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Important Events in the Modern History of the Muslim World
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On July 12, 1946 AD, King David Hotel in Bayt al-Moqqadas was exploded by the Irgun Zionist terrorist group. This hotel accommodated numerous Palestinians, such that due to detonation of bombs, which were planted at the basement of this hotel, more than 200 people were killed. The presence of 15 Jews among the dead showed that the Zionists do not even value the lives of the Jews in pursuit of their expansionist goals.
On July 12, 2006 AD, the illegal Zionist entity launched a brutal war on Lebanon on the pretext of capture of two Israeli soldiers by the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah. The 33-day invasion, supported by the US and certain Arab reactionary regimes, was defeated by the Islamic resistance, which shattered the myth of invincibility of the military might of Israel. The cowardly Zionist entity, however, attached civilian areas, martyring a total of 1,200 men, women and children, in addition to destroying part of the infrastructure of southern Lebanon. Thanks to the people’s support for the Hezbollah, which retaliated with a steady barrage of attack on Israel that took a heavy toll of life in the usurper state, the Zionists were forced to halt the war and withdraw in a humiliating manner.
On July 14,1958 AD, the British installed monarchy of Iraq was overthrown by popular forces led by the Kurdish general, Abdul-Karim Qassem, who became the nation's new leader. Iraq was declared a republic after the end of the 37-year monarchial system that the British had imposed in 1921, against the wishes of the Iraqi people, by installing Faisal of Mecca as king in Baghdad, after crushing the popular uprising of the Iraqi people led by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Shirazi and Ayatollah Kashef al-Gheta. In the military coup, Faisal II, his uncle the former regent Prince Abdullah, and the pro-British premier, Nouri as-Sa'eed were killed, while trying to flee.
On July 14, 1968 AD, Afghan Muslim activist, Ismail Balkhi, attained martyrdom in Kabul at the age of 52. He was born near the city of Balkh, in northern Afghanistan. He studied Islamic sciences as of a young age and traveled to Iran and Iraq for completion of higher studies. He struggled against despotism and encouraged the Afghan people to stand up against the corrupt regimes, with emphasis on Islamic unity. As a result he was imprisoned for several years.
On July 9,1948 AD, after a month of cessation of hostilities, fighting broke out between Arabs and the illegal Zionist entity, which was supplied modern weapons by western regimes, especially the US. The usurper state of Israel occupied 78% of Palestinian soil, after uprooting 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and driving them into neighbouring states as refugees.
On July 9, 1972 AD, the Palestinian author and activist, Ghassan Kan’ani, along with his nephew, was assassinated by the Zionist regime’s notorious spy agency, Mossad. A senior official of the People’s Front for Liberation of Palestine, he was a victim of a car bomb planted by the Mossad agents in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Sixteen days later, Kan’ani’s deputy, Bassam Abu Sharif, was also critically wounded in a bomb explosion. The assassination of Palestinian officials around the world is pursued by the Zionist entity with the support western regimes. These dastardly acts of terrorism have never been condemned by the US and other western regimes, despite their claim to human rights.
On July 11, 1960 AD, the West African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, gained independence from several decades of French colonial rule. All three countries have Muslim majority populations.
On July 16, 1979 AD, Iraq’s first president of the repressive Ba’th minority regime, General Hasan Ahmad al-Bakr, was ordered by his masters in London and Washington to resign and hand over power to his more brutal vice-president, Saddam, five months after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Saddam instantly launched a reign of terror by imprisoning and murdering prominent religious and political leaders of the long-suppressed Arab Shi’ite majority, including the reputed scholar, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer as-Sadr. He also suppressed the ethnic Sunni Kurds of the north and expelled tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens on the pretext of being of Iranian origin. In September 1980, at the behest of the US, he launched a brutal war on the Islamic Republic of Iran which raged for 8 years. In 1990, he occupied Kuwait and was driven out seven months later by an international coalition. Finally, with his downfall in 2003 at the hands of his own backers, the Americans, 34 years of brutal Ba’th minority rule came to its end.
On July 16, 2008 AD, Lebanon’s legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, in another victory, in return for the handover of the bodies of two Zionist occupation soldiers, forced Israel to release five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of nearly 200 Lebanese martyrs. The exchange took place following indirect negotiations, with the mediation of Germany. It is worth noting that Zionist spy agencies did not know till the exchange that the two Zionist soldiers had been killed in the initial moments of Israel’s 33-day war on Hezbollah. Among the liberated Lebanese, were individuals from other groups, such as Samir Qantar, who spent almost thirty years in Zionist dungeons.
On July 17,1968 AD, a coup hatched in Baghdad with British help removed Colonel Abdur-Rahman Aref and put the repressive Ba'th minority party in power, with General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr as the Iraqi president, and Saddam as vice president. For 35 years the Ba’thists terrorized Iraq and imposed the 8-year war on Iran, until their overthrow by their own masters, the Americans in 2003.
On July 17,1973 AD, King Mohammed Zaher Shah of Afghanistan was deposed by his cousin, brother-in-law, and former Prime Minister, Mohammed Daoud Khan, while in Italy for eye surgery, after a reign of 40 years. Five years later, Daoud who ruled as president after abolishing the monarchy, was killed in a coup staged by communists. Zaher Shah returned to Afghanistan as a private citizen in 2002 after an absence of 29 years, and died in 2007 at the age of 93.
On July 18, 1988 AD, the Islamic Republic of Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598, for ceasefire in the 8-year war imposed by the US through Saddam. Saddam and his Ba'thists continued their aggressions until the official establishment of ceasefire a month later.
On July 20, 1951 AD, King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated by a Palestinian in Bayt al-Moqaddas following the Arab defeat in the 1948 Israeli war, after a reign of 30 years over a pseudo country created by the British out of Greater Syria as a reward for the treason of his father, Sharif Hussain of Hejaz against the Ottoman Turks. Born in Mecca in 1882 into a family claiming Hashemite descent and ruling the two holy cities for several centuries before ouster by the Wahhabi brigands of Najd, he was succeeded by his son Talal, who was forced to abdicate a year later by his British masters in favour of his own teenaged son, Hussein (died 1999), the father of the present king, Abdullah II.
On July 20, 1974 AD, Turkish forces landed on Cyprus on the invitation of local Turkish Muslim Cypriot leader, Raoof Denktash, after a coup d’état by Greece to take over the entire island. Since then Cyprus is divided into the northern one-third controlled by Turks and the southern two-thirds controlled by the Greeks. UN measures for unity of this island state have remained inconclusive to this day. Cyprus first came under Muslim rule in the latter half of the 7th century AD when Arabs from Syria landed on it, before its reoccupation by the Greek Byzantine Empire for the next two centuries. It fell to the Venetians in the 15th century, and in 1570 was formally taken over by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, whose rule lasted till 1914 and the beginning of World War 1, although in 1878 it was leased to the British, and was practically occupied by them.
On July 21,1970 AD, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 18 years of work. It is a huge rock-filled dam that lies just north of the border between Egypt and Sudan. It captures the world's longest river, the Nile, in the world's third largest reservoir, Lake Nasser. Built with Soviet aid at a cost of $1 billion, it now produces hydroelectricity meeting 50% of Egypt's power needs. It holds several years of irrigation reserves, assists multi-cropping, has increased productivity 20-50%, enormously increased Egypt's arable land, and overall, increased Egypt's agricultural income by 200%. The embankment is 111 meters high, with a width of near 1,000 meters. Lake Nasser is 480 long and up to 16 km wide.
On July 22, 1961 AD, France landed 7,000 troops on Bizerte, in Northeast Tunisia, following the blockade of this port city by the Tunisian army and navy, after the French refused to evacuate it. Due to Bizerte's strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea, France had kept control of Bizerte even after Tunisia gained its independence in 1956. The three day battle resulted in over 700 dead and 1,300 wounded. The French military finally abandoned Bizerte on 15 October 1963.
On July 22, 2002 AD, while Palestinian women and children were asleep at night, Zionist aircraft attacked the Gaza Strip with F-16 jetfighters, martyring Commander of the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, Sheikh Salah Shahadeh, along with 16 civilians, while over 150 others sustained injuries. Nine innocent children were among the martyrs of this air raid. Sheikh Salah Shahadeh, who was martyred in this terrorist attack along with his wife and daughter, had spent a total of 12 years in the Zionist regime’s dungeons and was tortured on several occasions.
On July 23, 1952 AD General Mohammad Najib led the Free Officers Movement (formed by Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouq and thus ending a century and half rule of the Khedive dynasty of Egypt founded by the Ottoman Albanian General, Mohammad Ali Pasha.
On July 23, 1970 AD, Qaboos Ibn Sa’id became Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Sa’id Ibn Taimur. Educated at Pune (India) and Britain, he never remarried after divorcing his wife after a brief marriage in the 1970s, nor has he any children.
On July 23, 1999 AD, Morocco's King Hassan II died at the age of 70 after ruling for 38 years. He was a repressive ruler and brutally suppressed any opposition. At the same time, he was over friendly with the enemies of Islam, especially the illegal Zionist entity, despite the claim of his family to be descendents of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad VI.
On July 23, 2007 AD, Mohammad Zaher Shah, the former King of Afghanistan, died as a private citizen in Kabul at the age of 93 years. In 1973, he was deposed by his cousin, brother-in-law, and former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan, while in Italy for eye surgery, after a reign of 40 years – having ascended the throne in 1933 on the assassination of his father, Mohammad Nader Shah, the British installed king. On his return to Afghanistan in 2002 after an absence of 29 years, Zaher Shah was given the honourary title “Father of the Nation”.
On July 24, 1921 AD, The League of Nations arbitrarily handed over to Britain the mandate to govern the former Ottoman provinces of Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan, while France was given control of Syria and Lebanon, as per the plan drawn to traumatize the fate of Muslim lands after World War 1 and to finally implant in the region the illegal Zionist entity called Israel.
On July 24, 1944 AD, the last self-styled Ottoman caliph, Abdul Majid II, died in his exile in Paris, France at the age of 76, twenty years after the caliphate was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ata Turk, thus ending the caliphate of the Turks that Sultan Selim I had forcefully acquired in 1517 from the Abbasid puppet caliph in Cairo, on his conquest of Mamluk Egypt, following a fatwa issued by court mullahs that non Arabs could also become caliphs. The caliphate or political rule of the Islamic state had begun in Medina immediately after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) when some of his companions held the scandalous assembly of Saqifa Bani Sa’dah, where after fistfights Omar Ibn Khattab grabbed the hand of a surprised Abu Bakr and declared him caliph. Thereafter, except for a brief four-and-a-half year period when the Prophet’s rightful heir, the divinely-decreed vicegerent of Ghadeer-Khom, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS) took charge of the political rule of the Islamic realm, those who masqueraded as caliphs included former idol-worshippers, hypocrites, drunkards, mass murderers, adulterers, cardinal sinners, and even atheists.
Abdul-Majid, who was buried in Medina, had been caliph for less than two years and never had any political power. In 1918, when his cousin Vahideddin Mohammad VI became Sultan, he was named Crown Prince, and on 1st November, 1922 with the abolishment of the Sultanate, he was elected caliph by the Turkish National Assembly on 19 November 1922, before being stripped of his position and expelled from Turkey on 3 March 1924. He married his children into the ruling families of other countries, but they also were not destined to rule. Hi daughter from his third marriage, Princess Khadija Khairiyya Ayesha Durr-e Shahwar was married in 1931 to the Prince of Berar Azam Jah, the son of Asef Jah VII Osman Ali Khan, the Ruler of Hyderabad Deccan in India, who lost his throne in 1948. His granddaughter, Fatema Nazlishah Sultan (daughter of his eldest son Prince Omar Farouq and maternal granddaughter of last Ottoman Sultan Mohammad VI) was married to Prince Mohammad Abdul-Moneim, son of Egypt's last Khedive, Abbas Hilmi II, who briefly served as head of regency council for Egypt’s deposed king, Farouq’s enthroned infant son, Fouad, before the end of monarchy.
On July 25,1938 AD, two separate explosions in green grocery markets in Palestine martyred 62 Palestinians and wounded almost 100 others. Zionist terrorist outfits had planted the two bombs to terrorize and drive away Palestinians from their homes and hearths, as part of the plan to set up the illegal state called Israel.
On July 25,1993 AD, the usurper state of Israel launched a barbaric attack on southern Lebanon, martyring 128 civilians and wounding 500 others, in addition to making more than 400,000 people homeless. Moreover, major losses and damages were inflicted upon Lebanon’s economic installations and farms. The resistance of the Lebanese people forced the Zionist entity to end its attacks. Finally in May 2000, Zionist occupation troops were forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
On July 26, 1956 AD, the Suez Canal was nationalized by Egypt. Built in 1896 by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, to shorten the marine route between Europe and Asia, the revenues of the Suez Canal were monopolized by Britain and France until the nationalization, which brought about a joint British, French, and Zionist attack on Egypt. International pressure coupled with the resistance of the Egyptian people, forced the invaders to evacuate their forces and reluctantly agree to Egyptian administration of the Suez.
On July 26, 1965 AD, the Maldives Archipelago in South Asia gained its independence. These Muslim populated islands were occupied by the Portuguese in early 16th Century. Thereafter, the Dutch, French, and finally in late 19th Century, the British occupied these islands. Britain granted autonomy to the Maldives in 1965. The Maldives archipelago consists of 2,000 islands, covering an area of 298 sq km. These Islands are situated in south of the Subcontinent in the Indian Ocean.
On July 27, 1880 AD, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghan forces led by Shir Ali Ayub Khan defeated the British Army in a battle near Maiwand.
On July 30, 2006 AD, during the 33-day Israeli War, at least 28 civilians, including 16 children were martyred in Qana, southern Lebanon, in an air raid by Zionist planes, in what is known as the Second Qana massacre. The myth of invincibility of the illegal Zionist entity was shattered by the Islamic Resistance, led by the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah.
On August 2,1990 AD, Saddam, the tyrannical ruler of the repressive Ba'th minority regime of Iraq, occupied Kuwait, on getting a green signal from the US through its ambassador in Baghdad, April Gillespie. Soon the US denied any involvement and assembled an international military force to drive out Saddam after some seven months of his occupation of Kuwait. When Iraq’s long-suppressed Shi’ite Arab majority, rose to rid the country of the Ba’th minority regime, the US ordered Saddam to massacre the masses and desecration the holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala.
On July 14, 1874 AD, the last Khedive (Persian word for Prince) of Egypt and Sudan, Abbas II, was born. Named Abbas Hilmi Pasha, he was the great-great-grandson Mohammad Ali Pasha, the founder of Egypt’s Albanian Muslim Dynasty, and in 1892 succeeded his father, Towfiq Pasha, as ruler. Because of his opposition to British meddling and his sympathies with the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, he was deposed in 1914, and replaced by his uncle Hussain Kamel, whom the British granted the title of Sultan and formally declared Egypt as their ‘protectorate’, thus ending nominal Ottoman suzerainty. The 150-year rule of the Mohammad Ali Pasha Dynasty, ended in 1952 with the ouster of King Farouq in the military coup led by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, whose uniformed heirs continue to deny the Egyptian Muslim people their democratic right to determine their own destiny, as was evident earlier this month by the US-backed military’s overthrow of President Mohammad Morsi, the head of the year-long first ever freely elected government of Egypt.
On July 21, 1718 AD, The Treaty of Passarowitz was signed between the Ottoman Empire on one side, and the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Republic of Venice on the other side. During the years 1714-1718, the Ottomans had been successful against Venice in Greece and Crete, in the Ottoman-Venetian War, but, in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718, they had been defeated at Petrovaradin (1716). The treaty reflected the military situation. The Ottoman Empire lost the Banat and southeastern Syrmia, central part of present-day Serbia (from Belgrade to south of Krusevac), and a tiny strip of northern Bosnia to Austria. Venice renounced claim to the Peloponnesus Peninsula and Crete, retaining only the Ionian Islands and the cities of Preveza and Arta. The result of the treaty was restoration of Habsburg rule over much of the territory of present-day Serbia, which had been lost during the Great Turkish war between 1688 and 1699.
On July 21, 1774 AD, the 6-year Russo-Turkish War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, according to which the weakened Ottoman Empire lost Southern Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, and Crimea to expansionist Russia.
On July 21,1783 AD, the Russians taking advantage of the weakness of Iran flexed their military muscles in the Caucasus by declaring Georgia as their protectorate. The Georgians, which for over two millenniums were part of the Persian Empire, were banned from maintaining direct relations with either Iran or the Ottoman Turks.
On July 22,1783 AD, the Russians taking advantage of the weakness of Iran flexed their military muscles in the Caucasus by declaring Georgia as their protectorate. The Georgians, which for over two millenniums were part of the Persian Empire, were banned from maintaining direct relations with either Iran or the Ottoman Turks.
On July 23, 1821 AD, Christian rebels stormed the Monemvasia Castle in the Ottoman Province of “Yunanistan” (as the land known as Greece today was called during almost four centuries of Turkish rule), and massacred over 3,000 Muslims. The rebels, taking advantage of the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, resorted to organized killings of Muslims and destruction of mosques that made the Sultan in Istanbul call on the Egyptian governor, Mohammad Ali Pasha, to crush the rebellion. The Egyptian forces led by the governor’s son, Ibrahim Pasha, arrived in “Yunanistan” and quickly restored order to this Ottoman Province by crushing the rebels. This gave a pretext to Britain, France and Russia to intervene and internationalize the rebellion, which because of direct European military measures forced the Egyptians and Ottomans to retreat by 1830, when as per the London Protocol, a new country with the ancient name of Greece, was created. The Greeks immediately set about the ethnic cleansing of Turks and Muslims through massacres and expulsion, as well as conversion of mosques into Churches, so that today hardly any trace of several centuries of Ottoman rule remains.
On August 5, 1952 AD, Egyptian nuclear scientist, Sameera Musa, was killed in a mysterious accident in the US at the age of 35, and it is widely believed that this budding Muslim lady scientist was the victim of foul play by the CIA and Mossad. After obtaining a doctorate in atomic radiation – the first woman to do so – she worked to make the medical use of nuclear technology affordable to all. She organized the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference and sponsored a call for setting an international conference under the banner "Atom for Peace". She used to say: "I will make nuclear treatment as cheap as Aspirin". She also volunteered to help treat cancer patients at various hospitals. She was offered scholarship by the Fullbright Atomic Program of the US, but on visiting the US, she turned down offers that required her to live there and be granted American citizenship. On the eve of her return home, she was invited to a trip to California, and on the way the car suddenly went down from a height of 40 feet, which killed her immediately. Later it was proved that the invitation letter was false, and besides the vanishing of the driver who jumped from the car just before it went down, it was revealed that Egypt's Jewish actress Raqya Ibrahim (Rachel Abraham), with connections to Israel, was behind Sameera's mysterious trip to California.
On August 5, 1960 AD, the West African Muslim majority country of Burkina Faso became independent from French colonial rule. Formerly known as Upper Volta, it covers an area of more than 274,000 sq km. and shares borders with Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Niger. Over 70 percent of the people are Muslims.
On August 5, 1990 AD, during the 19th round of ministerial meetings of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Cairo, the Declaration of Islamic Human Rights was approved and this day was designated as the Day of Islamic Human Rights and Mankind’s Dignity. The Declaration consists of a prelude and 25 articles. It was the result of the objection of Islamic states to the flawed UN Declaration of Human Rights. The most important feature, which distinguishes the Declaration of Islamic Human Rights from the UN version, is the focus on spiritual rights and dignity of mankind on the basis of religion. The Declaration of Islamic Human Rights also emphasizes on the right of nations to struggle against colonialism.
On August 7, 1960 AD, the African country of Ivory Coast gained its independence from the French who had seized it in 1891 from the Portuguese. Ivory Coast covers an area of 332463 sq km. It is situated in western Africa and lies on the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean, sharing borders with Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. The northern parts of the country embraced Islam almost a millennium ago and are entirely made up of Muslims, who account for over 40 percent of the overall population.
On August 7, 1982 AD, an agreement was signed by the US, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) for the exit of PLO armed forces from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, following the 80-day resistance of the Palestinians against the Israel invasion of Lebanon. PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, thus gave in to pressure and agreed to pullout 12,000 Palestinian fighters. Although the withdrawal of PLO forces from Lebanon dealt a blow to this Organization and set the stage for compromise with the Zionist regime; the Zionists thereafter faced the crushing blows of the newly emergent combatants of the Lebanon’s Islamic Resistance led by the Hezbollah that forced Israel troops to flee Lebanon in the year 2000.
On July 17, 1913 AD, French Muslim philosopher and thinker, Professor Roger Garaudy, was born in Marseilles. He had PhDs in philosophy, literature, mysticism, and culture and civilizations. During the German occupation of France in World War 2, he was locked up in Labour camps for three years from 1940 to 1943 for activities against Fascism and Nazism. For 36 years he was a senior member of the French Communist Party, before his conversion to Islam as a result of the impact on Europe of the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
His courage in exposing the Zionists and their evil made him a target of the enemies of humanity. The publication of his book: “The Case of Israel: A Study of Political Zionism” led to his trial, and his other book: “The Founding Myths of Modern Israel” once again infuriated the Zionists. Garaudy was tried in France for exposing the myth of the Holocaust. He wrote several books, including “Promesses de I’Islam”. Professor Garaudy passed away on June 13, 2012 at the age of 99 years.
On August 9, 1965 AD, Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia and became the first and only country to date to gain independence unwillingly. In 1819, the British were leased what is now Singapore by the Sultan of Johor, and after independence from British rule, joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. The Singapore Islands cover an area of 622 sq km.
On August 11, 1960 AD, Chad gained independence from French colonial rule. It was occupied in the late 19th century and early 20th century AD. Over 60 percent of the people are Muslim. The 25-percent odd Christian population is the result of forced conversion by the French. Chad covers an area of 1.28 million sq km. It is situated in central Africa and shares borders with Libya, Cameroon, Sudan, Central Africa, Nigeria, and Niger.
On August 11, 2009 AD, the 6th round of confrontations broke out between the Yemeni army and Shi’ite Muslims of the Sa'da region of northern Yemen, who are often called Houthis, because of their affiliation to the al-Houthi Zaydi clan. In this phase of the struggle, Saudi Arabia, which is in occupation of vast areas of Yemen, deployed its ground and air forces to help the Yemeni army suppress the Houthis, but it failed and retreated in humiliation. In this round of confrontations, hundreds of Yemeni Shi'ites were martyred and nearly 200,000 people were made homeless.
On August 12, 1976 AD, over 3,500 Palestinian refugees were massacred by the Zionist-backed Christian Phalangist militia of Lebanon at the Tel az-Zaatar camp, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War. The camp, located northeast of Beirut was burnt to the ground.
On August 13, 1918 AD, Noor Mohammad Hassan-Ali, the first Trinidadian of Indian origin to hold the office of President and the first Muslim head of state in the Americas, was born in San Fernando. After graduating from Canada and qualifying as a lawyer from Britain, he returned to his homeland Trinidad to practice law and after serving as a member of the Senate, rose to become the Chief Judge. He won the 1987 elections and served as president for two 5-year successive terms till 1997. As a Muslim, Hassan-Ali chose not to serve alcoholic beverages during functions at the President's House. He was married to Mrs. Zalayhar Mohammed and had two children, Khalid and Amena. He died on August 25, 2006.
On August 14, 1971 AD, Britain ended its physical presence in Bahrain by declaring it independent, after reaching a deal two years earlier with the Pahlavi regime of Iran against reclaiming it, since for ages it was part of successive Persian Empires. The British, however, have continued to exercise behind-the-scenes control over the affairs of Bahrain, along with the US, which has based its 5th naval fleet on this Persian Gulf island state. For the past two-and-a-half years, Bahrain is the scene of public protests by the vast majority of people against the repressive rule of the minority regime of Aal-e Khalifa – originally pirates from the Khor Abdullah waterway between Kuwait and Iraq’s Basra, who had occupied Bahrain in the early 1800s by taking advantage of Iran’s weakness, and then sought British protection. Site of the ancient Dilmun civilization and famous for its pearls, on the advent of Islam Bahrain became an important centre for the followers of the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt and has produced prominent ulema. Despite the presence of troops from Saudi Arabia – called by the ruling regime to brutally suppress the people – Bahrainis have continued their peaceful protests, and declared August 14 this year as the start of the civil disobedience movement in order to achieve real independence.
On August 14, 2006 AD, following the issuance of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and its acceptance by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Zionist entity, Israel's 33-day war ended. The war was a US-Zionist plot, backed by reactionary Arab regimes, to try to destroy Lebanon's legendry anti-terrorist movement. But people's resistance, coupled with the military prowess of the Hezbollah, shattered the myth of military invincibility of Israel with tanks, ships and aircraft reduced to junk. Over 4,000 missiles fired into occupied Palestine by the Hezbollah endeared the movement and its dynamic leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrollah, to Arab and other Muslims worldwide, including conscientious thinkers in the West.
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