The network originated in the Middle East, as a result of the life and works of Omar Bakri Muhammad. Born in Aleppo, Syria to a wealthy Sunni family, during his youth the state was taken over by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region; an organisation which promoted Arab socialism and Arab nationalism, rather than an Islamic outlook for the country. Although nominally secular, many of the ruling Ba'athists were drawn from the Alawite (Shia) minority; including Hafez al-Assad, who became President of Syria in 1971; despite Syria being a majority Sunni country. Some of the religiously inclined Syrian Sunnis, including Omar Bakri, joined the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria (up to 40,000 Muslim Brothers died in the 1982 Hama massacre, though Omar Bakri himself did not take part in the rising).