Modern History of the Republic of the Marshall Islands 2000-Present

2001    Dec 3, A test US anti-missile launched from Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands successfully hit a dummy warhead from Vandenberg Air Base in California, 4,800 miles away. [Hint: Kwajalein knew in advance when the missile was launched]

2001    A 15 year lease by the US for Kwajalein Atoll was due to expire.

2001    US payments under the Compact of Free Association were scheduled to end.

2003    The Marshall Islands renegotiated its Compact of Free Association (CFA) with the US. America insisted on a separate agreement giving it continued access to its $4 billion missile defense site on Kwajalein until at least 2066 for $15 million a year, rising to $18 million after 2014.

2005    Feb 15, The Guam-based Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will be unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific nation's leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the anti-terrorist Patriot Act.

2007    Mar 20, The second flight of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile (685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.

2007    Sep 13, In the Marshall Islands legislation was introduced aiming to open up the communications sector by removing the telecom agency's exclusive rights. This was likely to become an issue ahead of national elections in November.

2008    Jan 7, Voters in the Marshall Islands ditched the pro-American administration led by Kessai Note and elected a government backed by disgruntled chiefs and senators from the nuclear-affected atolls.

2008 Dec 25, The Marshall Islands declared a state of emergency after severe flooding, that occurred from Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, forced more than 600 people from their homes.

Note: The Marshall Islands - like the five other all-atoll nations - are the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" in terms of witnessing firsthand and at a startling pace the direct effects of global warming and sea level rise. For the Marshallese rising sea levels pose an existential threat to the future survivability of these wonderful people on these precarious islands in the remote Central Pacific. Actions by regional Pacific leaders include the following: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/31/visionary-document-small-island-nations-declare-climate-crisis-pacific and this also: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cbSloYVSuY4mIZnUUC5ISpZUaV3NTb2y/view

Recently an Islamic mosque has opened in Majuro supported by a small Muslim community new to the Marshall Islands.

[From Wikipedia:]

Islam is a minority religion in the Marshall Islands. All Muslims in the country belong to the minority Ahmadiyya sect. The Ahmadiyya mosque in Uliga, first constructed in 2012 in the Marshall Islands is the only mosque in Oceania's subregion of Micronesia. According to a 2009 report there were about 10 Muslims in the Marshall Islands, although more recent reports indicate about 150 believers in the country.

Islam entered the country in the 1990s when Fijian missionaries were sent to the country by the Ahmadiyya movement. In 2001, the religion was officially recognized by the country and in 2012, the community built the Marshall Islands' first mosque, named Baet-Ul-Ahad Mosque, in the town of Uliga, in the east coast of the Majuro atoll. While Majuro has the only mosque in the Marshall Islands, Ahmadi Muslim communities exist in atolls around the country.

Ahmadi Muslims have had a growing presence in the Marshall Islands for a number of years. However, it was not until 2012, when the Muslim community decided to construct the Marshall Islands' only mosque, that it began to draw attention from religious and political figures. In light of unfavourable public opinion about Islam in general, the Muslim community's right to exist in an overwhelmingly Christian Marshall Islands, was questioned in a number of live broadcast sessions in the Marshallese parliament [Nitajela]. This was despite the Marshall Islands' constitution that guarantees religious freedom.

The Ahmadi Muslims play an active role in the life of local Marshallese, by working with local youth groups, the Ministry of Health and through the international charitable trust Humanity First.

The opening of the Baet-Ul-Ahad mosque [the first in the RMI] in Majuro in 2016 for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

A book fair for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Majuro.

The following articles provide some history and background information about the arrival of the first Muslim community [Ahmadiyya Muslims] to settle in the RMI and the founding of the first Islamic mosque [Baet-Ul-Ahad] in the RMI:

Go here: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3006385/driven-pakistan-ahmadi-muslims-find-paradise-marshall-islands

Go here: https://www.infomarshallislands.com/muslims-in-the-marshalls/

And here: https://twitter.com/ahmadiyyarmi?lang=en

And here: https://www.state.gov/reports/2017-report-on-international-religious-freedom/marshall-islands/

And here: https://www.facebook.com/AhmadiyyaRMI/

2009    May 29, The nonbinding New York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Panama, four nations that account for more than half of global shipping.

2009    Oct 8, Former Marshall Islands president and powerful traditional chief Imata Kabua said he was challenging the treaty negotiated between the Marshall Islands government and the US covering the years after 2016 when the current lease for the missile base expires. The Compact of Free Association between the two countries approved in 2003 provides the US with use of the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll until 2066.

2009    Oct 26, In the Marshall Islands traditional chief Jurelang Zedkaia was elected president by a slender 17-15 margin, replacing Litokwa Tomeing who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last week.

2010    Jan 30, In the Marshall Islands the government considered invoking special powers of quarantine as an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been declared a public health emergency.

2010    Jul 23, The Marshall Islands region of Ebeye, which has the unflattering reputation as the "slum of the Pacific" has now been damned in a US Army report as a health threat to residents.

2010    Jul 31, UNESCO added seven cultural sites to its World Heritage List including Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, home to nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and 1950s. Also added to the list were the Turaif District in Saudi Arabia; Australia's penal colony sites; the Jantar Mantar astronomical observation site in India; a shrine in Ardabil in Iran; the Tabriz historic bazaar complex, also in Iran; and the historic villages of Hahoe and Yangdong in South Korea.

2011 May 11, The United States signed a deal with the Marshall Islands to continue using the key missile testing range at Kwajalein Atoll through to 2066.

2013 Sep 3, Leaders of Pacific nations gathered in Majuro, Marshall Islands, for their annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Marshall Islands Pres. Christopher Loeak hoped to drum up support for a “Majuro declaration" on climate change.