Third Year Anniversary: Milestones - Part 3
Blog Post 37
December 3, 2020
Part 3
Continuation of events that took place during the past three years
Part 3
See Blog Post 35, November 2, 2020 for Part 1 and Blog Post 36, November 17, 2020 for Part 2
Introduction Repeated here for your benefit –
Al-Hamdulillah!
Inked Resistance Islamic Publishing
is Three Years Old!
Here’s what we can do: We copy others; show affection and concern without prompts; take turns; show a wide range of emotions; understand mine, hers and his; separate easily from Mom and Dad; get upset with major changes in routines; and dress and undress ourselves. We carry out instructions with two to three steps; talk well enough for strangers to understand most of the time; carry on a conversation using two to three sentences; and name friends and most familiar things. So we’re well on our way, inshallah!
All kidding aside… As we celebrate the birthday of our esteemed Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family, we’re offering a 25% discount off our books. Please take advantage of this offer and purchase some books for ourselves, your family and friends, inshallah. It is only through supporters like you, and Allah’s Subhanahu wa ta’ala Help, that we are still going strong! You can shop at Inked Resistance Islamic Publishing Shop or Inked Resistance Ecwid Store or Inked Resistance Etsy Shop, inshallah. The sale is running out so get yours today, inshallah.
This is a snapshot of the past three years (thru Nov. 2, 2020). It is not complete. It is not in order. There will be lots of things missing. Information may not be up-to-date and may in fact be slightly inaccurate. We will need to stop at some point and continue the post later because there’s just so many things that have happened. What is important for us to point out is that amidst all of these things, which are so horrible and show the animal side of human beings, the treachery of those in power, there are people like us, inshallah, who are plugging away at making a difference, at exposing the corruption, at lifting the hopes of a better day, a better way to live, a better headspace and heartspace. Remember that things have always been rough, always been difficult and corrupt and unjust and evil, and we’ve persevered. Human beings have gotten this far because there are Allah-fearing, honourable, sacrificing, loving, justice-seeking, patient and virtuous leaders and people and Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is on our side. Don’t give up the fight!
New Material –
More events during the three years since Inked Resistance Islamic Publishing began included:
Protests – Protests occurred in Pakistan against extrajudicial killings by police after Naqeebullah Mehsud was kidnapped, along with two friends (who were set free), tortured and then killed, along with three other men - Muhammad Sabir, Muhammad Ishaq and Nazar Jan Mahsud, by the senior superintendent of police Rao Anwar’s plainclothes policemen in Karachi; thousands of high school students across the US participated in the National School Walkout in response to gun violence and the Parkland, Florida high school shooting; in over 900 cities worldwide “March for Our Lives” demonstrations were held against gun violence and mass shootings, calling for stronger gun control; Nicaraguan police killed about 34 people who were protesting the decrease in retirement pensions; anti-government protests of more than a million people in Hong Kong took place against a bill allowing the extradition of people to China to face trial, protests continued even though the bill was withdrawn resulting in clashes with police; China passed a national security law granting sweeping powers that affect the Hong Kong democracy movement; during the annual July 1 protests marking the anniversary of the British handover of Hong Kong to China several hundred protesters stormed the legislative council of Hong Kong and were dispersed by police using tear gas; over 100 triad members (an organized crime syndicate) in white clothes attacked Hong Kong commuters with steel rod batons, wooden clubs and rattan canes, injuring at least 45 people, on the streets and at the MTR (mass transit rail) Yuen Long station, the police showed a delayed response and limited emergency services which allowed the violence to continue; Hong Kong’s continued protests and general strikes by teachers, lifeguards, security workers, construction workers and engineers shut down roads, highways, subways and planes while police tried to gain control, firing tear gas injuring at least 24 people; Hong Kong banned the wearing of face masks (pre-virus) in public as people continued to protest; Hong Kong universities suspended on-campus classes resorting to online learning and protestors defied police who used tear gas and water cannons against them; protests in Delhi, India, erupted for and against new citizenship laws, enacted by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, making religion a basis for citizenship and thus threatening Muslims’ rights, leaving 53 people killed by being shot, slashed repeatedly or set on fire by Hindu mobs, at least two-thirds of the victims were Muslims, over 200 people were injured and over 2,000 people were arrested; anti-government protests occurred in Bulgaria; the largest political protests in Belarus’s history began after presidential elections announcing president Alexander Lukashenko’s sixth term; protests broke out in Kyrgyzstan after parliamentary elections, president Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned; protests calling for the reform of the monarchy erupted in Thailand and a state of emergency was put into effect, the Thai government issued an emergency decree banning public gatherings amid increasing pro-democracy protests and criticism of the king; around 700,000 people protested in London, England, demanding a second referendum on the final Brexit deal; about one million people marched through London, England, in a protest organized by People’s Vote, demanding a second referendum on Brexit; British prime minister Theresa May resigned over the failed negotiations of Brexit (the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU)) and Boris Johnson became the prime minister; protests in France by the yellow vests movement occurred injuring hundreds of people with thousands of people arrested, over 100 cars were burned, the Arc de Triomphe was vandalized and tourist sites were closed; people in Venezuela protested in favour of Juan Guaido as president; protests occurred in Haiti demanding the resignation of president Jovenel Moise, killing 187 people, plus two journalists and 44 cops; protests and strikes occurred in Algeria against government corruption, demanding president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation. which he did, and a change in the whole government system, resulting in three deaths, 183 injuries (of which 112 were cops) and at least 1,200 arrests; people in Sudan protested against president Omar al-Bashir and economic deterioration, resulting in his deposal, 246 people were killed and over 1,200 arrests were made ; protests occurred in Papua, controlled by Indonesia, after some Papuan students were arrested for alleged disrespect of the Indonesian flag which protestors see as racial and ethnic discrimination, a non-binding independence referendum was held in Bougainville and voters chose between greater autonomy within Papua and full independence, 98.31% voted for independence; an international strike and protest led by young people and adults was held before the UN climate summit, demanding action on the climate crisis; 500,000 people marched in a climate change protest in Montreal, Canada, and four million people went on strike around the world; ongoing protests over poor economic conditions and government corruption and ISIS attacks and sabotage in Iraq have left 700 people killed by police and security forces, more than 37,000 people injured and more than 2,800 people arrested in Iraq; Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called a “million-strong” march in Baghdad, Iraq, demanding the withdrawal of US troops; ongoing protests in Santiago and other cities in Chile took place against the increasing cost of living, government corruption, privatization and inequality, demanding president Sebastian Pinera’s resignation, leaving 36 people killed, almost 12,000 people injured and over 28,000 arrests by police and carabineros (national police force) who used excessive force, including severe eye trauma requiring more than 50 prosthetic eyes, torture and sexual abuse and rape; Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared a state of emergency in Minneapolis and activated the Minnesota national guard after protests over the murder of George Floyd by white cop Derek Chauvin; Black Lives Matter protests continued worldwide in large numbers; statues, busts and memorials of persons guilty of systemic racism, slave trading and other oppressive actions were toppled, defaced and removed, including, but not limited to: 17th century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol England; Robert Milligan in London, England; king Leopold II in Belgium; Cecil Rhodes in Cape Town, South Africa; John A. MacDonald in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; protestors in the US tore down and defaced statues, busts and memorials of confederate figures and soldiers, explorers and other persons guilty of systemic racism against and genocide of Native peoples and Black people, including, but not limited to; confederate president Jefferson Davis and J.E.B. Stuart in Richmond, Virginia; Christopher Columbus in Richmond, Virginia, St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Massachusetts, Denver, Colorado, Waterbury, Connecticut, Baltimore, Maryland; Junipero Serra in Sacramento and Los Angeles, California; Juan de Onate and Kit Carson in New Mexico; American Indian War Memorial in Santa Fe, New Mexico; George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in Portland, Oregon; Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco, California; Robert E. Lee in Montgomery, Alabama, Roanoke, Virginia and Ft. Myers, Florida; Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, California; Hans Christian Heg in Madison, Wisconsin; Caesar Rodney in Wilmington, Delaware, Albert Pike in Washington, D.C.; Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in Portland, Oregon; and many others were removed by the government; US federal law enforcement and the military were dispatched to put down protests against police brutality, violence and murder in Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Missouri, and Seattle, Washington, and threatened to be deployed to Oakland, California, New York and Chicago, Illinois; at least 166 people have been killed, around 170 people were injured and almost 1,100 people were arrested during demonstrations in Ethiopia following the murder of Oromo singer Haacaaluu Hundeessa in Addis Ababa; Nigerian police opened fire on protesters in Lagos amid escalating protests against police violence, torture, extra-judicial killings and extortion, especially by the special anti-robbery squad (SARS), around the country
Leaders – Jacob Zuma resigned as president of South Africa; Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was put under house arrest and resigned six days later after ruling for 37 years; German chancellor Angela Merkel won her fourth term; Russian president Vladimir Putin won another six-year term and Russia passed an amendment to the constitution that enables him to seek two more six-year terms (until 2036); Chinese leader Xi Jinping became “president for life”; Japan’s emperor Akihito abdicated after a 30-year rule; Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe resigned and Yoshihide Suga became prime minister; Nicolas Maduro was elected as Venezuela’s president and Juan Guaido and the national assembly declared him “illegitimate”; UK and Gibraltar withdrew from the EU (European Union); the zionist state of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stay in power for 18 more months, to be replaced by Benny Gantz; the emir of Kuwait Sabah al-Sabah died; Malaysian monarch Muhammad V abdicated; Malaysia’s prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad resigned and was reinstated as interim prime minister the next day, Muhyiddin Yassin was later sworn in as prime minister; pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates), the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula; Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned after 29 years; Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned after nearly two decades, amid widespread protests; Narendra Modi was elected India’s new prime minister; Mustafa al-Kadhimi was sworn in as the new Iraqi prime minister, the third to be nominated in six months
Corruption – Former Brazilian president Luiz da Silva was arrested on corruption charges; former prime minister of Malaysia Najib Razak was found guilty of corruption in all seven charges of swindling money in the 1MDB scandal; the zionist state of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust; US president Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon was arrested and charged with fraud over a fundraising campaign to build a wall on the Mexican border; Goldman Sachs agreed to pay US$3 billion to end the probe into its role in the 1MDB corruption scandal to regulators in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia
Money Laundering – The FinCen Files, leaked from the US treasury’s financial crimes enforcement network (FinCen) to BuzzFeed News, described over 200,000 suspicious financial transactions valued at over US$2 trillion from 1999 to 2017 across financial institutions in more than 170 countries and the US, the banks did nothing to stop the money laundering, terrorism financing and global financial corruption
Coups and Attempts – A UN human rights council claimed Venezuelan president Nicolas Madura and other government officials were guilty of crimes against humanity since 2014, the western countries claim Juan Guaido as the president and president Madura says the US and other western countries are trying to make a coup d’etat to topple him and grab Venezuela’s oil reserves; Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido led an attempted uprising against president Nicolas Maduro with US help; Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was deposed in a after nearly 30 years, amid mass protests; Amhara regional president Ambachew Mekonnen, national-military chief of staff Se’are Mekonnen, major general Gizae Aberra and adviser Ezez Wassie were assassinated in a coup d’etat attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at a regional meeting by a “hit squad” reporting to brigadier general Asaminew Tsige, chief of the Amhara region peace and security bureau, who was found and killed by police 36 hours later; a mutiny by the Malian armed forces resulted in a coup d’etat and the next day Malian president Ibrahim Keita resigned
UK Parliament Shut-Down - The parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) was illegally prorogued (suspended) by queen Elizabeth II
Drug “Lord” Shootouts - Shootouts erupted in Culiacanm, Mexico, after the arrest of El Chapo’s son, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, on an arrest warrant for drug dealing in the US, killing eight people and 56 convicts escaped from prison, the police released him to restore peace and prevent more bloodshed; a shootout occurred in Coahuila, Mexico, killing 22 people, including four police officers and 16 drug dealers
Corporations – The Walt Disney Company bought out most of 21st Century Fox for US$66 billion; facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg got grilled by the US congress about mining and selling 50 million users’ data and facebook paid a US$5 billion fine for privacy and potential anti-trust violations brought against it by the US federal trade commission; the US justice department opened investigations into other online platforms (such as Google, Amazon, Apple) for possible anti-trust violations; a US$5 billion class action lawsuit was filed against Alphabet Inc. and Google over users’ right to privacy; the EU (European Union) fined Google 1.49 billion Euros (US$1.7 billion) for freezing out rivals in the online advertising business, bringing the total cost of EU fines against it to nearly 8.76 billion Euros; Google pulled Android update support for Huawei phones, Google Play Store and gmail apps after Huawei was blacklisted by the US; Apple reached US$1 trillion in value, the first of any US publicly traded corporation; Amazon’s Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world and the first to have a net worth exceeding US$200 billion; mining corporation Rio Tinto admitted to blowing up the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge caves in Australia and issued an apology to the two Aboriginal peoples who are the traditional owners of the site; US company Space X has 784 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit to provide internet service and other purposes with plans to have 42,000 satellites in total; twitter accounts of government officials, celebrities and CEOs were hacked to promote a bitcoin scam; twitter banned all political advertising worldwide
Sanctions – The UN voted to put additional sanctions on North Korea, slashing their petroleum imports by 90%
Diplomatic Relations Severed - Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro severed US diplomatic ties and afterwards with Columbia and expelled German ambassador Daniel Kriener for meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs
Special Status Revoked - India revoked the section of its constitution that gives Jammu and Kashmir special status, nullifying its limited autonomy, instituted a curfew, flooded the area with paramilitary troops, cut off all communication lines and arrested more than 4,000 Kashmiris
Suspected Sabotage - Four commercial ships – two Arabian Peninsula (Saudi) registered oil tankers, a Norwegian registered oil tanker and an Emirati registered bunkering ship - were damaged by 5-to-10-foot holes near or below all the ships’ waterlines probably by explosives in the Port of Fujairah, United Arab Emirate (UAE), in the Gulf of Oman, in what the UAE’s ministry of foreign affairs said was a sabotage attack, but the US said Iran was responsible and Iran said it is possibly a false flag operation; two oil tankers – one flagged in Panama and operated by a company in Japan and the other flagged in the Marshall Islands and operated by a company in Norway - were attacked by limpet mines or flying objects, sustaining fire damage near the Strait of Hormuz while in the Gulf of Oman, the US blamed Iran for the attacks and Iran said it was likely a false flag operation by the US, the attacks took place on the same day that Ayatullah Ali Khamenei and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was delivering a message from US president Trump, met in Iran, Ayatullah Khamenei said he rejected exchanging messages with the US
Tankers Seized – England’s royal marines seized Grace 1, an Iranian tanker carrying 2.1 million barrels of oil, in Gibraltarian waters on suspicions of breaking EU (European Union) sanctions by carrying oil to Syria, the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) captured the British tanker Stena Impero for breaking three regulations - shutting down its GPS, going through the exit of the Strait of Hormuz rather than the entrance and ignoring warnings - and temporarily seized the British-operated Liberian-flagged tanker Mesdar near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, the US later issued a warrant to seize Grace 1 after a Gibraltar judge had ordered it to be released
Bankruptcy - Sears and Toys “R” Us went bankrupt; due to COVID-19 the stock market crashed, oil prices plunged, oil production was cut, LATAM Airlines in Latin America went bankrupt, AirAsia Japan, Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Pier 1, among other businesses, all filed for bankruptcy, J.C. Penny’s went bankrupt but was bailed out
Whistle Blower - WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested after living for seven years in Ecuador’s embassy in London, England, Swedish prosecutors reopened the rape allegation investigation against him and will seek his extradition from the UK after he’s served the 50-week prison sentence for skipping bail
College Admissions Cheating - 50 people were charged by the US justice department with criminal conspiracy to influence college admissions at elite universities by paying tens to hundreds of thousands of US dollars to William “Rick” Singer to get their children into university by bribing coaches to falsely recruit them as athletes, faking standardized test scores and other methods
Airplane Pilot Cheating - 125 pilots were grounded by Pakistan International Airlines after it was discovered they cheated on exams or held fake licenses
Marijuana - Canada legalized marijuana for recreational use, the second country to do so (Uruguay was first)
The final part will be posted soon, inshallah.
References
(Probable)
2017 Events. (Aug. 21, 2018). History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/2017-events
2017. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017
2018 Events. (Dec. 6, 2018). History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/2018-events
2018. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018
2019 Events. (Feb. 5, 2020). History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/2019-events
2019. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019
Historical Events in 2020. On This Day. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2020?p=1
Historical Events in 2020. On This Day. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2020?p=2
Historical Events in 2020. On This Day. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2020?p=3
Historical Events in 2020. On This Day. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2020?p=4
2020. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020