N Africa/SW Asia:
Divisive Forces within the Realm
There are four major divisive, or centrifugal forces, in this realm. These often result in conflict including terrorism and warfare.
ISLAM DIVIDED: The Sunni-Shia Division
There are two major divisions within Islam. About 85% of Muslims are Sunni and 15% Shia (or Shiite). Shia Islam is the majority religion [relig] in Iran [peoiran], Iraq [peoiraq] (especially in the marshes of southeastern Iraq) , Azerbaijan, and Bahrain [peobah]
The Sunni-Shia division is one explanation of the eight year long war between predominately Shia Iran [peoiran] and the Sunni government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq [peoiraq]. (Note: the majority of Iraqis follow the Shia beliefs, the rulers in Baghdad are Sunni.) For more on the Iran-Iraq war read the following. You should notice that often there are no simple explanations of cultural conflicts.
For another example of the on-going conflict between followers of the Sunni Islam and Shia Islam read the following news article about Pakistan [peopak]: http://expressindia.com/ie/daily/19970510/13050603.html
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ISLAM DIVIDED: Muslim Fundamentalism
The textbook does a good job briefly discussing these.
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ISLAM DIVIDED: Other Religions [relig]
Christianity arose in the western Mediterranean region and diffused westward and northward into the Roman Empire and beyond. When the wave of Islamic diffusion [nwmslwor] reached into Iberia (Spain and Portugal) from North Africa, however, Christians in Europe mobilized not only to meet the threat but to resurrect Christianity in the region of its source. The Arabs had colonized the whole of Southern and Central Spain and Portugal, occupied Sicily and threatened Rome. Much of this diffusion wave weakened by the 11th century and the Crusades, a series of military expeditions designed to reestablish Christianity in it source region. Muslims forces fought back and in 1187 retook Jerusalem-by the end of the 14th century the Christians ended their attempts to penetrate this realm.
Judaism predated other religions by many centuries, having its source in the same region. The rise of Islam over powered the smaller Jewish communities but it was the Christian who waged centuries of holy war against the Muslims. Jewish communities existed in small enclaves from Morocco to Iran and Turkey to the Horn of Africa. In 1948 the State of Israel was established in Palestine, becoming a battleground between Arabs and Jews and Muslims lies in the crossroads of regional conflict.[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/det-dist-religions.gif]
[The text of the above was written by Scott Girhard, San Antonio College from his online course GEOG 1301 World Geography. Used with permission.]
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ISLAM DIVIDED: The Ottoman Aftermath [nwottom.]
After the Muslims had withdrawn from Spain (in 1492) and the Crusades had concluded, a powerful Islamic empire arose in northwestern Turkey in the area of Anatolia. This was the Byzantine remnant of the Roman Empire [euroman] and the City of Constantinople (Istanbul) was the Rome of the eastern churches of Christianity. The Ottomans [nwottom] conquered Constantinople in 1453 and soon controlled much of Eastern Europe, the Maghreb, Persia and Mesopotamia. Under Suleyman the Magnificent (1522 to 1560), the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful state of its time in Eurasia. After Suleyman's reign the Austrians and Russians pushed Ottoman boundaries back, the Balkans freed themselves and Egypt also freed itself. After WWI, the Ottoman empire was parceled out to the European colonial powers becoming the modern states of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (later Israel) [nwcolott]
To delimit their colonial holdings and to facilitate administration, Europeans laid out a frame work of political boundaries which often left a legacy of unsettled territorial quarrels and displaced different tribes and ethnic groups. This became critical especially when oil was discovered in this realm.
[The text of the above was written by Scott Girhard, San Antonio College from his online course GEOG 1301 World Geography. Used with permission.]
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