Important Events in the Muslim World

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On February 14, 1938 AD, illegal Zionists migrants from Europe, who formed the Palmach terrorist outfit in British-ruled Palestine, stormed the Palestinian village of Sa'sa, and for two days indulged in the massacre of men, women, and children, killing over 60 Muslims, as part of their ethnic cleansing campaign to create the illegitimate state of Israel.
On February 14, 2005 AD, former Lebanese Premier, Rafiq Hariri, was assassinated by Israeli agents in a bomb blast in Beirut. The US and its proxies in Lebanon by setting up a Kangaroo tribunal under the UN, have tried to put the blame on Syria, and then on the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, but to no avail, since all documented evidence points in the direction of the Zionist entity.
On February 14, 2011 AD, as part of the Islamic Awakening, the people of Bahrain launched their peaceful uprising against the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, through a series of mass demonstrations in the capital Manama, calling it a “Day of Rageâ€‌. The people’s demand for democratic changes, including the end of discrimination against the Persian Gulf island state’s long-suppressed Shi’ite Muslim majority, was met with tear gas and bullets. The first martyr of the peaceful uprising was 21-year old Abdul-Hadi Saleh Ja’far Mushaima, who succumbed on his way to the hospital from injuries he received when hit in the back by birdshot pellets fired from close range by the regime’s forces. The Maidan Lu’lu or Pearl Square soon became the site of peaceful mass protests, which were savagely attacked by the regime, which soon invited Saudi forces to occupy the island and savagely desecrate mosques and Hussainiyahs.
On February 15, 1782 AD, a naval battle broke out between France and Britain off the coastlines of India, and lasted seven months, as part of the two European colonial powers' rivalry in controlling the Subcontinent and plundering its rich resources. Earlier, France had relinquished its Indian possessions following its defeat in the 13-month long Madras war and conclusion of the Paris Treaty.
On February 17, 1989 AD, the Arab Maghreb Union was formed in Morocco by the host country along with Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Mauritania, in order to facilitate trade, commerce, and cultural ties among these countries. However, disputes among member states, especially Algeria and Morocco, have obstructed the materialization of the Union’s goals.
On February 18, 1965 AD, Gambia gained independence from British colonial rule as the smallest country of Africa. Gambia, which is more than 90 percent Muslim, had accepted the truth of Islam in the 11th and 12th centuries, and was part of the Islamic Empire of Mali, before its occupation by the Portuguese by the end of the 15th century. Britain occupied Gambia in 1588, and for nearly four centuries looted its resources. In 1963, Britain was forced to grant self-autonomy and two year later independence. Gambia became a republic in 1970.
On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, after endorsement by its parliament with Hashem Taqi as Prime Minister. Landlocked Kosovo, whose population is more than 90 percent Muslim and composed of ethnic Albanians, was oppressed by the Serbs. It shares borders with the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west and Montenegro to the northwest. The remaining frontier belt is with the Central Serbian region which is the source of international dispute. The largest city and the capital is Pristina. It was in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo that it became part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. In 1455 the people embraced the truth of Islam and till 1912 remained under Ottoman rule, first as part of the ayalat or state of Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separate vilayet or province. The Vilayet of Kosovo was an area much larger than today's Kosovo; it included all today's Kosovo territory, sections of the Sandjak region cutting into present-day central Serbia and Montenegro along with the Kukes municipality of present-day northern Albania and parts of north-western Macedonia with the city of Skopje as its capital. Kosovo also has many followers of the Bektashi Sufi order, which is devoted to the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and was founded by Iran’s Haji Bektash Vali of Naishapour, Khorasan in the 13th century. and was once widespread in the Ottoman Empire.
On February 17, 2011, people’s protests began in Libya against the dictatorial rule of Mu’ammar Qadhafi, who was eventually overthrown and killed the following year. Meanwhile, in Bahrain, forces of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on Muslim protesters around the Pearl Roundabout in Manama. The day is known as Bloody Thursday.
On February 18, 1834 AD, French colonial forces, which had occupied Algeria in 1830, following the weakening of the hold of the Ottoman Empire on North Africa, were crushed by the forces of Amir Abdul-Qader al-Jazaeri , who traced his descent to Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). A third of the French troopers were killed, and half of the remaining troops were taken captive. In the next two years he liberated nearly all of Algeria. He was later defeated through ruse and taken to France as a captive. Years later he was forced to renounce opposition to French rule in Algeria, and was allowed to settle in Syria where he died.
On February 21, 1965 AD, US Afro Muslim activist, Malcolm X was assassinated by white supremacist terrorists, believed to be hirelings of the government, which was afraid of the Islamic movement he had formed. Malcolm X, who was only 40 years of age when martyred, had embraced the truth of Islam in his youth. He was active in the campaign for equal rights by the black people of the US. He believed that racial discrimination and other injustices of the morally-bankrupt and decadent liberal democratic system of the West would only end if the dynamic laws of Islam, based on social justice and ethical virtues, are promoted.
On February 22, 1823 AD, the Greeks during their rebellion against the Ottoman Turks massacred 12,000 Muslims in the city of Tripolitsa, with the help of Britain, France, Russia, and Austria.
On February 22, 1958 AD, the people of Egypt and Syria in a referendum voted for unity of the two countries as the United Arab Republic (UAR). Egyptian president, Jamal Abdun-Naser got the vote as the UAR President. A while later Yemen also joined the United Arab Republic. The goal of the UAR was to form a common front against the usurper state of Israel. In the United Arab Republic, there were separate governments whose outline, especially their foreign policy, was coordinated by a high council. The UAR, however, broke up after three years in 1961 because of Syrian withdrawal over discontent against Egyptian domination.
On February 22, 2006 AD, terrorists backed by the US shocked the civilized world and hurt Islamic sentiments worldwide by blasphemously blowing the magnificent golden dome of the holy shrine in Samarra, which houses the venerated tombs of the 10th and the 11th Infallible Imams of the Prophet's household - Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS) and Hasan al-Askari (AS). The plan was to ignite sectarian strikes in Iraq, but when this failed, the US backed terrorists carried out another sacrilegious bomb blast to blow the exquisite minarets of the shrine, a year and 5 months later. The sacred shrine is being rebuilt, thanks to the devotional efforts of Iraqi and Iranian Muslims.
On February 23, 1799 AD, the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte who had occupied Egypt to prevent it from turning into a British colonial base, attacked the Ottoman province of Shaam (which includes the present day countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine including the illegal entity called Israel). In response, the Ottoman Sultan declared war on France, and although Napoleon had some success in the beginning, the French forces were forced to withdraw from Shaam because of the support of the British and the Russians for the Ottoman Turks.
On February 24, 1949 AD, a ceasefire came into effect between Egypt and the illegal Zionist entity following the signing of an agreement on Rhode Island. In May 1948, while withdrawing from Palestine, the British colonialists, who had illegally settled hundreds of thousands of European Jews in this Islamic land between the two world wars, created an artificial entity called Israel. The Zionists immediately lounged expansionism in different directions after expelling over 400,000 Palestinians. The Zionists attacked Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, occupying parts of the three countries. According to this treaty, Gaza was placed under Egyptian protection, but in later wars it was occupied by Israel.
On February 25,1954 AD, Syrian freedom seekers launched their campaign to rid the country of the inefficient and foreign backed rule of President Adib Shishekli. All strata of the people participated in this campaign to bring about the downfall of the Shishekli regime and formation of a united national government under President Hashem al-Atasi.
On February 25, 1994 AD, American-Zionist solider of German Jewish parentage, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire on rows of Palestinian Muslims praying in congregation at the shrine of Prophet Abraham (AS) in the city of al-Khalil in the West Bank of River Jordan. As a result of this cowardly act of terrorism 29 people were martyred and scores of others wounded. This incident (of February 25) occurred in the blessed month of Ramadhan and let to the anger of the civilized world. As a result, the Arab compromisers had no other choice but to postpone their dubious negotiations with the illegal Zionist entity.
On February 26, 1992 AD, Armenian militiamen and the 366th rifle regiment of the Russian army massacred in cold blood at least 613 Muslim men, women, and children in the town of Khojaly in the Qarabagh autonomous region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on its seizure by Armenia. As confirmed by Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the "Khojaly Genocide" and its aftermath shocked the civilized world, and later many dead bodies of Azeris trying to flee the massacred were found in the surrounding mountains and forests as a result of freezing temperatures. In addition, the Armenians imprisoned the survivors of the tragedy. The Caucasus region, including the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, were an integral part of Iran’s successive empires for over two millenniums until the occupation by Russia in the 19th century.
On February 27, 2011 AD, former Turkish premier, Najmeddin Erbakan, passed away at the age of 84. He was born in the northern Turkish city of Sinop and studied Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul University, on the completion of which he left for Germany to earn a PhD at Aachen University. On return to Turkey, he was appointed a university professor in 1967. He entered politics in 1969, and was soon elected MP. He founded several Islamic-oriented parties, which the military authorities forcibly dissolved. He became leader of the Welfare Islamic Party in 1987, and in 1996 was democratically elected as Prime Minister. His policy of expansion of Turkey's relations with Muslim countries was unbearable for the military, the Zionist regime of Israel, and the US. For this reason, the military officers forced him to resign.
On February 28, 1922 AD, the British were forced to recognize the independence of Egypt, because of the resistance of the Egyptian people against colonial domination, which had started in 1882 with the occupation of Alexandria and declaration of Egypt as a British Protectorate.
On February 28, 1991 AD, ceasefire was declared by the US against Iraq, thereby ending the 40-day war against the Ba'thist forces of Saddam for their occupation of Kuwait. In August 1990, following the US green signal, Saddam invaded and occupied Kuwait in a single day, claiming the tiny Persian Gulf emirate to be an integral part of Iraq, despite the billions of dollars of support provided by the Emir of Kuwait for his 8-year war against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On March 2,1956 AD, Morocco gained independence from French colonial rule. In 1912, after decades of meddling by European powers, France had declared this Muslim country as its protectorate. The same year the Moroccan people, under the leadership of Abdul-Karim Rifi, started the liberation struggle and managed to free the mountainous parts of the country, until they were defeated in 1926 by the French.
On March 2, 2004 AD, the holy cities of Karbala and Kazemain were rocked by several terrorist attacks, in which at least 170 people were martyred and 500 others injured. These attacks shocked the civilized world as they violated the sanctity of the Day of Ashura (10th of Moharram) – the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet's grandson Imam Husain (AS) – when millions of devotees were attending mourning processions for the first time after the fall of Iraq's US-installed dictator, Saddam. The terrorists were never identified, but are believed to be the agents of the US and Saudi Arabia.
On March 3, 1878 AD, Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of San Stefano in the Balkans. In August 1877, a year ago, Russia had entered into secret accord with the Ottoman provinces of Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, promising to support them against the Turks, and the assault against the Ottoman Empire was part of the plan. The Russians exploited the weakness of the Ottomans and quickly gained victories against the Turks. With the signing of the San Stefano Accord, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria were detached from the Ottoman Empire and declared independent.
On March 3, 1992 AD, after a referendum, Muslim majority Bosnia-Herzegovina, gained independence from the rump state of Yugoslavia following the declaration of independence earlier by Slovenia and Croatia. Immediately, the local Serbs with the support of Serbia and the tacit backing of western regimes unleashed genocide and ethnic cleansing against native European Muslims, resulting in the massacre of over 250,000 Muslims and homelessness of a million-and-a-half others. When Bosnian Muslims fought back and were about to decisively defeat the Serb aggressors, the US interfered and imposed the Dayton Accord. Bosnia-Herzegovina has an area of 51,129 square km. On the north and west it shares borders with Croatia, on the east with Serbia, and on the south with the Republic of Montenegro. Muslims are the largest ethnic group making up over 50 percent of the total population.
On March 4, 1823, the Greeks during their rebellion against the Ottoman Turks massacred 12,000 Muslims in the city of Tripolitsa, with the help of Britain, France, Russia, and Austria.
On March 5, 1906 AD, US occupation forces in the Philippines, brutally massacred almost a thousand Muslims in the in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.
On March 5, 1965 AD, the March Intifadha erupted in Bahrain against British colonial presence. It was a popular uprising by the long-suppressed majority of the Persian Gulf island state and called for overthrow of the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, which still clings to power with US-British help, despite the massive uprising underway these days. Bahrain belonged to Iran and in the 1800s was seized by the Aal-e Khalifa, who were pirates operating in the Khor Abdullah waterway between southern Iraq and what is in now Kuwait, from where there driven out by the Ottoman Turks.
On March 6, 1964 AD, Afro-American boxing champion, Cassius Clay, embraced the truth of Islam and officially changed his name to Muhammad Ali. His spectacular winning of numerous world titles and his refusal, as a Muslim, to be drafted by the US regime in the Vietnam War made constant headlines.
On March 7, 1799 AD, the French general, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa in Palestine and proceeded to kill more than 2,000 Albanian Muslim captives. The French were driven out from Palestine by the Ottoman Turkish forces, and later also fled from Egypt.
On March 10, 1861 AD, Umar Ta’l seized the important West African city of Segou in Mali, after a series of victories that also ended the animist Bambara kingdom, thereby preventing it from serving as a base for penetration of the region by the French colonialists. He thus founded a brief Islamic empire, encompassing much of Senegal, Mali and Guinea. Born in Futa Tooro, Senegal, he was a political leader, Islamic scholar, and military commander, who in his youth, after performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca had stayed for six years in Damascus to acquire higher Islamic studies. In Syria, he was highly impressed by the trends and tactics of the Ottoman Turkish governor, Ibrahim Pasha, whom he befriended. On returning to West Africa, he assumed leadership of the Tijaniyya Sufi brotherhood in the Sudan. Umar Ta’l remains a legendary figure in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, and is membered as a hero of the anti-French resistance.
On March 11, 904 AD, the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea became part of the Islamic World after a series of struggles with the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, starting in the year 870. The conquest of Malta is closely linked with that of Sicily, and it involved a Muslim army of Arabs, Berbers, and Iranians. The Muslims introduced new systems of irrigation, fruits and cotton and the Sicilo-Arabic language, which flourished till 14th century AD, and eventually evolved into the present day Maltese language. In 1091, the Muslim rulers of Malta lost their independence and became vassals of the Christian Normans, until they were gradually expelled to North Africa. The Island of Malta covers an area of 316 sq km. Its present population stands at half a million, of which over only 3,000 are Muslims.
On March 11, 1979, following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran withdrew from CENTO or the Central Treaty Organization, which practically dissolved. It was formed as a military organization in 1954 by the British as the Baghdad Pact that included Iran, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, with the US holding observer status. Following the overthrow of the British-installed monarchy in Iraq in 1958 and Baghdad's withdrawal, the organization was named CENTO, and formed a chain around the Soviet Union with NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe, and SEATO or the South East Asia Treaty Organization in the East. Earlier, Pakistan had left CENTO in protest to the lack of support during its war with India, and with the ouster of the Shah’s regime, CENTO practically ceased to function. Prior to it, SEATO had dissolved following the US debacle in Vietnam.
On March 12, 1854 AD, the historical Treaty of Constantinople was concluded between France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire in the city of Istanbul. The three states formed a coalition against Russian expansion, and defeated the Czarist armies in the Crimean War.
On March 13, 1948 AD, the armed Zionists, affiliated to the terrorist outfit, Haganah, attacked the Palestinian village of “Husseiniyehâ€‌, razing Muslim homes to the ground and massacrint sixty Palestinian villagers. On this day, the Zionists also blew up the homes of Palestinians in a district of Bayt al-Moqaddas, martyring and wounding a number of Palestinians. The carnage of Palestinian Muslims was a prelude to the illegitimate birth of Israel, following the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine, which took place two months after the massacre at Husseiniyeh Village.
On March 14, 1978 AD, the Zionist army invaded and occupied southern Lebanon, in what it called Operation Litani, on the pretext of stopping attacks by Palestinian combatants. The invasion, resulting in the massacre of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, brought the region south of River Litani under complete control of the usurper state of Israel, which deprived the Lebanese of river waters. When UN Security Council Resolution 425 stationed 4,000 peace-keepers and forced the Zionists to withdraw, Israel formed a Christian militia under its Lebanese agent, S’ad Haddad in order to have presence by proxy. In 1982, the Zionists once again attacked and occupied southern Lebanon, resulting in the massacre of over 5,000 Palestinian men, women, and children in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. However, with the emergence of the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, and its heroic resistance, Israel was forced to pull back from the outskirts of Beirut, and in 2000, it finally retreated from Lebanese soil, although some farmlands are still under occupation.
On March 15, 1989 AD, the Taba Heights in northeastern Egypt were liberated after years of occupation by the illegal Zionist entity called Israel that had seized the Sinai Peninsula in the 1967 war. After the scandalous Camp David Treaty in 1987, although the Zionist entity withdrew from parts of the Sinai Peninsula, it continued to occupy the Taba Heights, north of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the eastern part of Sinai Peninsula.
On March 18, 1962 AD, the struggles of the Algerian Muslim people for independence from French colonial rule bore fruit after eight years of intense fighting that saw one million people killed by the French occupiers. Based on an agreement reached at the Evian-les-Bains Conference, France recognized Algeria’s independence and withdrew its forces. Nonetheless, the terrorist operations of French secret army continued in Algeria for a while.
On March 20, 1956 AD, Tunisia gained independence from French colonial rule. As of the early 10th century, Tunisia was the seat of the Fatimid caliphs, who were Ismaili Shi’ites and brought the whole of North Africa including Egypt under their control. In 1574 AD, the Ottoman Empire seized control of Tunisia. In 1705, the Cretan Muslim, Hussain ibn Ali, who was earlier appointed governor by the Ottomans, founded the Hussainid Dynasty that ruled Tunisia for the two-and-a-half centuries till 1957, even under French colonial rule that had started 1881. After independence, the anti-Islamic Habib Bourquiba, seized power and ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for almost three decades. After him, in 1987, Zain al-Abidin bin Ali started his despotic rule, until he was ousted in January 2011 in a popular uprising, which has seen the coming to power of the Islamic party, an-Nahdha, led by Rashed Ghannoushi. Tunisia covers an area of more than 163,000 sq km. it shares borders with Algeria and Libya and is situated south of the Mediterranean Sea.
On March 20, 2003 AD, the US and Britain attacked Iraq under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be a great lie, as no WMD was ever discovered. World opinion and the majority of countries considered the US-British invasion as illegal and in line with the illegitimate interests of controlling oil-rich Iraq. Over a million innocent Iraqis were killed over the past 8 years, and the only positive point was the ouster, trial and execution of the tyrannical dictator of the Ba’th minority regime, Saddam.
On March 21, 1968 AD, the Battle of Karameh in Jordan occurred between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the illegal Zionist entity, called Israel, which attacked a Palestinian camp. In this battle, at least 1230 Zionist troops were killed and dozens of their tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed or seized by the Palestinian guerrillas.
On March 22, 1945 AD, the Arab League was formed upon the proposal of the Egyptian king, Farouq, and endorsement by Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in the Egyptian Capital, Cairo. The goal behind the foundation of Arab League was to maintain the territorial integrity and independence of member states and to establish close political, economic, and cultural relations between the members. The Arab League today has become an impotent body, serving the interests of the US by creating disunity and seditions among Arab states.
On March 22, 1946 AD, the British withdrew from Jordan, which they had created in 1921 by dividing up Syria and placing Abdullah, the son of their Meccan agent, Sharif Hussain, as king, in return for his treacherous role in World War I against the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Jordan, which is a US client state and subservient to the illegal Zionist entity, Israel, covers an area of more than 90,000 sq km. It shares borders with Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and occupied Palestine. Over 75 percent of its people are Palestinians.
On March 22, 2004 AD, the physically blind but courageous religious scholar and leader of the Palestine Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, was martyred by the Zionist entity, after morning prayers at a mosque in Gaza, along with ten other Palestinians. Born in 1938, he started his struggles against Israel at high school and was detained several times. In 1987, he founded HAMAS, and two years later was detained and sentenced to life in prison, until exchanged in 1997 with two Zionist spies.
On March 24, 1989 AD, the Jame' Mosque of Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan was renovated and reopened to worshippers after 70 years. This mosque, which is a historical monument, was shut down in 1920 by the communists.
On March 25, 1994 AD, US occupation troops that had entered Somalia in December 1992 on the pretext of ending unrest, were forced to leave following the fierce resistance of Somali Muslims, who killed several hundred of the American occupiers. The fall of western-supported dictator, Mohammad Ziad Bareh, in 1991 and the failure to reach an agreement for formation of a coalition government had sparked a civil war, providing pretext to the US to send its soldiers under cover of UN peacekeeping forces, in order to establish a foothold in the Horn of Africa.
On 15th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal in 1301 AH, the first edition of the newspaper, “al-Urwat al-Wusqaâ€‌ was published in Paris, under the management of Iran's pan-Islamic activist Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi and Egypt's Shaikh Mohammad Abduh. In order to materialize the unity of the Islamic ummah, the paper was distributed in Europe, India, Egypt, Iran, and some other countries. It was banned under the political pressure of Britain and other colonial power.
On March 30, 1856 AD, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the 3-year long Crimean War, between expansionist Russia, on one side, and France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, and Prussia, on the other side. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the battles took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia and the Caucasus.
On March 30, 1976 AD, the major demonstrations of Land Day started in the Zionist usurped land of Palestine. In response to Israel’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of acres of Muslim land for so-called "security and settlement purposes", a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Naqab desert. In the ensuing confrontations, the Zionist army killed six Palestinians, injured over a hundred others, and arrested several hundreds. Every year on this day, the people of Palestine and other Muslim countries hold rallies denouncing the expansionist policies of the illegal Zionist entity.
On March 31, 1948 AD, with the intensification of terrorism by armed illegal Zionist migrants from Europe, a train bound from the Egyptian capital Cairo to the port city of Haifa in Palestine, was exploded, resulting in the death of 40 Palestinians and injury to 60 others. Carried out by the “Sternâ€‌ Zionist terrorist outfit, it occurred four days after a similar passenger train blast by Zionist terrorists in British-occupied Palestine, resulting in the martyrdom of 24 persons and wounding of 61 others. The illegal Zionist migrants from Europe conducted a campaign of organized terrorism in public places, villages, buses, and trains in Palestine, as part of the plot for the illegitimate birth of Israel in May 1948, after forcibly evicting Palestinians from their homes and hearths.
On March 31, 1979 AD, The Arab League suspended the membership of Egypt and the majority of Muslim countries severed ties with Cairo for signing of the treasonous Camp David Accord by Egyptian president, Anwar Saadaat with the illegal Zionist entity called Israel. However, due to US threats and pressures, coupled with the dubious policies of some Arab regimes, including the Palestine Liberation Organization of Yasser Arafat, the stage was set for the return to Egypt to The Arab League in the late 1980s.
On April 1, 1867 AD, the British forced the Sultan of Johor to cede Singapore and the surrounding 62 islands, which were later permanently separated from Muslim Malaysia and declared an independent country.
On April 1, 1946 AD, the Malayan Union was formed with its capital at Kuala Lumpur. The sultans of the various British-ruled Malay states agreed to its formation despite the loss of their political power. The Union ceased to exist in January 1948 and was replaced by the Federation of Malaya, and in 1963 it was joined by Sabah and Sarawak.
On April 2, 1991 AD, mercenaries of Saddam’s Ba’th minority regime violated the sanctity of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, in a bid to crush the uprising of Iraq’s long-suppressed Shi’ite Muslim majority. The Ba’thists desecrated the shrine of the Prophet’s First Infallible Successor, Imam Ali (AS) in Najaf, and that of his two sons, Imam Husain (AS) and Hazrat Abbas (AS) in Karbala. The holy shrines were riddled with machinegun fire and people mercilessly slaughtered inside their sacred precincts. The Iraqi people had risen for their rights while Saddam’s occupation forces were fleeing from Kuwait during the attack launched by the US and the coalition army it had assembled. But the US forces suddenly stopped their offensive and gave Saddam the green signal to brutally massacre hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi’ite Muslims and to desecrate the holy shrines.
On April 3, 1941 AD, during the struggles of the Iraqi people against the British regime and the foreign monarchy it had imposed upon them, Baghdad was taken over in a coup led by Prime Minister Rashid Aali Gilani, who resented London’s plot to involve Iraq in World War 2. The British forces brutally suppressed the uprising. Gilani, who was a member of a distinguished Sunni Muslim Iraqi family of Iranian origin, sought refuge in Iran. On 25 August the same year when Britain replaced its puppet in Tehran, Reza Khan Pahlavi, with his 21-year old son, Mohammad Reza, the nationalist Iraqi leader, sensing danger, left Iran for Berlin, where he was recognized as head of the Iraqi government in exile. With the defeat of Germany in the Second World War, he again fled and sought asylum in Saudi Arabia. Gilani returned to Baghdad from exile after the revolution that overthrew the British-imposed monarchy in 1958. Once again he made a bid for power by plotting against Colonel Abdul Karim Qassem's government. The revolt was foiled and he was sentenced to death. Later pardoned, he went into exile in Beirut, Lebanon, where he died in 1965.
On April 3, 2002, the Zionist army brutally attacked the city of Jenin as part of the campaign to terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank in a bid to end the Second Intefadha. Nearly 200 tanks, dozens of choppers, and 10,000 troops participated in the aggression, pounding Jenin continuously. Despite the power cut, severance of water supplies, and obstruction of relief aid, the Palestinian people and combatants resisted for nine days. Israel brutally suppressed and massacred hundreds of men, women and children; demolished their homes and hearths, hospitals, and the infrastructure; to the extent that 70% of the city was flattened and 5,000 Palestinians were made homeless.
On April 4, 1960 AD, France agreed to grant independence to the Mali Federation, formed on this date a year before as a union of Senegal and the French Sudan, which is now the Republic of Mali. The two countries, along with other West African lands were part of the Muslim Empire of Mali, which was gradually encroached upon by invaders from Europe, starting with the Portuguese and ending in 19th century with the French who looted the natural and human resources of this area. With the weakening of France during World War II, independence was finally granted on June 20, 1960. Shortly afterwards on 20 August 1960, the federation collapsed, when Senegal withdrew. Landlocked Mali and Senegal – which has a large coastline on the Atlantic Ocean – are two separate independent sovereign states in West Africa, and both predominantly Muslim.
On April 7, 1946 AD, Syria's independence from France was officially recognized. Greater Syria or Bilaad ash-Shaam, which for four centuries had been occupied by the Ottoman Turks, was seized by the Allied powers of Britain and France in 1917 during World War I. The victorious powers divided Syria between them, creating Jordan and Palestine for the British, and the modern states of Syria and Lebanon for France. Following independence from colonial rule, Syria went through instability for 24 years with frequent coups, counter-coups and overthrow of military and civilian governments that saw the rise and fall of more than a dozen regimes. The situation was stabilized and progress became possible, only with the coming to power in 1970 of President Hafez al-Assad, who during his 30-year rule made Syria a strong bulwark of resistance against the designs of the West and the illegal Zionist entity. He was succeeded in 2000 by his son, Dr. Bashshar al-Assad, who for the past 12 years has ably led the country, although at present he is facing an insurrection and state-sponsored terrorism incited by the US, Britain, France, Israel, Turkey and Arab reactionary states, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
On April 7, 1995 AD, during the First Chechen War, Russian paramilitary troops began a massacre of Muslim civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. The Russians were repulsed with a great loss, but in 1999 launched the Second Chechen War to finally occupy the oil-rich Caucasian republic of Chechnya. It is worth noting that Chechnya, along with Daghestan, the present day Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and eastern Georgia, was part of successive Iranian empires for the past two millenniums, before being occupied by the Russians, as per the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Gulistan imposed in 1913 on the Qajarid Dynasty.
On April 17, 2004 AD, Palestinian activist and Leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Dr. Abdul-Aziz Rantisi, was martyred when the car carrying him was targeted with missiles by Zionist choppers. Born in Palestine in 1947, he graduated in medicine from Egypt’s Alexandria University in 1967, and joined the struggle against the usurper state of Israel. He was imprisoned, tortured and exiled to “no man’s landâ€‌ on the frontier of Occupied Palestine with southern Lebanon, where the contact of Rantisi and his group with members of the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, positively changed their outlook, and infused new spirit into Hamas.
On April 18, 1954 AD, Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser seized power in Egypt by ousting revolutionary colleague President General Mohammad Najeeb and declaring himself as president. Nasser, who advocated pan Arabism and supported leftist anti-monarchic movements in Arab state, brutally suppressed Islamic parties, especially the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood), which are in power in Egypt today. He nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, a move that led to war with the British, French and Israel. His greatest shock was the defeat Egypt and three other Arab states suffered in the 6-day June 1967 war against the illegal Zionist entity, which with US and western help occupied the Sinai Peninsula including Egyptian-controlled Gaza. He died in 1970.
On April 18, 1996 AD, Zionist aircraft bombed headquarters of the UN Peacekeeping Forces in Qanaa, southern Lebanon, martyring at least 106 Lebanese women, children and elderly who had sought refuge. Hundreds of others were also injured in this dastardly attack. This slaughter of Lebanese refugees, of which 33 victims were minors, enraged world public opinion and forced the Zionists to stop bombardment. Meanwhile, the US blocked the passing of a resolution at the UN Security Council in condemnation of the mass murder. The UN General Assembly, however, issued its own resolution, condemning the crime and obliging the usurper state of Israel to pay compensation to the victims of the carnage. Although the Zionist entity has not pay any compensation for its heinous crimes in Lebanon, the condemnation of Israel at the UN General Assembly reflected the resentment of the international community toward the crimes of the illegal Zionists.
On April 19, 1807 AD, the British forces, following their failure to confront the Egyptians, withdrew from Alexandria. The British plot was to seize Egypt in order to pressure the Ottoman Empire, but the Egyptian ruler, Mohammad Ali Pasha, with the assistance of Egyptian people and ulema, who had issued a fatwa for Jihad against the invading troops, defended the country.
On April 8, 1970 AD, the Bahr al-Baqar massacre was carried out by aircraft of the illegal Zionist entity, which deliberately bombed an Egyptian school in the eastern province of Sharqiyya (80 km north of Cairo), resulting in the martyrdom of 46 children and injury to 50 others. Earlier, on February 12 the same year, Israeli warplanes had bombarded an Egyptian factory, martyring and wounding 168 workers. On March 31, 1970, Zionist warplanes pounded the city of Mansurah, martyring 12 civilians and wounding 35 others. The usurper state of Israel has a bleak and bloody record of crimes against humanity.
On April 9, 1948 AD, the Zionist terror group Irgun slaughtered residents of the Palestinian village of Dayr Yasin, west of Bayt al-Moqaddas. Some 270 men, women and children were massacred by these illegal migrants from Europe, as part of the plot to set up the illegal state of Israel.
On April 9, 2003 AD, with the advancement of the US army, Baghdad fell and Iraqis took to the streets to celebrate the end of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Saddam. In the next 8 years, the US killed, either directly or indirectly, as many as 1.2 million Iraqi men, women, and children, before withdrawing in December 2011.
On April 9, 2011 AD, Bahraini journalist, Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri, was tortured to death in prison by agents of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, a week after his arrest. He was the first journalist in Bahrain to die in direct relation to his work since the Committee to Protect Journalists started keeping records in 1992. He regularly reported on human rights, business, culture, and politics. Photos later surfaced of al-Ashiri's corpse, which displayed cuts and gashes, and added further evidence that he was beaten to death.
On April 10, 1973 AD, operatives of the illegal Zionist entity’s spy agency, Mossad, assassinated three Palestinian officials in the Lebanese Capital, Beirut, namely Kamal Naser, Kamal Adwan, and Mohammad Yousef Najjar. In 1983, on the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of these officials, Mossad agents martyred in Portugal Attam Sartawi, the political advisor of the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yaser Arafat. These crimes against humanity by the usurper state of Israel are proof of its terrorist nature and violation of territorial integrity and national sovereignty of other countries.
On April 13, 1975 AD, the cold-blooded killing of 26 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by the Israeli-backed Phalangist Christian militia, set off the 15-year Lebanese Civil War in which Israel, France, and the US were all brutally involved and indulged in unprintable atrocities.
On April 15, 1986 AD, the US attacked the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. The pretext for waging this attack was the US claims about involvement of Libya in an explosion in a restaurant in Germany, as the result of which three US soldiers were killed. During the US air raid on these two important Libyan cities, a number of innocent Libyan people were martyred and wounded. The US air strikes against Libyan civilian regions enraged Muslims and led to the international condemnation of Washington.
On April 16, 1948 AD, terrorist outfits set up by the illegal Zionists migrant to Palestine, martyred in cold blood 90 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others, while the British forces were evacuating this Muslim land by mischievously giving its control to the Zionists to set up the illegal entity called Israel. The result of these coordinated measures by the British and Zionists against Palestinians was the mass murder of a large number of Muslims and their homelessness that culminated in the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland and the illegitimate birth of Israel on May 14, 1948.
On April 16, 1997 AD, the explosion of a gas capsule led to a massive fire in Mena, 10 km from the holy city of Mecca, resulting in the death of 343 Hajj pilgrims and injury to 1290 others. Some 70,000 tents were burnt. This incident was the second major fire in Mena after the fire of December 1975 which killed thousands of Hajj pilgrims and scorched several thousand others. Such deadly incidents has led to the setting up of fire-proof tents.
On April 22, 1948 AD, the illegal European Zionist migrants in Palestine attacked and occupied the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, martyring 500 Palestinians and wounding several hundred others. When the terrified Palestinian women, children and old men fled to the harbor for possible evacuation to safe places, the Zionists brutally attacked them, martyring over 100 other innocent Palestinians and injuring more than 200. These and other massacres were a prelude to the illegitimate birth of Israel on Palestinian soil on May 14, 1948.
On April 22, 1961 AD, the actions of the French secret army for continued domination of Algeria resulted in the killing of at least 1200 people in the capital, Algiers. The backlash forced French president, General Charles de Gaulle, to grant autonomy to Algeria, but the Algerian combatants, who demanded complete independence, continued to confront the French troops. The concessions that de Gaulle granted to the Algerian Liberation Front were opposed by some French commanders and troops in Algeria. The secret army committed numerous crimes in Algeria, but it disintegrated with the detention of its leaders.
On April 23, 1993 AD, Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum. The capital is Asmara. Eritrea is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Its size is approximately 117,600 km with an estimated population of 6 million, of whom more than 60 percent are Muslims. It was occupied by the British in the 19th century and then by the Italians, after whose defeat in World War 2, it was seized by Ethiopia. The people are Semitic and of the many languages spoken in Eritrea today, Tigrinya and Arabic are the two predominant languages for official purposes. English and Italian are also widely understood.
On April 25, 1859 AD, ground was broken for the Suez Canal in Egypt. The first blow of the pickax was given by Ferdinand Vicomte de Lesseps at Port Sa’id. It was built to link the Mediterranean and the Red seas, and opened on 17th November 1869, thus materializing the age-old dreams of the Pharaohs, Emperor Darius I of the Persian Empire, the Fatemids, the Mamluks, and the Ottomans.
On April 26, 1964 AD, with the forced union of the Muslim populated Zanzibar Island with Tanganyika on the African mainland, following the overthrow of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and Pemba, the Republic of Tanzania was formed. Earlier in 1961 and 1963, the two countries of Zanzibar and Tanganyika had respectively gained independence from British colonial rule. Julius Nyerere who engineered the overthrow and annexation of Zanzibar is called the father of Tanzania, which is a federal republic. Some 50 percent of the people of Tanzania are Muslims, with many following the school of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.
On April 26, 1996 AD, the 16-day aggression of the Zionist entity on southern Lebanon, codenamed Grapes of Wrath, ended. During its savage land-air-sea attacks Israel destroyed most of the infrastructure as far as Beirut, martyring 180 men, women, and children, and wounding hundreds of others, but failed to weaken the Islamic Resistance, and had to withdraw as per UN Security Council Resolution 425. Four years later, the Zionists and their surrogate forces, the South Lebanese Army, were humiliated by the legendry anti-terrorist movement, Hezbollah, and forced to retreat from the Litani River and almost all of south Lebanon.
On April 27, 1960 AD, Togo in southwest Africa, gained independence from French colonial rule. The Togo people were abducted by the Portuguese and Spanish and sold as slaves in the Americas for several centuries. In 1858, Germany seized Togo and following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, France and Britain occupied and divided it between themselves. Togo covers an area of 56,000 sq km. Its Capital is Lome. It shares borders with Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Benin. Islam, which has over 30 percent adherents, is the fastest growing religion.
On April 27, 1961 AD, Sierra Leone in West Africa gained independence from British colonial rule. This land was occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century AD and its people were kidnapped and sold as slaves in Europe and the Americas. The British seized it in late 18th century. In 1971, ten years after independence, Sierra Leone became a republic. It has been wracked by coups and counter coups ever since. Sierra Leone has a coastline on The Atlantic Ocean and covers an area of 71,000 sq km, sharing borders with Guinea and Liberia. Some 75 percent of the population is Muslim.
On April 27, 1962, the noted statesman, Abu’l-Qassem Fazl ul-Haq, known as Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal), passed away at the age of 89 in Dhaka, in what was then known East Pakistan and is Bangladesh today. He was the senior figure of the Congress Party, but as Muslim he organised the Muslim League in 1920s, later led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He played a crucial role in drafting and presenting the Lahore Resolution and had active public position in British India advocating for the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s. After establishment of Pakistan, he was appointed as Chief Minister of East Bengal in 1952, and in 1955 became the Interior Minister of Pakistan. In 1956, he was appointed Governor-General of East Pakistan and led the United Front, presided over the provisional state until 1958. Sher-e-Bangla founded several educational and technical institutions for Bengali Muslims, including Islamia College in Calcutta and Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in Dhaka. Today throughout Bangladesh, educational institutions (e.g., Barisal Sher-e Bangla Medical College), roads, neighborhoods (Sher-e Bangla Nagor), and stadiums (Sher-e Bangla Mirpur Stadium) have been named after him. In Islamabad, Pakistan, the Fazl ul-Haq Road is named after him.
On April 28, 1978 AD, President Mohammed Daud Khan of Afghanistan was killed in a coup that in December 1979 led to the 10-year Soviet occupation of the country. A member of the ruling family, Daud, who had served as Prime Minister from 1953 to 1963 to his cousin, Zaher Shah, overthrew the king in 1973 and had declared himself as president. Coup leader, General Abdul-Qader, after killing Daud, installed leader of the People’s Democratic Party, Nour Mohammad Taraki as the new head of state. Soon, power was seized in another coup by communist party chief, Hafizullah Amin, and instability gripped the country, resulting in a third coup staged by Babrak Karmal who killed Amin and seized power. In December 1979, Karmal invited the Soviet Union’s army to occupy Afghanistan. He remained in power till 1987 with Moscow’s help before his dismissal and replacement by General Mohammad Najibollah. Following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989, the Afghan mujahideen intensified their operations to bring to its end the Najibollah regime in 1992, and setting up the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which has continued to be wracked by chaos and instability by various factions followed by the Taliban, and now the US occupation.