Background: Middle East

• Geographic position at the junction– Africa, Asia, and Europe

Background: Middle East

• Origin of the 3 monotheistic religions– Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

• largest reserves of petroleum in the world– Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries

• non-Arab nations– Turkey, Israel, and Iran

Background: Islam

• 2nd largest religion in the world– some 1 billion adherents– from West Africa to Indonesia– most Muslims are outside of the Middle East– most Muslims are not Arabs

Islam and Muslim

• Islam literally means “submission” to God

• Muslim literally means “one who submits”

• recognize that there is only one God (Allah)

• reject other gods or “associates” of God

• His appointed messengers– Jesus and the Old Testament prophet– 7th century Arab prophet Muhammad

Central tenet of Islam

• Muslim declaration of faith– “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is

His prophet”– e.g.: Saudi flag

Muslim Declaration of Faith

• Flag of Iran

• Flag of Iraq

• “God is great”

The 5 pillars of Islam

• The Muslim declaration of faith

• plus 4 ritual obligations that faithful Muslims perform to the best of their ability

The 5 pillars of Islam

• plus 4 ritual obligations that faithful Muslims perform to the best of their ability– prayer 5 times a day, facing the holy shrine of

Kaaba in Mecca– give alms to charity– fast in daylight hours in the month of

Ramadan– make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in

life

The Koran (Qur’an)

• written record of Muhammad’s revelations

• said to be the exact word of God

• a source of authority for religious truth

• provide detailed rules by which the righteous can guide their daily lives with little dependence on the old sources of authority such as tribe and lineage

Sunnis and Shi’is

• 2 major branches of Islam– differ mostly over who should have

succeeded the Prophet Muhammad in 632

• Sunnis– literally mean “followers of tradition”

• Shi’is– literally mean “partisans” of Ali– less than 10% of Muslims worldwide

Sunnis and Shi’is

Spread of Islam: 1500

Ottoman Empire

British & French rule: 1800s

• Geopolitical rivalries instead of economic prizes

British & French mandates

Independence

• By 1950 most countries in Middle East had achieved independence– Syria and Lebanon gained independence

from French rule during World War II– Iraq and Transjordan gained nominal

independence from Britain’s indirect rule– British protectorate in Egypt ended– continued Western economic and strategic

interests in the region

Drive for self-determination

• Direct European political control declined– Britain installed kings in Jordan and Iraq

• economic dependence & independence– e.g. Iran’s attempt to nationalize British-owned

petroleum company failed in 1951– e.g. O.P.E.C. quadrupled oil prices in 1973

Cold War

• Superpower, regional, and internal struggles– influence of U.S. and Soviet Union

Overthrow the monarchy

• Kings perceived to be pro-Western, corrupt, and ineffective were overthrown by nationalist revolutions

• 1952 revolt of the Free Officers in Egypt

• 1958 revolution in Iraq killed King & P.M.

• 1979 revolution in Iran led by Khomeini

• exceptions: Jordan and Saudi Arabia

Arab nationalism

• Physical, ethnic, religious, and cultural bridges across the national boundaries that were arbitrarily drawn by Europeans

• pan-Arab movement– launched by Nasser of Egypt in 1958– proposed unification with Syria, Iraq, Yemen,

Libya, and the Sudan at one time or another– governments suspected Nasser’s motives

Egypt under Nasser (1954-1970)

• Arab nationalism & Arab socialism

• Nasser’s particular vision of Arab socialism– socialism of secular Islam, not Marxist– nationalization of basic industries– elimination of foreign ownership– hospitals, mosques, and schools in villages– mass public participation in politics

Egypt after Nasser (1970-)

• Nasser’s successors– Sadat (-1981)– Mubarak

3 leadership styles

• traditional leadership– legitimacy from historical forces and

traditional practices– no substitute for effective policy– can not protect ineffective ruler forever

• charismatic leadership– unique personal characters in a crisis

• bureaucratic leadership

Baath Party

• Arab Socialist Resurrection Party

• Baath: to recover past Arab greatness

• at once a political party, political philosophy, and political movement

• ultimate goal of Arab unity through nationalism, socialism, and pan-Arabism

• supporters among intellectuals and military of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq

Baathism in Syria and Iraq

• Since 1963 Baath Party has successfully maintained itself in power in Syria– and until recently in Iraq

• in Syria Baathist support came largely from the civilian sector

• in Iraq Baathist power mainly in the military

Baathism in Syria and Iraq

• both Syria and Iraq were in the forefront of supporting Palestinian organizations

• In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel

Baathism in Syria and Iraq

• Baathist regimes in Syria and Iraq– were often at head-on disputes– despite ostensible commitment to Arab unity– relatively long and potent nationalist feeling

• Iraq and Syria split forcefully– during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988– during the Gulf War of 1991

Islam and politics

• Pan-Arabism, Baathism, and traditional systems all stressed the importance of Islam

• common source of tradition and identity

• Islam conceived of in politically secular terms

Islam and politics

• existence of Muslim society as desirable reality

• reject the idea of an Islamic state based on the Koran and Islamic tradition

• there are exceptions to the professed secularism