leader who was bankrolled by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you don't know much about Islam in America (I sure didn't), this is an incredible resource, as well as a great primer on the recent history of countries like Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the 1970s oil embargo. It also serves as a history of the Nation of Islam, with Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali important characters as well. Never is this book boring; it's incredibly suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining. Completely worth it.
February 8, 2023
Even though I was a teenager back in 1977, I have no recollection of this at all on the news or in the papers. I don't even remember it being discussed in school. To add to that, I don't remember anyone talking about this over the last 45 years either. Crazy. Just a fantastic, well-researched book with a lot of detail. The author lists all the documents that they had access to in the epilogue, and it's mind blowing how much there was. A good primer on Muslims and Islam in America as well. A fascinating read that I really enjoyed.
February 17, 2023
When The Devil and The White City was published I always thought that Erik Larson wanted to write a history of the World’s Fair but knew the serial killer would be the hook. And it was and it was excellent.
I feel the same here. The hostage crisis of March 1977 is a little-remembered terror act that frames a larger history of the American (Black) Muslim experience from the 1930s through the 1980s. The re-telling of the former is the gravity that pulls you into the important cultural history of the latter.
Well-told, dramatic, and also educational.
I feel the same here. The hostage crisis of March 1977 is a little-remembered terror act that frames a larger history of the American (Black) Muslim experience from the 1930s through the 1980s. The re-telling of the former is the gravity that pulls you into the important cultural history of the latter.
Well-told, dramatic, and also educational.
February 22, 2023
Shahan Mufti has written a fascinating book about a man, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, and his sect of Islam, Hanafi, that is likely unknown to most Americans.
The book is centered around a three-day siege that took place in Washington DC in 1977, in which Khaalis and 11 followers took over 150 people hostage, murdering or severely wounding several. It’s more than that though. It’s a multi-decade tale of race, religion and internecine warfare among African American Muslims.
Thanks to Slate Gabfest Reads for letting me know about it.
The book is centered around a three-day siege that took place in Washington DC in 1977, in which Khaalis and 11 followers took over 150 people hostage, murdering or severely wounding several. It’s more than that though. It’s a multi-decade tale of race, religion and internecine warfare among African American Muslims.
Thanks to Slate Gabfest Reads for letting me know about it.
Read
March 7, 2023Shahan is a fantastic, albeit detailed writer, and it is hard to understand how this historic moment remains relatively unknown. His ability to describe the larger historical context of this event (i.e. a timeline of Islam and the African American experience in America combined with US relations in the Middle East) was by far the greatest takeaway. Some of the books gets bogged down in an incredible detailed timeline, but it is necessary to establish the necessary motive for such a terrifying event.
December 16, 2022
Well written, fascinating story of a terrorist attack in Washington, DC in March of 1977 (which, I’m ashamed to admit, I knew nothing about). An Islamic sect called Hanafi led by a man who considered himself the caliph of American Moslems, took over three buildings in DC to protest a new movie about the Prophet Mohammed. Mufti does a great job of providing background, explaining the many schisms among Moslems, portraying Islam in a very sensitive and positive way.
December 30, 2022
I borrowed this book because I couldn’t believe that I don’t remember this event happening; I guess at 12 years old it didn’t make an impression, although I remember other things going on in the world at that time.
Then I started it and realized that I didn’t want to immerse myself in this toxic filth for the hours it would take to read. So I read about the events on Wikipedia, and skipped the book. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, obviously I haven’t read it.
Then I started it and realized that I didn’t want to immerse myself in this toxic filth for the hours it would take to read. So I read about the events on Wikipedia, and skipped the book. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, obviously I haven’t read it.
May 8, 2023
Absolutely first rate when it comes to covering the decades-long backdrop to the attacks and the attacks themselves. However when Mufti moves to the trial and its aftermath, the narrative takes on a rushed quality as if he were running behind deadline. He also sometimes gets dates wrong and makes the occasional minor factual error (a shotgun is not a rifle). That aside, the book is still well worth your time, covering an important but now largely forgotten event.
July 15, 2025
Sometimes my favorite book is tight non-fiction work about a specific event that I knew nothing about but I realize was so consequential. This is such a book. It follows a splinter black Muslim group that pulled off the largest hostage crisis in US history blocks from the White House for several days. The writing and reporting are excellent and the story is fascinating and consequential about all the terror events and news media changes that would come.
December 31, 2022
What a way to end the year with this book. My heart goes out to Khaalis's family. The mass massacre of his family was so hard to listen and read through. Those poor babies. I learned so much of the Islamic background between Elijah Muhammad's, Khaalis, Malcom X, Abdul Kareem Jaabar and the Nation of Islam and Sunni Islam.
March 5, 2023
Local history for me since I grew up about a block from the Hanafi house in DC where the family was murdered in 1973. I am so glad to have read this to get a real understanding of the story and the 1977 siege. I was too young to remember it but always heard snippets about it. Very interesting history and context.
March 8, 2023
This is a soft 4/5 star rating for me. The story itself is fascinating- family drama, famous people in the 1970s, true crime story, and a siege of DC. Some parts are riveting and some are interesting (but made me tired reading it). There’s so much context to give so that we could understand the events of ‘77. Overall, good book!
March 13, 2023
This was a very engaging account of a series of terrorist attacks that I knew little about. The author does a very good job of putting it into the larger context of both American and international Islam in the second half of the 20th century. The author does a nice job of not giving away the results of the attack early in the book which makes it much more suspenseful.
January 6, 2024
Glad I read as I knew nothing about the events this books centered on. Well written, but a bit of a slog. Would have enjoyed the tying of it to modern times to be more in depth. The split between Arab Muslims and African Muslims in America was very interesting and Khaalis in a crazy intruiging character
March 12, 2023
An exceptional piece of journalism about a largely forgotten episode in DC history. Mufti elegantly weaves together broad themes like Middle East politics and Black Islam with intimate profiles of Hollywood magnates, Hanafi hostage takers, DC police chiefs, and everyone in between.
March 29, 2023
This may turn out to be the best book I’ll read all year — would be surprised if it’s not. A readable, compelling account of an event I’m embarrassed to admit I had forgotten. Mufti’s control of the source material is staggering, and his prose never sounds a flat note. Astonishing.
December 15, 2022
A fascinating read about a wild story from recent DC history and the complex history of Islam in the U.S., neither of which I knew much about before reading. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews