Important Events in the Contemporary Muslim World

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
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 14,1974 AD, following the massacre of over 125 Muslims in Cyprus, the Turkish government dispatched troops to take control of the northern area of this island, which used to be part of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries until Britain’s forcing of the 1878 Cyprus Convention on Istanbul to take over the Mediterranean Sea’s 3rd largest and most populous island that had a Muslim majority. Though the Ottomans retained nominal suzerainty, it was obvious that Cyprus was lost by the Muslim World, since the British lost no time in changing demographic patterns and making it a virtual Greek island. Today two-thirds of Cyprus is administered by Greeks, while the rest is called the â€کbreakaway’ Turkish republic of Cyprus.
On September 3, 1918 AD, following the end of World War 2, the historical and ancient Islamic city, Damascus, was occupied by British troops, as part of the European plot to destroy the Ottoman Empire. Britain, along with France occupied most of the West Asian Arab lands of the Turkish sultans. Syria and Damascus were handed over to France by the British, and gained independence in 1944 during World War 2.
On August 14, 2006 AD, following the issuance of 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 at the Zionist entity 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.
On August 15, 1990 AD, Saddam, the head of Iraq's repressive Ba'th minority regime, who a decade earlier on the eve of his invasion of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the 8-year war, had torn in front of TV cameras the 1975 Iran-Iraq Algiers border accord, ate the humble pie to reaffirm the said accord, in an official letter to Iranian president, Hojjat ol-Islam Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Saddam's US-inspired dream of overthrowing the Islamic Republic and seizing Iran's border provinces, were thwarted by Iran's Muslim combatants.
On August 15, 2005 AD, because of Palestinian resistance, the Zionist regime was forced to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which it had occupied in 1967. Israel continues to keep the West Bank under its control despite the 1993 agreement with the PLO to evacuate it. Gaza and its 1.5 million people are under siege for the past several years, and in 2008-2009 it was subjected to the 22-day holocaust unleashed by Israel.
On August 17,1945 AD, Ahmad Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the independence of Indonesia, igniting the National Revolution against Dutch colonial rule. Four years later, thanks to the people's uprising, Indonesia emerged as an independent country. In 1956, total independence was achieved and Sukarno was elected the first president. Some 210 million or 88 percent of the population is Muslim, making Indonesia the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, although non-Muslim India has the world’s largest population of Muslims – around 240 million.
On August 17, 1960 AD, Gabon in West Africa, gained its independence after four centuries of European colonial rule and the wanton plundering of its natural resources, in addition to the enslavement of its people. Gabon covers an area of 267,000 sq km. It shares borders with the Central African Republic, Congo, Cameroon, and Guinea. Some 20 percent of the population is Muslim, while the rest are made up of indigenous religions and Christianity.
On August 20,1960 AD, Senegal broke away from the Mali Federation only two months after its formation on freedom from French colonial rule, and declared itself independent. 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 the 19th century with the French, who wantonly looted the natural and human resources of this area. Senegal has a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and shares borders with Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau. It covers an area of almost 196,000 sq km, and 94% of the population is Muslim.
On August 20,1998 AD, the US attacked Afghanistan and Sudan with scores of long-range missiles on the allegation that the blasts that rocked the US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) were by elements based in Afghanistan and Sudan. The US claimed that it destroyed a chemical weapons factory in Sudan but the target turned out to be a pharmaceutical plant. As noted by political observers the missile attacks ordered by President Bill Clinton were based on trumped up charges to deflect public attention from his sexual scandal with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
On August 22, 1950 AD, Egypt’s Hassan Abdur-Rahim, the first Muslim to swim the English Channel between Britain and France, did it for the 3rd and won the Daily Mail race. In all, he successfully swam across the English Channel four times – 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1951.
On August 20,1969 AD, fire was ignited in Islam’s former Qibla (focal point of prayer), the al-Aqsa Mosque in Bayt al-Moqaddas by the Zionists. The usurper state of Israel attributed the arson attack to an Australian tourist and detained him, but a court in Tel Aviv released him on the pretext of being mentally ill. Muslims throughout the world held protest rallies, compelling heads of Muslim states to establish the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to counter the threats against Islamic sanctities.
On August 24, 1929 AD, the uprising of the Wailing Wall started in Bayt al-Moqaddas, a week after the illegal Zionist migrants from Europe had attacked Palestinian Muslims at this place on the western side of the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque. The uprising quickly spread as a result of which the British occupiers imposed martial law. For a week, the British security forces in league with armed Zionist terrorist gangs brutally confronted the Palestinians, resulting in the death of many people and injury to several others. Over 800 Palestinians were tried in the Kangaroo courts of the British and given various sentences for defending their homes and hearths against the illegal armed Zionist intruders.
On August 30, 1987 AD, the renowned Palestinian designer and caricaturist, Naji al-Ali, who was assassinated by the Zionist regime’s spy agency, Mossad agents, in London, passed away after 38 days in coma. Born in Palestine in 1937, he was forced to leave his homeland in the company of his family and to reside in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon in the wake of the Zionist usurpation of Palestine. Being aware of the hardships of Palestinians and the heinous crimes committed by the Zionists, and given his sublime talent in arts, he turned to designing and caricatures to reveal the despicable crimes of the Zionist regime. Finally Mossad terrorists assassinated him on his way to his office in London on July 22, 1987, and he passed away on this day in the same year. Six months after the death of this courageous Palestinian artist, the International Publishers Union granted the freedom golden pen award to him.
On August 30, 1991 AD, the Republic of Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. This land has been integral part of Iran since pre-history, and was occupied by the Russians in the early 19th century. Following the Russian revolution, Azerbaijan became independent as a republic as of the year 1918. But, this independence was short-lived and only lasted for two years. In late 1980s, on the verge of Soviet Union’s collapse, the independence-seeking activities increased in Azerbaijan Republic. The Republic of Azerbaijan officially declared its independence on August 30, 1991, while it was at loggerheads with its neighbor, Armenia, about the Qarabagh region, which continues to this day. The Republic of Azerbaijan is situated in West Asia and lies on the coastlines of the Caspian Sea. It covers an area of almost 86600 sq km and shares borders with Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia.
On August 31, 1957 AD, Malaysia became independent from British colonial rule. The Malay people in what is now Malaysia and Indonesia had gradually converted to Islam as of the 13th century. With the infiltration of Europeans, the Malay speaking lands were occupied in the 17th century by Holland, which in 1824 was forced to give up to Britain several sultanates that joined together as Malaysia, while it kept Indonesia under its control as the Dutch East Indies. The Federation of Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy. It covers an area of nearly 330,000 sq km, and shares borders with Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia.
On August 31, 1978 AD, the Iranian religious scholar and leader of Lebanon’s Shi'ite Muslims, Imam Seyyed Musa Sadr, went missing during his visit to Libya. Born in 1928 in the holy city of Qom, where he studied at the Islamic seminary, he later graduated from Tehran University. He was invited to Lebanon following the passing away of the famous scholar Allamah Seyyed Sharaf od-Din Musawi. At the time, the Lebanese Muslims were living under the worst social, political, and economic conditions. Hence, Imam Musa Sadr took a number of important measures to improve their status, and set up the Supreme Shi'ite Council. He backed the Palestinians’ struggles against the illegal Zionist entity, Israel. He fell victim to the sedition of Libyan dictator, Mo'ammar Qadhafi, who after officially inviting him to Tripoli, imprisoned and tortured him to death.
On August 31, 1991 AD, the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union. As of 6th century BC, this region was part of successive Iranian empires, and was the seat of power of the Iranian-Muslim Samanid Dynasty in the early centuries of Islamic rule. In the 13th century, the region saw an influx of Turkic peoples, followed by the Mondol onslaught of Genghiz Khan that destroyed the rich civilization of the Persian-speaking cities of Samarqand and Bukhara. Later the stage was set for domination of Uzbek ethnicity in this land, before its occupation by the Russians in the 19th century. Uzbekistan covers an area of more than 447,000 sq km and shares borders with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.
On August 31, 1991 AD, the Central Asian Muslim country of Kyrgyzstan became independent from the Soviet Union. The entry of Kyrgyz ethnicity to what is now Kyrgyzstan started during the Mongol Empire in 13th century. As of the year 1876, Kyrgyzstan came under the domination of Russia. The Kyrgyz Muslim people launched several uprisings and continued to resist till 1922, when they were brutally suppressed by the Soviets. Kyrgyzstan covers an area of 198,000 sq km and shares borders with China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
On August 31, 2005 AD, over two thousand Muslim pilgrims lost their life during a general stampede on hearing rumours of bomb blasts on the Jasr al-Aimmah Bridge over the River Tigris connecting the Baghdad suburbs of Kazemain and Azamiyya, on 25 Rajab the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
On August 31, 2011 AD, 14-year old Ali Jawad ash-Sheikh was brutally martyred on Bahrain’s Sitra Island by forces of the repressive minority regime of the Persian Gulf Island state, during a peaceful protest rally. The boy who died in the hospital had injuries under his chin and bruises on his face, hand, knees and pelvic area.
On September 1, 1969 AD, Colonel Mu’ammar Qadhafi seized power in the North African country of Libya through a military coup, while King Mohammad Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment. For the next 42 years until his downfall and killing in August 2011, Qadhafi, was in power in Libya through his covert ties with the US and Western Europe, although he claimed to be revolutionary and followed the socialist policies of the Soviet Union. He treated oil-rich Libya as his personal property and through his eccentric policies tarnished the image of Islam, especially by his brutal killing of the venerable Iranian-Lebanese religious leader, Imam Musa Sadr, who was invited to Tripoli and then imprisoned and tortured to death, while Qadhafi lied to the whole world that Imam Sadr had left Libya.
On September 3, 1971 AD, the small Qatar Peninsula, jutting into the Persian Gulf from mainland Arabia, emerged as an independent country after some 55 years of colonial rule by the British, who had seized it after backing the revolt of the Aal-e Thani tribe against 45 years of Ottoman hegemony (1871-1916). Before the Ottomans, Qatar was until 1868 under the occupation of Bahrain’s Aal-e Khalifa pirate-rulers, which had seized this area on the weakening of Iranian power in the Persian Gulf in the late 18th century. Qatar, which along with the eastern coast of Arabia was known as “Greater Bahrainâ€‌ in history, converted to Islam in 628 AD, when Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), sent his envoy Ala al-Hadhrami to al-Mundhir Ibn Sawa at-Tamimi, the ruler of Bahrain (which extended from the coast of Kuwait to Qatar and its south in what is now Saudi Arabia, including al-Ahsa, as well as the Bahrain Islands). On independence, Qatar joined the United Arab Emirates Confederation, but soon withdrew from it. Qatar presently serves as a base of US intruding forces in the Persian Gulf, and has aligned itself with the illegal Zionist entity, Israel, to fund terrorist groups trying to destabilize Syria.
On September 9, 1991 AD, the Central Asian country of Tajikistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Since the 6th century BC, Tajikistan was part of the Iranian empires of the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sassanid Dynasties. After the advent of Islam, it became part of the caliphate and subsequently was an integral part of the Bukhara-based Iranian Muslim Samanid Dynasty. It fell to waves of Turkic conquerors and in the 19th century was occupied by the Russians. The people speak Tajik, a form Persian language. Tajikistan covers an area of more than 143,000 sq km, and shares borders with China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan.
On September 9, 2001 AD, Ahmad Shah Mas’oud, leader of the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan was assassinated by two al- Qaeda terrorists disguised as Arab journalists wanting an interview. One of the main commanders of Afghan combatants and the minister of defense of the interim government of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Mas’oud was born in 1952, and fought the Soviet communist forces during the years 1979-to-1989. He was a highly skilled commander, such that Soviet forces and his other opponents, such as Taliban failed to occupy the region under his authority, known as Panjshir Valley. He fought the Taliban, who were supported by Pakistan and the US. As the leader of Afghan Northern Alliance he defeated the Taliban on several occasions. After the assassination of Ahmad Shah Mas’oud, the Taliban also didn't last long and the Northern Alliance forces completely defeated the Taliban.
On September 10, 1954 AD, a major earthquake jolted southwestern Algeria, near Orleansville. Due to this quake, a city was destroyed to the ground and 10,000 people lost their lives. Tens of thousands of Algerians lost their homes and hearths and a heavy blow was dealt against the Algerian economy.
On September 13, 1993 AD, Yasser Arafat formally betrayed the Palestinian cause by signing an agreement with Zionist premier, Yitzhak Rabin, by accepting the existence of the illegal state called Israel, in return for recognition of his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Zionist entity, after gaining several concessions from Arafat, made the false promise of granting statehood to the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but has never kept its words till this day.
On September 15, 1991 AD, Macedonia, in southeastern Europe, gained its independence. For five centuries it was part of the Ottoman Empire until its occupation by Bulgaria in late 19th century. In 1913, Serbia seized control of Macedonia, which then became part of the new state of Yugoslavia. After the end of socialism in Europe in 1989, Macedonia followed the path of Croatia and Slovenia, to secede from Yugoslavia. Of the two-million plus population of the country, around 40 percent Macedonians are Muslims, mostly ethnic Albanians. Macedonia covers an area of almost 26,000 sq km, sharing borders with Greece, Serbia, Albania, and Bulgaria in the Balkan Peninsula.
On August 24, 1929 AD, controversial Palestinian leader, Mohammed Abdur-Rahman Abdur-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, known as Yasser Arafat, was born in Cairo. His father was from Gaza, while his mother, who died when he was 4-years old, was from Bayt al-Moqaddas.
He grew up in Bayt al-Moqaddas and Gaza, and because of his deviationist nature in attending Jewish prayers at the synagogue and reading the works of the founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, he was often beaten by his father. As a result, relations between father and son were never positive, and when his father died in 1952, Arafat did not come from Egypt (where he was studying) to attend the funeral, nor did he visit his father's grave upon his return to Gaza.
While studying at university in Cairo, he became an Arab nationalist, and as was the custom among secularists, he distanced himself from Islam, and dropped his first name "Mohammad Abdur-Rahman" along with his father's name "Abdur-Raouf" and the family name "al-Husseini", while retaining his grandfather's name, "Arafat" to which he added "Yasser".
He turned into a revolutionary after a meeting in Cairo with visiting Iranian revolutionary scholar, Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Mojtaba Navvab Safavi, who told him that Zionist-occupied Palestine was in dire need of strugglers for its cause. In 1959, while working in Kuwait, he along with Khalid al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) and Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), founded the guerrilla group "Fatah", which is a reverse acronym of the Arabic term "Harakat at-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini" (or Palestinian National Liberation Movement), and should not be confused with the Islamic term "Fath" or conquest.
In 1964, when the Arab League set up the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah joined it. Arafat, on being expelled in 1966 from Syria where he had based himself to recruit personnel, built relations with President Jamal Abdun-Nasser of Egypt, and in 1969, was elected PLO Chairman.
In 1971 the PLO and Arafat were expelled from Jordan and moved to Lebanon to continue the struggle against the Zionist entity. In 1982, Arafat and the PLO were expelled from Lebanon following the Israeli invasion, and moved to Tunis where in 1988, a year after start of the Islamic Intefadha in the occupied land, he betrayed the Palestinian cause by recognizing Israel.
Earlier in late 1980, he had made a similar strategic blunder by showing ingratitude to the Islamic Republic's favours and siding with Saddam when that bloodthirsty dictator of the Ba'th minority regime imposed the 8-year was on Iran. In 1994, after a year of his acceptance of the Oslo Accord, which is considered a sellout of the Palestinian cause, he was allowed by Israel to settle in the occupied land.
In late 2004, after effectively being confined within his Ramallah compound for over two years by the Israeli army, Arafat became ill, fell into a coma and died in a Paris hospital in France on 11 November 2004 at the age of 75 – poisoned by the Zionists, after having served their purpose.
Critics have charged him with mass corruption, secretly amassing a personal wealth estimated to be USD $1.3 billion by 2002 despite the degrading economic conditions of the Palestinians. He is often denounced for being too submissive in his concessions to Israel.
On August 19, 1919 AD, the British occupation of Afghanistan ended as per the Treaty of Rawalpindi, following the end of the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war. The term Afghanistan was used for the first time in 1857 as official name of a country, although the local tribes were known as 'Afghans' from pre-Islamic times and the independent Afghan state was established in 1747 for the first time by Ahmad Khan Durrani – an ethnic Pashtun general of Nader Shah Afshar of Iran – who on the latter's death seized control of the eastern parts of Iranian Khorasan and the Pashto-speaking regions of the former Moghul Empire of India as well as the Punjab to declare himself King Ahmad Shah Abdali.
British attempts to meddle in Afghanistan led to the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-to-1842. Thereafter, a seesaw struggle ensued between the two sides with the British aggressively pushing their colonial policies in Kabul through threats, diplomacy, and wars, until formal independence in 1919.
Afghanistan, which is under US occupation for the past 12 years, was throughout history part of the Persian Empire with its eastern parts occasionally under Indian rule. Today it shares borders with Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and covers an area of 647,000 sq km.
On August 14, 1974 AD, following the massacre of over 125 Muslims in Cyprus, the Turkish government dispatched troops to take control of the northern part of this island, which used to be part of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries until Britain’s forcing of the 1878 Cyprus Convention on Istanbul to take over the Mediterranean Sea’s 3rd largest and most populous island that had a Muslim majority.
Though the Ottomans retained nominal suzerainty, it was obvious that Cyprus was lost by the Muslim World, since the British lost no time in changing demographic patterns and making it a virtual Greek island. Today two-thirds of Cyprus is administered by Greeks, while the rest is called the breakaway Turkish republic of Cyprus. Turkey and Pakistan recognize the Turkish Republic of Cyprus as an independent sovereign nation.
On August 17, 1834 AD, Bosnian Muslim revolutionary general, Hussein-Kapetan Gradascevic, died in Istanbul under mysterious circumstances at the relatively young age of 32, after fighting against the policies of the Ottoman Empire and for Bosnian autonomy. Born in the town of Gradacac, he grew up surrounded by a political climate of turmoil in the western reaches of the Ottoman Empire. Hussein developed a reputation for wise rule and tolerance and soon became one of the most popular figures in Bosnia.
When Sultan Mahmoud II attempted to forcefully mass-recruit the Bosnian populace into his new army in the year 1830, the Bosniaks led by Hussein-Kapetan felt compelled to launch a massive uprising that lasted for three years. His forces dealt a heavy defeat to the imperial army during the Third Battle of Kosovo and at Novi Pazar. The uprising was subdued when Ali-Pasha Rizvan-Begovic defected to Mahmoud II, in return for rule over the Vilayet of Herzegovina. Hussein-Kapetan was forced to flee to Austria from where he negotiated for his return and was ultimately allowed back but barred from ever entering Bosnia.
He moved to Ottoman-ruled Belgrade and then to Istanbul, where he died mysteriously. He was an able military commander and administrator, and was well versed in Turkish and Arabic. He was taught by two dervishes of the Bektashi order of Iranian origin attached to the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and built the sprawling Husseiniyya Mosque in his hometown Gradacac.