Black Friday has neither claimed credit for nor been associated with any other terrorist attacks. The group may have been a small cabal of Turkish Shia or Iran sympathizers expressing disfavor with the Saudi regime. Black Friday is considered inactive  --  new incidents are highly unlikely.  <P><br /><br />The wider diplomatic conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran that lay beneath the riots largely came to an end in 1991. Relations between the two countries had taken a serious turn for the worse after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Saudi officials perceived a threat from overt Iranian declarations decrying monarchies in the Arab world. Part of Iran's strategy was to use the hajj to make political statements. Tension bubbled over Iranian political activity in Mecca before 1987. After the riot, Iranian pilgrims were briefly denied hajj visas from 1988 to 1991. Normal relations were largely restored during and after the Gulf War, when Iraq became the principle threat to Saudi Arabia.  <br />

Little is known about the Black Hand group that attacked a number of foreign interests in Beirut in 1983.  Violence in Lebanon was widespread during this time period, targeting American, Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian troops, as well as innocent civilians.  Iranian-backed Shi'ite terrorists killed hundreds of U.S. Marines earlier in the year.<br /><p>Because of the large Palestinian presence in Lebanon and the prominent role of the Palestinian issue in the Lebanese Civil War, some sources claim that Black Hand was a reference to the armed group of followers of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, an early 20th century Sheikh who incited violence against Jews and moderate Arabs during the British mandate period of Palestine.  Al-Qassam's name has also been used by Hamas to designate their armed wing.<br />

The Black Liberation Army was a militant splinter group of the Black Panther Party. Breaking away from the Black Panthers in the late 1960s, the stated philosophy of the BLA was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." <P>  <br /><br />In the 1970s the BLA was responsible for numerous domestic criminal acts, including bank and armored car robberies.  In one of their more famous exploits, members of the BLA freed fellow BLA member Joanne Chesimard from prison where she was serving a life sentence for the murder of a state trooper.  Chesimard fled to Cuba, where she is still living, and the US government has offered a reward of $1 million dollars for her capture.  Members of the BLA were also charged in various terrorist plots including a plan to firebomb department stores in New York.  In 1981, four members of the BLA were convicted for various charges including murder and armed robbery in a failed heist of a Brinks armored car, which left one guard and two police officers dead.  On March 25, 1984, a man claiming to be "Lieutenant Spartacus" of the "Black Liberation Army," hijacked a Piedmont airlines jet with 58 passengers on board.  The plane flew to Cuba where "Lieutenant Spartacus" found asylum.