 In Persian: تسخیر لانه جاسوسی امریکا, literally the "Conquest of the American Spy Den," but usually translated as the "Occupation of the American Embassy" was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian Revolution.  President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that the "United States will not yield to blackmail."  This sure sounds like a line in a script for a 2013 Oscar Best Picture winner!
In Persian: تسخیر لانه جاسوسی امریکا, literally the "Conquest of the American Spy Den," but usually translated as the "Occupation of the American Embassy" was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian Revolution.  President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that the "United States will not yield to blackmail."  This sure sounds like a line in a script for a 2013 Oscar Best Picture winner!
Ever heard  of the Wahabi Islamic Religion? I have and remember  when I first heard  about it in November, 1979.  Jimmy Carter was in office and it was day three of the  Iranian  hostage crisis when all Hell broke loose behind the scenes in  another  country.  It foretold our huge Islamic terror mess we are in today!  ...Oh  really?
What some call regular mainstream "Moderate Muslims" as if that modifier means being anything  different than "Radical Muslims"  then that  really would be significant since they would be standing up to protest  instead of quietly standing by and watching their Radical Muslim brothers do harm  and create tumult in general, but read on.
 
We hear a lot of qualifying statements about “moderate Muslims” when  “radical Islam” is mentioned.  Now, certainly, one can imagine that  the majority of Muslims, are most likely people who just want to get on  with their lives and that in western countries in particular, many keep a  low profile and just live their lives with a low current of  religiosity.  Like people everywhere, they are trying to get through the  day, and not start a revolution or ignite a war.   Even so, some are  sympathetic to radical concerns or issues, even if they are not entirely  seized with passion for the cause. That moderate passive attitude feeds the passions of radical Islamics which just encourages them further.  
Other Muslims are completely against  radicalism, but stay on the down low and don’t make waves.  Then, there  are the Muslims who become leaders and actually attempt to impress some  kind of moderate change on the current situation within Islam. Many of  these high-profile moderates or liberal Muslims don’t get as much press  as the radicals, but they do exist, and often they live their lives  under threat of death from their co-religionists.
 So, ever heard  about the origins of Wahabi Islam from Saudi Arabia spreading to the  rest of the world?    Apparently, the Saudi royal family has been exporting Wahabi for some  time into Europe, Canada and the USA — partially to free themselves from  an imminent threat to their own power. 
This began with the 1979 siege on  Mecca and the royal family  by Wahabists and a deal actually forged with  the royal Saudi Arabian family.    I knew about Wahabi, but I certainly  have since learned more about its spread worldwide and the influence of  so many  radical Imams, even in places like  Phoenix, Arizona or San Diego, CA!  
You  think the Oscar's Best Picture Award for Argo was exciting? Well, they left  out a powerfully interesting parallel storyline - read about it below in the book review!
 

The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda
by  Yaroslav Trofimov
On November 20, 1979,  worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage  crisis was entering its third week. The same morning—the first of a new  Muslim century—hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam’s  holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they  had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen  countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern  times. 
Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed  that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American  infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With  nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s  bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United  States and causing hundreds of deaths.
Despite U.S. assistance,  the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the  occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran,  Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satan—the United States —for  defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American  embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted  the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril,  who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out  the insurgents. 
Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the  Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by  compromising with the rebels’ supporters among the kingdom’s most senior  clerics.  The  Saudi royal family  was helping them nurture and export Juhayman’s violent brand of  Islam around the world - Wahabi Islam.
This dramatic and immensely  consequential story was barely covered in the press in the pre-CNN,  pre–Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and  kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this  veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct  participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on  hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request.
Written  with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces  that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that  surround us today.