When Teenagers Attack

People often accuse teenagers of being politically apathetic. But history is full of stories of youth - for good or ill - who single-handily changed the course of history.

The youth of Palestine, for instance, have done more than most to inspire the Palestinian people and to make the world recognize the justice (or at least recognize) the Palestinian cause. Palestinians youth stand in front of Israeli aggression - tanks and occupation soldiers - and remain steadfast.

But not all political youth are noble and stand against aggression. A Turkish ultra-nationalist youth once attacked a prominent national writer who dares to note the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottomans.

And prominent world leaders in recent decades have been killed by teenagers. Which brings me to the point of my post.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia took the throne in 1964. Unlike other Saudi Kings who were either Kings until death of dethronement, Faisal's term was cut short in 1975.

king faisal 1 dTB6W 19672

Although Saudi Arabia is rightly now seen is an incredibly regressive country where there is seemingly no domestic liberal opposition to the corrupt rule of the House of Saud and the tyrannical theocratic extremism of the clerics, Saudi Arabia once had exactly that left-wing opposition. In the age of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Pan-Arabism, many Saudis were drawn in by the ideas of secularism, feminism and Arab unity. One prominent Saudi prince even left his country and settled in Cairo from where he attacked the backward royals. He was known as the "Red Prince". As in Egypt were nationalist generals overthrew the monarch, Saudi general attempted to do the same. But they were crushed by Faisal in the 1960s and the United States aided in the subduing of Saudi dissidents. The U.S. government believed at the time that all Arab leftists must be aligned to the Soviets, and as with Latin America, assisted tyrannical Arab regimes is destroying the Arab left. The liberal alternative in Saudi Arabia was brutally repressed, and if not killed these Saudis found themselves exiles.

One of those killed was Khaled bin Musa'id, a member of the Saudi royal family. He was gunned down by Saudi defense forces while taking part in a demonstration in 1965. His brother Faisal bin Musa'id was really young at the time. Both men are nephews of King Faisal. In the 1970s, bin Musa'id left Saudi Arabia for the United States where he enrolled as a student in Colorado. While in the U.S. he saw a different world and it appeared to him just how awful the Saudi royals are.

When he returned to Saudi Arabia - still 18 years old - motivated by both is hatred for his fellow royals and a feeling of vengeance for his brother's death; a shot and killed his uncle King Faisal on March 25, 1975.

The Saudi royals immediately worked to cover up the real story of the assassination. They captured bin Musa'id and declared him insane. In June 1975, he was publicly beheaded. Everyone knows the real story, however. And that 18 year old boy who had his life ended changed history. For all his faults, Faisal was more relatively modernizing than other Saudi royals.

A disgruntled Japanese youth would do the same. Inejiro Asnauma was the president of the Japanese Socialist Party. A strong speaker, he was very critical of the U.S. In a televised address during a party rally, he would be struck more dramatically than King Faisal.

While speaking, a 17-year old Japanese ultra-right winger ran on stage and stabbed Asanuma to death. He probably killed him in the first blow.

The death of Asanuma led to the breakup of the Japanese Socialists between left-right factions.

When Teenagers attack . . . they change the world. Politicians beware.