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Husseini, Amin al-

Husseini, Amin al-, 1896?-1974, Arab political and religious leader. He was inveterately opposed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, and, suspected of complicity in anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem (1920), he fled to avoid punishment. He returned under an amnesty and was appointed Grand mufti of Jerusalem by the British in 1921. He fled (1937) to Lebanon after being arrested for provoking violence between Arabs and Jews. Just before World War II, Husseini moved on to Iraq. After the abortive pro-Axis Iraqi revolt of 1941, he was flown to Rome. Then, in Berlin, Husseini broadcast Nazi propaganda and helped recruit Arab supporters for the Germans. In 1946 the mufti, escaping from house arrest near Paris, arrived in Egypt, where he lived until the early 1960s, when he moved again to Lebanon. Also called Haj Amin al-Husseini, he retired from public life after serving as president of the 1962 World Islamic Congress, which he had founded in 1931.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Hafez, Amin al-

Hafez, Amin al-, 1911-, Syrian army officer and politician. He served (1963-65) as chief of state in Syria's Ba'athist government but had to flee to Lebanon (1965) after radical Ba'athist military officers, led by Nurreddin Attassi and Hafez al-Assad, toppled his government in a coup. Amin al-Hafez moved his exile to Iraq in 1968 and was sentenced to death in absentia in 1971.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Amin, Idi

Amin, Idi, c.1925-2003, Ugandan army officer and dictator. From the small Kakwa ethnic group, he advanced in the Ugandan armed forces from private (1946) to major general (1968). In 1971 he seized control of the government, toppling the regime of Milton Obote. In power, Amin exhibited an unpredictable personality, often capricious and cruel yet displaying a modicum of shrewdness and cunning. His relatively brief regime was nonetheless vicious and corrupt; he brutally suppressed other ethnic groups and political enemies, killed what is believed to be nearly 300,000 (most innocent of any wrongdoing), tortured uncounted thousands more, and looted the nation's treasury. In 1972 he ordered the expulsion of Ugandans of Asian extraction, thrusting the nation into economic chaos. Tanzanian troops joined exiled Ugandan nationalists to invade Uganda in 1978, and Amin was driven into exile in Saudi Arabia the following year.

See J. T. Strate, Post-Military Coup Strategy in Uganda: Amin's Early Attempts to Consolidate Political Support in Africa (1973), H. Kyemba, A State of Blood (1977), D. Barnett and R. Wooding, Uganda Holocaust (1980), and P. A. Allen, Interesting Times: Life in Uganda under Idi Amin (2000); B. Schroeder, dir., General Idi Amin Dada (documentary film, 1976; video, 2002).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Amin (Dada Oumee), Idi

Idi Amin.

(born 1924/25, Koboko, Ugan.—died Aug. 16, 2003, Jiddah, Saud.Ar.) Military officer and president (1971–79) of Uganda. A member of the small Kakwa ethnic group and a Muslim, he was closely associated during his military career with Milton Obote, Uganda's first prime minister and president. In 1971 he staged a coup against Obote. He expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1972, reversed Uganda's amicable relations with Israel, was personally involved in the hijacking by Palestinian and West German militants of a French airliner to Entebbe (see Entebbe raid), and ordered the torture and murder of 100,000–300,000 Ugandans. In 1978 he ordered an attack on Tanzania, but Tanzanian troops, aided by Ugandan nationalists, were able to overpower the invaders. As the Tanzanian-led forces neared Kampala, Uganda's capital, Amin fled to Libya and eventually settled in Saudi Arabia.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.