Assassination of Anwar Sadat Assassination of Anwar Sadat The assassination of Anwar Sadat occurred on 6 October 1981. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back a small part of the Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. A fatwa approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The assassination was undertaken by members of the
History of Egypt under Anwar Sadat roots, was attacked as a means for bringing about the 'destruction of Islam in Egypt.'" Observers trace the revival to disenchantment with Arab Nationalism, as exemplified by Egypt's "shattering" 1967 defeat; the perceived victory of the 1973 war with its pious battle cry of "Allahu Akbar" (`Land, Sea and Air` had been the slogan of the 1967 war); and "to the missionary zeal" of Saudi Wahhabism, "fueled by petrodollars in the wake of the oil shock of 1974-5." Another change Sadat made from the Nasser era was a bow towards the Islamic revival. Sadat loosened restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood,