A Contemporary of Yasser Arafat, they presented a petition signed in their blood to the first President of Egypt Muhammad Naguib demanding the rights of Palestinian students.
The Cordoba Group and its subsidiaries went on to construct housing developments, the first English School, roads, water and sewage pipelines, hospitals and military bases.
[citation needed] In the early 1980s Al-Ghussein founded with the late Claud Morris the British NGO, the Next Century Foundation to work for peace and understanding between Palestinians and Israelis.
He immediately began an extensive programme of reform, introducing accountable methods of collecting and disbursements of funds including cessation of putting investments in individual names.
A visionary referred to in the Arab press as the Nelson Mandela of the Middle East, his reforms created a schism with Arafat who wanted to maintain control over the funds collected.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights investigated and its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention placed his case in their highest category reserved for the most grievous deprivation of liberty.
However, despite a smear campaign, both the UAE Supreme Court and the Palestinian Commission on Citizens rights vindicated Al-Ghussein and found the allegations baseless and without foundation.