Ali Soilih

Ali Soilih, full name Ali Soilih M'tsashiwa, (Arabic: علي صويلح‎‎; January 7, 1937 – May 29, 1978) was a Comorian socialist revolutionary and political figure.

Soilih was born in Majunga, Madagascar. He spent much of his early life there, and was educated in Madagascar and France. During the early 1960s, he traveled to Comoros, where he worked in agriculture and economic development.

In 1970, Ali Soilih entered politics as a supporter of Said Ibrahim, leader of the Democratic Assembly of the Comoran People, Rassemblement démocratique du Peuple Comorien (RDPC). He soon developed an ideology of hostility towards France as the former colonial power. His ideas were somewhat influenced by Maoism, although he did not renounce his Islamic principles.

On August 3, 1975, less than a month after Comoros gained independence from France, Soilih overthrew President Said Mohamed Jaffar and became head of a revolutionary council that took over Comoros. Soilih, whose adherents were barely armed, hired French mercenary Bob Denard to overthrow Ahmed Abdallah. He officially became President of the revolutionary council in January 1976. He acquired extensive powers under the terms of a new constitution and implemented socialist economic policies. In 1977 he held a referendum on his presidency, with 56.63% of voters endorsing it.

Soilih embarked on a revolutionary program that was mainly directed against the country's traditional Muslim society. His vision, based on a mixture of Maoism and Islamic philosophies, was to develop the Comoros as an economically self-sufficient and ideologically progressive Islamic modern state.

...
Wikipedia