March 11, 1977: The Hanafi Siege

March 11, 1977: The Hanafi Siege ends in Washington, D.C., perhaps the 1st act of "radical Islamic terrorism" on American soil.

The gunmen took over 3 buildings: The District Building, now known as the John A. Wilson Building, which serves as Washington's City Hall and as the building where the services that would be provided by the District of Columbia, were it a State, are operated; the national headquarters of B'nai B'rith, the world's oldest active Jewish service organization; and the Islamic Center of Washington.

They were led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who wanted to bring attention to the murder of his family, in D.C. in 1973. They had several demands, including that the government hand over the killers of Khaalis' family and Malcolm X to them, as well as that the premiere of the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God be canceled, and the film destroyed, because they considered it sacrilegious.

The film presented a problem for the people making it: Islam prohibits any depiction of its founder, the Prophet Mohammad. People have been killed for making public their paintings and drawings of him. So director Moustapha Al Akkad, a Muslim from Aleppo, Syria, chose to show the film from Mohammad's point of view, seeing what he would have seen.

King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, King Hassan II of Morocco, and dictator Muammar Gaddfi of Libya accepted this as meeting the restriction, and financed it. Anthony Quinn and Syrian-born Michael Ansara (then married to Barbara Eden) starred. Akkad was killed in a 2005 terrorist bombing in Amman, Jordan, but not because of the film: The bombers did not know he was going to be there, and he was not specifically targeted.

Khaalis held the buildings for a little over 2 days, with a journalist and a police officer having been killed by gunfire, before he surrendered, and released 149 hostages. He was convicted, and sentenced to 21 to 120 years in prison. He died in federal custody in 2003.

Of the Ambassadors who negotiated the surrender: Ashraf Ghorbal of Egypt lived until 2005; Sahabzada Yaqub Ali Khan, a Pakistani former General, died in 2016; and Ardeshir Zahedi of Iran, a former son-in-law of the Shah, who also served as Iran's Ambassador to Britain but resigned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, died in 2021.

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March 11, 1977 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Phoenix Suns, 82-73 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers bear the Seattle SuperSonics, 126-122 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Broncos, 100-95 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Chicago Bulls, 95-90 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Randy Smith scored 35 points for the Braves.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 124-109 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 114-112 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Bullets, 94-91 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 31 points and 20 rebounds.

There were no games in the NHL, but there were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Birmingham Bullets beat the New England Whalers at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (now the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex) in Birmingham, Alabama.

* The Houston Aeros beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 5-0 at The Summit in Houston. (It has since been converted into the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakeside Church.)

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Cowboys, 4-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.