Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, leader of the Hanafi Muslim sect, in his home in Washington, March 9, 1977. Earlier in the day, Khaalis and a group of his followers released 234 hostages they’d held in three Washington buildings.

The Cleric Who Shook the Capital

By Jonathan Darman

American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC by Shahan Mufti

For the better part of three days in March 1977, a group of terrorists held downtown Washington in a stranglehold. First, seven men with a fearsome arsenal seized the headquarters of B’nai B’rith, the storied Jewish service organization just a few blocks northwest of the White House. It was the middle of the workday, and the building was filled with employees of the charity; the invaders soon had more than 100 hostages under their control.

As police raced to set up a cordon outside, another three armed men seized the Islamic Center of Washington, just over a mile away on stately Embassy Row. The largest mosque in the country at the time, the center stood less than 1,260 yards from the vice president’s residence.