Assassination of Anwar Sadat (1981): Death at a Cairo Parade

The assassination of Anwar Sadat took place on 6 October 1981, when Islamist soldiers attacked the Egyptian president during a military parade in Cairo. Sadat, who had made peace with Israel through the Camp David Accords, died of his wounds within hours. His killing shocked the world, brought Hosni Mubarak to power and announced the arrival of a new, violent strand of militant Islamism.

Background

Anwar Sadat had succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser as president in 1970. His surprise attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 won him prestige, and he went on to visit Jerusalem in 1977, sign the Camp David Accords in 1978 and conclude a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

At home, his record was more divisive. His “open door” economic policy, the infitah, brought foreign investment but also visible inequality, and cuts to food subsidies triggered bread riots in January 1977. To counter Nasserists and the left, Sadat had at first tolerated Islamist groups, which then grew rapidly on university campuses.

The peace with Israel isolated Egypt in the Arab world and outraged Islamists. In September 1981, amid sectarian clashes and mounting criticism, Sadat ordered the arrest of about 1,500 people, from Islamist activists to secular journalists, opposition politicians and Coptic clergy. He also removed the Coptic Pope Shenouda III from office and confined him to a desert monastery.

The plot

The plot was organised by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a militant group whose ideologist, the engineer Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj, argued in his pamphlet “The Neglected Duty” that armed struggle against rulers who did not apply Islamic law was a religious obligation.

Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, a young artillery officer whose brother had been detained in the September arrests, learned that his unit would take part in the 6 October parade. With Faraj’s support, he arranged for three accomplices to join his truck crew and obtained ammunition and grenades.

What happened on 6 October 1981

The parade in Nasr City marked the anniversary of Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal in 1973. Sadat sat in the front row of the reviewing stand, alongside Vice-President Hosni Mubarak, ministers and foreign guests, as aircraft flew overhead.

In the early afternoon, Islambouli’s truck stopped in front of the stand. He and his men threw grenades and opened fire with automatic rifles, running to the stand and shooting into the front rows. The attack lasted less than a minute before guards returned fire.

Sadat was hit several times and was flown by helicopter to Maadi Military Hospital, where he died about two hours later. About ten other people were killed, including a Coptic Orthodox bishop, and around 28 were wounded, among them Mubarak and Ireland’s defence minister. Islambouli was wounded and captured, and his accomplices were also arrested.

Aftermath

Mubarak, the vice-president, was confirmed as president in a referendum on 13 October 1981. Two days after the assassination, militants rose in the southern city of Asyut, and dozens of police and soldiers were killed before the army restored order.

Sadat’s funeral on 10 October was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and three former US presidents, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Very few Arab leaders came, a sign of Egypt’s isolation. In parts of the region, including Libya and Iran, his death was celebrated.

In a military trial, Islambouli, Faraj and three others were sentenced to death and executed on 15 April 1982. Hundreds of suspected militants were rounded up. Among those imprisoned was a young doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became leader of al-Qaeda.

Key people

Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) was a former army officer who had taken part in the 1952 revolution that overthrew Egypt’s monarchy. Bold and unpredictable, he shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin.

Khalid Islambouli (executed 1982) was a young army lieutenant in his twenties who led the attack. He was later celebrated by militant groups, and Iran named a street in Tehran after him, a gesture that long strained relations with Egypt.

Hosni Mubarak (1928-2020), a former air force commander, had been vice-president since 1975. He ruled Egypt for almost 30 years until he was forced from office in February 2011.

Myths and facts

It is often said that Sadat’s own guards failed completely. Security was indeed lax, but the attackers were soldiers in an official parade, with permission to carry weapons, which made them extremely hard to detect.

Another misconception is that the killing ended Egypt’s peace with Israel. Mubarak kept the treaty, and Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai in April 1982 as agreed.

Timeline

• 1977, 19-21 November: Sadat visits Jerusalem.
• 1979, 26 March: Egypt and Israel sign their peace treaty.
• 1981, 3-5 September: Sadat orders the arrest of about 1,500 critics.
• 1981, 6 October: Sadat is assassinated at the parade in Nasr City.
• 1981, 8 October: Islamist uprising in Asyut.
• 1981, 13 October: Hosni Mubarak is confirmed as president by referendum.
• 1982, 15 April: Islambouli and four others are executed.

Why it matters

Sadat’s assassination showed that the peace with Israel had a heavy political cost and that militant Islamist groups were willing to kill heads of state. The emergency law imposed afterwards stayed in force throughout Mubarak’s rule, which ended only with the revolution of 2011, and some of those radicalised in the crackdown went on to shape global jihadist movements.