|
Some Important Events in the Contemporary History of the Islamic World
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
Iraq
On November 20, 1920 AD, the uprising of Iraq's long-oppressed Shi'ite Muslim majority was crushed, and this time by the new colonial rulers, the British, who had replaced the Ottoman Turks in this Land of Two Rivers, following the end of World War I. The Iraqi people’s uprising started on June 30, 1920, under the leadership of senior ulema, such as Mirza Mohammad Taqi Shirazi and Sheikh Kashef al-Gheta, for establishment of an independent ruling system, based on Islamic rules and regulations. The British martyred Mirza Mohammad Taqi Shirazi by poisoning his food and exiled Kashef al-Gheta, before massacring a large number of Iraqi people and installing their agent, Faisal bin Hussain of Mecca, as king in Baghdad.
On November 18, 1963, Colonel Abdus-Salam Aref, with the help of the Ba'th Party, seized power in Iraq, by staging a coup and killing General Abdul-Karim Qasem. Abdus-Salam Aref, after consolidating his power, purged the government of the Ba’th Party. In 1966, he was killed in a plane crash, while returning to Baghdad from Basra, where in a blasphemous speech he tried to ridicule the famous sermon of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), in the book “Nahj al-Balagha”, where the Prophet's rightful successor censures the people of Basra for their unmanly characteristics in assisting the seditionists that had stirred the Battle of Jamal and shed Muslim blood. Abdus-Salam Aref was replaced by his brother Abdur-Rahman Aref.
Morocco
On November 10, 1912 AD, France and Spain started their colonial rule over Morocco by dividing this Muslim land between themselves, a move that angered the people and led to armed struggle for liberation. Morocco gained its independence from the colonial rule of France and Spain in the year 1956.
On November 18, 1956 AD, Morocco became independent from the colonial rule of France, which had seized this Muslim country in 1921. Morocco covers an area of 458730 sq km, and is located in northwestern Africa and the coastlines of Atlantic Ocean. Muslims constitute 99% of its population.
Muslims in Fiji
On October 10, 1970 AD, Fiji gained independence from 90 years of British colonial rule, and were declared a republic. The Fiji Archipelago covers an area of 18274 sq km and is situated in the Pacific Ocean. Almost 40 percent of the 850,000 population is made up of descendants of Indians brought by the British as contract labourers in the 19th century. Muslims number 85,000 or 10 percent of the national population, while Shi’tes or followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt are estimated around 30,000.
Suez Canal War
On October 22, 1956, the premiers of France, Britain, and the illegal Zionist entity, called Israel, in a meeting behind closed doors in Paris, hatched the plot to attack Egypt. After the Egyptian President, Jamal Abdun-Naser, announced nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956, France and Britain were intent on occupying the Suez due to losing their illegitimate interests in the region. Moreover, Israel, which considered Egypt as its main enemy, intended to use this opportunity to deal a major blow against the leading Arab state. A week after the secret meeting, the armies of these states attacked Egypt, but the invaders failed to reach their goals.
On October 29, 1956 AD, Zionist troops invaded the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, following the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian president, Jamal Abdun-Nasser. The usurper state of Israel intended to occupy the Gulf of Aqaba at the rear end of the Red Sea for movement of its ships. Two days later, Britain and France, in support of the illegal Zionist entity, stationed their paratroops around Suez Canal. The goal behind this trilateral attack was to force Egypt into relinquishing the nationalization of this canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and was controlled by France and Britain till then. After a few months occupation, the invaders withdrew from Egyptian soil in March 1957 under pressure from world public opinion and many world governments. This incident is known as the Suez Canal War.
The Scandalous Balfour Declaration
On November 2, 1917 AD, the scandalous Balfour Declaration was issued by the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, calling for setting up an illegal Zionist state in Palestine for European Jews. In a treasonous move, the Sharif of the Hejaz as well as the Wahhabi chieftain of the Najd, Abdel-Aziz ibn Saud, supported the British plan. In May 1948, some 31 years after issuance of this dubious declaration, the illegal Zionist migrants who had been flocking into British occupied Palestine since the end of World War 1, declared the illegitimate birth of Israel, with the support of Britain and the US. Till this day, the Palestinian people and the rest of the Muslim World are suffering from the crimes against humanity of this cancerous tumour called Israel.
The Muslim Republic of Chechen
On December 11, 1994 AD, Russian forces attacked the Muslim Republic of Chechen in the Caucasus for its declaration of independence. The Russians were forced to retreat after a war lasting a year and a half, and an accord was signed to postpone the autonomy of the Chechen Republic till the year 2001. In the second half of 1999, the Russians again attacked Chechen and occupied it. Although this war has practically ended, activities of the Chechen independence seekers shows Russia is yet to completely control the situation in this oil rich Muslim region, which along with Daghestan, Armenia and the eastern parts of Georgia, used to be a part of the Safavid Empire of Iran and was seized by the Czars from the weak Qajarid dynasty.
The massacre 250,000 Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs
On December 14, 1995 AD, the Bosnian peace agreement, referred to as the Dayton Accord, was ratified at the Paris meeting, following its signing on November 21 in Dayton, US, by the Bosnian, Serb, and Croat presidents. The only outcome of the Accord for Muslims was that it spelled an end to the barbaric bouts of massacre by the Serbs, who killed 250,000 people till that date. Despite the relative majority of Muslims, the country was divided into two parts – the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, with both of them under the supervision of a weak central government in the capital, Sarajevo. Despite the passage of years since the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims, issues related to the return of 1.2 million Muslim refugees to their homes and hearths, has remained unsolved.
Western Sahara
On December 15, 1975 AD, the Spanish occupiers left Western Sahara which they had seized in 1884. The cause was the guerrilla warfare launched by the Muslim revolutionary groups operating under the Polisario Front. A few days after the complete withdrawal of Spanish forces, Polisario announced formation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), but Morocco invaded it by laying claims to the region. Unfortunately, the UN, under pressure from the US and the West, has failed to hold the referendum it had promised for determining the fate of this northwest African land that has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco continues to occupy over 70 percent of this Arab-Muslim land that covers an area of 284000 sq km and shares borders with Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria.
Lebanon
On November 22, 1943 AD, Lebanon was separated from Syria and declared independent by the French colonialists, who had seized Syria from the Ottoman Empire after the defeat of the Turks in World War 1. The French intended to make Lebanon a stronghold of the Christians but could not succeed in view of the strong presence of Muslims in the country, especially the Shi'ite Muslims, who today form the largest single group, accounting for 50 percent of the population of Lebanon. Lebanon covers an area of 10400 sq km, and its capital is Beirut.
Albania
On November 28, 1912 AD, Albania was declared independent from the Ottoman Empire by West European powers and Russia, after over four centuries of Turkish rule. Following end of World War II, the rulers of Muslim-majority Albania led by Enver Khoja, imposed a pro-Soviet Union communist regime on the country. After the collapse of socialism, Albania returned to its Muslim roots, although the new pro-western rulers are also against Islam. The majority of Albanians are Muslims. Albania is situated in Southeast Europe in the Balkan Peninsula and shares borders with Greece, Yugoslavia, and Macedonia. It covers an area of almost 29,000 sq km.
Mauritania
On November 28, 1960 AD, Mauritania gained its independence from French occupation. Mauritania is located in northwestern Africa and covers an area of 1030700 sq km. It shares borders with Algeria, Mali, and Senegal. It is an Arabic-speaking country and its capital is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)
On November 28, 1992 AD, the newly independent republics of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan joined the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which was founded by Iran, Turkey and Pakistan in 1984, after dissolution of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD), which the three countries had set up in 1964. ECO is one of the biggest regional organizations in the world and covers a population of over 400 million people.
West African Muslim territories under French Occupation
On December 13, 1870 AD, France launched a war for occupation of West African lands. During the decade-long war, thousands of French soldiers were killed and wounded, while there is no mention of the greater number of African people killed by the French occupiers. Military technology enabled France to occupy Senegal, Zambia, Guinea, and Ivory Coast by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of black people. These lands remained under French colonial rule till the second half of the 20th century.
The division of the land of Palestine
On November 29, 1947 AD, the UN General Assembly, in an unjust move, voted with a narrow majority on the division of the land of Palestine between two separate, Arab and Jewish states. This unfair and illogical decision was adopted under pressure of Western regimes. The Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas was declared an international enclave. The Palestinians refused to accept the division of their homeland, but Britain, which had occupied Palestine, worked in tandem with the illegal Zionist settlers from Europe, and on May 15, 1948, while leaving Palestine, handed power to the Zionists, who resorted to terrorism to set up the illegal state called Israel.
Hassan al-Banna, the Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood
On October 14, 1906 AD, the Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Hassan Ahmad Abdur-Rahman Mohammed al-Banna, was born in Egypt. In his teens he joined a Sufi order and participated in demonstrations during the 1919 revolution against British colonial designs. In March 1928 he launched the society of the Muslim Brothers, and his political activities brought him into conflict with the ruling authorities. In February 1949, at the age of 43 years, he was shot fatally and died as a result.
Arab oil exporting states imposed oil sanctions on the US and Britain
On October 17, 1973 AD, Arab oil exporting states imposed oil sanctions on the US, Britain, and companies selling oil to the illegal Zionist entity, because of their support for Israel's October 6 war against Syria and Egypt. The swift oil price hikes were an unexpected blow for Western regimes, and its consequences showed that Islamic countries, if united, are capable of countering the West's plots against Muslims.
Massacre of Muslims in Cairo by Napoleon Bonaparte
On October 20, 1798 AD, the people of Cairo staged an uprising against the French occupation forces of Napoleon Bonaparte, offering 3000 martyrs for the freedom of their country. Inspired by the ulema, the people held a large protest gathering at the famous al-Azhar Mosque-Academy that was subjected to armed attacks by Cairo's French military commander. This led to a battle between the unarmed people who overpowered and killed many French soldiers. The French occupiers retorted with brute force, killing at least 3,000 defenseless people, including many religious scholars. They then threw the bodies of martyrs into the River Nile.
British Occupation of Palestine
On December 9, 1917 AD during World War I, the British forces, made up of Arab and Indian contingents under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, defeated the Ottoman troops in Palestine, and occupied it. Until next October, in which a peace treaty was signed between the two parties, the British forces occupied more lands in West Asia. The seizure of Palestine was a step toward materialization of the notorious Balfour Declaration of the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, who had called for setting up of a Jewish state in the Muslim land of Palestine by illegally settling European Jews in the heart of the Islamic World.
The prominent author and literary figure of Egypt, Dr. Taha Hussein
On November 14, 1889 AD, the prominent author and literary figure of Egypt, Dr. Taha Hussein, was born. He went blind in childhood, but given his high intelligence, he studied hard and obtained PhDs at Egyptian universities and later at the universities of Montpellier and Sorbonne in France.
Thereafter, he became engaged in cultural activities and rendered valuable services in the domain of literature and culture, including the foundation of the University of Alexandria. He was appointed to senior cultural posts and briefly served as Egypt’s minister of education. He has left behind a large number of compilations such as “History of Arabic Literature” “Ibn Khaldoun’s Philosophy” and “al-Fitnat-al-Kubra” (The Great Sedition) that deals with the sorry state of affairs of the caliphate after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
He also wrote “Hafez and Shawqi”, which is a comparison between two great poets of the Persian and Arabic language, that is, Iran’s Khwaja Hafez Shirazi and Egypt’s Poet Laureate, Ahmad Shawqi. Taha Hussein passed away in 1973.
Sheikh Mohammad Izz od-Din al-Qassaam
On December 20, 1935 AD, the Muslim revolutionary, Sheikh Mohammad Izz od-Din al-Qassaam, attained martyrdom near Haifa in Palestine at the age of 53. Born in Jableh in the Latakia Governorate of the Ottoman Province of Syria, he was a follower of the Qadari Sufi order. After studying at Egypt’s al-Azhar Academy he returned home to become prayer leader and teacher at a local mosque.
After Italy's 1911 seizure of Libya from the Turks, he recruited dozens of volunteers, but Turkish officials prevented him from going to Libya. He joined the Ottoman army when World War I broke out, and served as a chaplain at a base.
After the war, he organized a local defense force to fight the French occupation of Syria, but internecine fighting forced him to take refuge in the mountains to plan guerrilla warfare. He was a key figure in the 1921 Syrian uprising against the French when Faisal, a son of the British agent, Sharif Hussain, was brought from Hejaz and declared king of Syria in Damascus. Al-Qassaam was sentenced to death after the failure of the revolt. When the French occupiers besieged the city, he fled via Beirut to Haifa in British occupied Palestine.
Already in his forties, he concentrated his activities on mobilizing Islamic resistance against the colonialists. His followers were mainly the landless farmers drifting in to Haifa from Upper Galilee, where land purchases by the illegal Zionist migrants from Europe was creating a crisis. He joined the Istiqlal or Independence Party and in 1929 was appointed the marriage registrar in Mufti Amin al-Hussaini's Supreme Muslim Council Sharia Court in Haifa, a role that allowed him to tour the northern villages, whose inhabitants he encouraged to set up agricultural cooperatives.
In 1930 he established ‘Black Hand’, a combatant organization for fighting the British occupiers as well as the illegal Zionist migrants. He arranged military training for peasants and by 1935 had enlisted nearly 800 men. In November 1935, fearing arrest after a British constable was killed in a skirmish with some of his followers he fled with his men to the hills between Jenin and Nablus.
The British cornered al-Qassaam in a cave near Ya'bad, and in the ensuing battle he was martyred. The manner of his last stand assumed legendary proportions in Palestinian and other Arab circles as the symbol of resistance. The al-Qassaam Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance were named after him for the struggle to liberate their homeland from the Zionist usurpers.
Kazakhstan
On December 16, 1991 AD, Kazakhstan announced its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kazakhs, who are Muslims of Turkic-Mongol ethnicity, were subjugated in the mid 18th century by Russia. Following the seizure of power in Moscow by the communists, Kazakhstan was made one of the 15 autonomous republics of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan covers an area of 2.7 million sq km and shares borders with China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. Its capital is Astana.
It is worth noting that the land called Kazakhstan was originally inhabited by Indo-Iranians, like the rest of Central Asia. The best known of those groups was the nomadic Scythians. The Turkic people began encroaching on the Iranians, starting in the 5th century AD. With the advent of Islam, the people became Muslims, especially due to the efforts of the Iranian Samanid Dynasty of Bukhara which controlled the important silk route city of Taraz – the oldest city of Kazakhstan. Even after the Mongol onslaught of the 13th century and the Turkification of the area, sizeable communities of Persian speakers existed, until their gradual absorption by the Turkic language.
The French Muslim Philosopher and Author, Roger Garaudy
On December 16, 1998 AD, the Paris Court of Appeals unjustly fined and sentenced to jail the French Muslim Philosopher and Author, Roger Garaudy, because of his revealing of documented evidence that the Zionists cooperated with the German Nazis throughout World War II.
Garaudy, who passed away earlier this year, also pointed out that the Zionists tried to magnify the crimes of Nazi Germany, as part of their propaganda for setting up an illegal Jewish state in the Muslim land of Palestine.
He dismissed the figure of six million Jews killed by Germany as a highly exaggerated claim, because the total number of Jews at that time did not reach six million in all of Europe. With the pressure of Zionists, this Muslim French philosopher and author became a victim to the unjust court verdict, despite France’s claim to freedom of speech.
Sierra Leone
On December 19, 1787 AD, Britain seized the West African country of Sierra Leone from the Portuguese occupiers. During Portuguese colonial rule tens of thousands of black men, women and children were sold as slaves in the Americas and Europe. The British continued this inhuman trade and made life miserable for the black people, the overwhelming majority of whom were Muslims. In 1961, Sierra Leone gained its independence and in 1971 became a republic. Sierra Leone covers an area of 71740 sq km.
It has a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, sharing borders with Guinea and Liberia. Muslims account for over 77 percent of the population, while some 20 percent are Christians.
Oman
On December 20, 1951 AD, Oman gained independence from British rule. Oman used to be part of various Persian Empires, both before and after the advent of Islam. In the 16th century it was occupied by the Portuguese, who were expelled in 1622 by Iranian army. Iran also briefly ruled Oman from 1737 to 1749, before power was seized by the Aal-e Sa’eed Tribe of the Abadhi sect of the Khwarej. As of late 19th century, Britain colonized Oman and in 1904 declared it as its protectorate. Oman, with its capital at Muscat, covers an area of over 212000 sq km. It lies on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, sharing borders with Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE. It is separated from Iran by the narrow Hormuz Strait.
40,000 Muslims massacred in Ukraine
On December 22, 1790 AD, the Ottoman fortress of Izmail (Ismail and Hajidar in Turkish) on the River Danube in what is now south-western Ukraine was stormed and captured by Russian General, Alexander Suvorov, who in three days massacred 40,000 Muslim men, women and children. He unabashedly wrote to Moscow boasting about his crime against humanity, saying he ordered his forces to go from house-to-house and room-to-room to kill all Muslims, and when the massacre was over, he wept that there no more Turks left to be killed.
It was the end of almost four centuries of Muslim culture in this part of Eastern Europe, although the Turks later took the city and the surrounding region briefly, before losing it to the Russians in 1809. The defeat was seen as a catastrophe in the Ottoman Empire, while in Russia it was glorified in the country's first national anthem, with the words: Let the thunder of victory sound! The Russians destroyed all mosques and traces of Islamic culture, replacing the city with churches and cathedrals.
Libya
On December 24, 1951 AD, the UN, which had taken over administration of Italian colonial possessions after World War 2, formally granted independence to Libya, endorsing Mohammad Idris al-Mahdi al-Senussi as the king. This mostly Berber-inhabited Arabicised North African land, which in ancient times was part of the Carthaginian Empire before its occupation by the Romans, was liberated by Muslims in 644. After the weakening of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad, their Aghlabid governors were ousted by the emerging Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty by 909.
Over two-and-a-half centuries later its coastal areas were seized by the Christians of Sicily, from whose control the Ayyubids of Egypt soon wrested it. The Muslim Hafsids then ruled this land, and when Spain, after expelling the Muslims from Andalusia tried to seize the coastal areas, it was confronted by the growing power of the Ottoman Turks, who in 1551 established their formal control over what was then known as the Wilayat of Tripolitania and the Wilayat of Cyrenaica. Over three-and-a-half centuries later when the Ottomans became weakened, Fascist Italy seized control of this land in 1911, and named it Libya for the first time.
Italian occupation was strongly resisted by the Libyans under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar, who was eventually defeated and executed by the occupiers. With the defeat of Italy in World War II, Britain and France occupied this country. In 1969, a young officer, named Colonel Mu’ammar Qadhafi, staged a coup, and toppled the monarchic system. It is believed the CIA was behind the rise to power of Qadhafi who for 42 years ruled the country in the most eccentric manner by lavishly spending its oil wealth but keeping the people in poverty.
In February 2011, the people rose against Qadhafi’s despotic rule, and since the dictator was no longer of any use to the West; the US and NATO intervened to topple and finally kill him. Libya with a vast coastline on the Mediterranean Sea covers an area of 1,760,000 sq km, and shares borders with Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Chad, and Niger.
Vasco da Gama discovers new sea route to India with the help of Arab Muslim navigators
On December 24, 1524 AD, Portuguese sailor and explorer, Vasco da Gama, died at the age of 64. He is credited with the discovery of Europe’s sea route to Asia and India in the year 1498 by rounding the Cape of Good Hope with the help of Arab Muslim navigators, whom he subsequently killed. Vasco da Gama reached India and mass murdered the residents of coastal areas. He seized the city of Goa from the Muslim Adel Shahi dynasty of Iranian origin, and forcibly Christianized the people.
The French East India Company
On December 25, 1665 AD, the French East India Company was set up during the reign of King Louis XIV for political, economic, and colonial rivalry with the British East India Company, established 66 years earlier. The British and the French fought for control of southern India. The British emerged victorious and drove out the French.
Guinea
On December 24, 1849 AD, French troops invaded Guinea in West Africa and gradually occupied it through setting up of the Gold Coast Commercial Company. In the 1890s, Guinea was declared a French colony. Following a referendum in 1958 it gained independence the same year. Over 85 percent of the people of Guinea are Muslims, and the capital is Conakry. Guinea shares borders with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
|
