Some people are not known, except after their death .. history only marks them as heroes and so they shall always be remembered.
Salem Suhail, was born in RAK in the 50s in a small village called al hdebah الحدبة in al menai’i منطقة المنيعي area that was known to be for Ras Al Khaima prior to the union. He was the youngest of six siblings. His father Suhail Al Dahmani and mother Fatmeh bint Hilal raised him just as any other family would raise her kids at that time: to be able to survive the harsh environment and to defend your land with your heart and soul.
According to the stories, he always wanted to join the Military. Put in mind that at that time, we were occupied by Great Britian. So that would be the will of every man who had an ounce of love to his land. He joined Ras Al Khaima military forces – prior to the union – and was assigned with a group of 4 (some say 5) other soldiers as guards to Greater Tunb island.
In 1971, and more specifically, Tuesday 30th of November at 5:30 am, the Iranian Military Forces attacked the Tunb islands, it started with the Lesser Tunb and occupied it as there were hardly no forces there, and then attacked the Greater Tunb Island and Salem Suhail was the first of those 5 soldier to die. Some of the soldiers were taken as prisoners as they ran out of bullets and weapons. They were taken to Iran and later Ras Al Khaima rulers were told that they died due to their wounds.
The Ministry of Interior honored Salem Suhail’s family on March 9th 2010. In Grade 5’s social studies book, there is a section which teaches the students a brief about him. Abdullah Al Taboor, a UAE writer wrote a novel and named “Suhail” which tells the story of Suhail the father and his son Salem who died on the Great Tonb island defending his country.
The list of soldiers:
- Salem Suhail
- Ali Hassan Mahmood
- Hassan Ali Mohamed
- Mohammed Abdullah Obaid
- Hawash mohammed Abdullah
A Last Dot:
I look a the names above, and remember the other names we have lost in the Gulf War. I still remember Sheikh Zayed welcoming the troops back to the land after the war. I remember my brothers joining the forces as young as 14 & 16 year old boys and seeing them after a month of real training. We remember a lot, but what we should not forget is that we are STILL an occupied country, and we will defend our land just as Salem Suhail and the others did.. with our hearts and souls.
The information in this post is what i managed to obtain from Abdulla Al taboor’s brief of the novel “Suhail” and from other websites online and the Social Studies book of Grade 4. If you have anything to add, email me or leave a comment.
source / arabic
Thanx dear for sharing such information.
Do continue in documenting more stories of our brave people
Ra7maaaat allaaah 3aleeeh w 3ala kel shaheed fe 7eb el wa6aan..
your post really brought some old sweet memoreis.. remembering my father who joined The Lebanon war, Gulf war and helped in rescuring Somalia after the war…
allaaah ye7fa’9 jemeee3 ahal el emarat inshalla
Myth: El7mdelelah that we’ve witnessed those days. Allah lay3oodha but it puts a different presepective on certain things. When we say “bladi w Afdaha” mangoolha men 3adam.
Aisha: if not for grade 4’s social study book I wouldn’t have known about him. (Probably that’s the only good thing in the book) will do my best to document such men! Thanks Aisha
Thank you so much for this post and for shedding the light on such brave characters. Alla yr7ama!
Very touching .. I never knew we had heroes and Shuhada who died protecting the occupied islands
Thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to see the story in the Wikipedia
Bless you Dots for sharing this.
I have to admit, this is a complete eye-opener for me.
the pics are so amazing too.
I always feel the issue of the occupied islands has never received much attention and my ignorance about this subject stems from the lack of media interest and proper researching and documentation.
Dot, thanks for sharing this!
The curricula in our schools should have included such topics, like the issue of the three occupied Emiraty islands, long time ago to build the sense of nationalism, loyalty, and appreciation to this country in kids. We have kids nowadays – even adults- who know more about other countrie than their own’s, unfortunately.
That’s a great step from the eductation sector, and we hope to see more issues that are relevant to our history and culture in school curricula.
Shahlab
Thank you for commenting El Shahlab, i agree with you in terms of how the curriculum should be. Trust me, this was probably one of very few topics in the curriculum that i found were worth studying. The rest, shocked me to be honest.
Addressing such issues is important, but also what is important is to not act like they don’t exist. We do have occupied islands.. a FACT ! if we didn’t teach our kids such things who would!
thanks again for your comment
It is not ignorance Buj, i guess we were never taught about it as much. This topic is within my topics to be researched and i do need all the LUCK with that lol
: ) thank you for passing by Mi.
And yes, there are such heros.. there are many heros to be more precise. They just need to be researched, found and have a spot light on them
In fact thank you for mentioning it in Twitter …
w rabi yr7m kel amwat el mslmeen
Great Blog, we should never forget our land whether it is as large as Palestine or as small as Tounb Island. All Arab lands are dear to us and should never be forgotten.There are lands that have been taken away from us that we barely remember and take for granted that they are foreign territories like Iskandaron in northern Syria and Melilla in Morocco.
Thanks for reminding us.
[...] He was honored on March 9th 2010. In Grade 5’s social studies book, there is a section which teaches the students a brief about him. Abdullah Al Taboor, a UAE writer wrote a novel and named “Suhail” which tells the story of Suhail the father and his son Salem who died on the Great Tonb island defending his country. [ Read More] [...]
Well done in writing the post. There are plenty of man like Salem/ including sheikhs who defended the land early 20th century. You can find records in two former History record books.
• الجواهر و اللآليء في تاريخ عمان الشمالي/ عبدالله بن صالح المطوع
• نقل الأخبار في وفيات المشايخ وحوادث هذه الديار/ حميد بن سلطان الشامسي
and also through talking to old people…they have good memory. This is also called oral history, meaning history thats not written, but said orally via stories etc. It is so much fun to sit with elder people and you may get shocked to find similar information they provide in British Sources.
Side point- every story has a voice (perspective) and being neutral is impossible. however, knowing the context of why someone says a story can make you understand more their voice/perspective.
again thanks on raising the topic.
Dots, thanks for “introducing” me to the 5 soldiers who stood the Persian might. I guess a lot of us have a lot to be thankful for toward the 5 souls who gave their lives to defend the future. A touching post.
I like this!
مرحبا يادوتس من زمان عن مدونتج الله يرحمه ويسكنه الجنة .. شكرا على هالموضوع اللي كشف عن شخصية محد يدري عنها ..
أول ما شفت الروايه إستغربت.. ما توقعت تكون عندنا قصص من هالنوع و يوم خلصته قلت ليش ما درسونا تاريخ هالأبطــال و نعرف تواريخ و أبطال الدول الثانية و دولتنا ما نعرف الأبطال المجهولين و هذا كان مجهور و طلعاه
الطابور ..