A dozen Hanafi Muslims seize 134 hostages in three buildings in Washington DC, America’s first acquaintance with Islamic terror. The leader of the Hanafi Movement said that the purpose of the siege was to bring attention to the 1973 murders of his wife, two children, and nine-day-old grandchild, and the shooting of his daughter, at the hands of the Nation of Islam.
Only blocks from the White House, they take over the Islamic Center, the international headquarters of B’nai Brith, and the District building, Washington’s city hall. Two are killed (a journalist and a police officer) and 12 are wounded. The group surrender two days later after negotiations with ambassadors of Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan.
One of the four recognized schools in Islam in jurisprudence, the Hanafi Movement had a membership of more than 1,000 in the United States. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar first came into contact with Islam through this movement.