Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 27.zip/BS1 part 27/WorldAtlas2_d2.adf/TEXTA/130

Text File | 1990-04-02 | 2KB | 29 lines

The city of Mecca in Arabia, which contains the Kaaba or House of God built
by the prophet Abraham, is also the birthplace of the Islamic religion.
The prophet Mohammed first united Arabia in the 7th Century under the
banner of Islam. Then the land of Islam expended rapidely to include countries
as far east as India and Indonesia and as far West as Morocco and Spain.
The Muslim Ottomans were ruling it in the 18th Century when in 1913,
Ibn Saud, founder of the Saudi dynasty, overthrew the Ottomans with the help
of the British and consolidated most of present day Saudi Arabia.
On March 25, 1975, Crown Prince
Khalid was proclaimed King on the assassination of King Faisal.
On June 12, 1982, Khalid died and Prince Fahd became King.  The only
written constitution is the Islamic Shariaa and the King exercises complete
authority together with a Council of Ministers.  The Islamic
religious code is the law of the land, which means that things like
alcohol and public entertainment are banned and women are required to
follow the Islamic restrictions on dressing and public behavior.
 The Saudi's participated in the war against Israel in 1948
and have bought billions of dollars in military equipment and
weaponry from the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
Saudi Arabia was a leader in the 1973 and 1974 Arab oil embargo
against the United States and in 1979 condemned Egypt's peace
with Israel then reversed its position later.  Between 1973 and 1976,
the government took complete control of Aramco (Arabian America Oil Co.)
and Saudi Arabia's moderate position on crude oil prices has dominated OPEC
(Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) during the
1980s. The first serious opposition to the monarchy came on
November 20, 1979 when Moslem fundamentalists seized the Grand
Mosque in Mecca, where more than a million Moslem pilgrimage each year.
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