The Middle East

Where is the oil in the Middle East?

The 3 largest oil producers in the Middle East are Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are next in the region's oil league table. *The Persian Gulf Area*

Why is oil important in the Middle East?

Oil sales have created immense wealth and boosted the economy in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. Millions of people in these and other parts of the Middle East have homes, jobs and education as a direct result of oil.

Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical gateway to the world's oil industry, with more than a fifth of global oil supply flowing through a narrow sea channel used by Gulf countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

What religion are the 5 Pillars a part of?

Islam

What are the 5 Pillars?

Belief  (Shahada)

Prayer (Salat)

Charity (Zakat)

Fasting  (Sawm)

Pilgrimage (Hajj)

Kaaba

The Kaaba, also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah, is a building at the center of Islam's most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred site in Islam.

Mecca(Saudi Arabia)

A holy city for Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

A church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Wailing Wall

Known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall, is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the "Western Wall".

Temple Mount

The Temple Mount, also known as al-Haram al-Sharīf, al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or simply al-Aqsa Mosque, and sometimes as Jerusalem's sacred esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a holy site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for thousands of years.

Haram Al-Sharif

The Holiest and largest Mosque for Muslims around the world. The most contentious religious site in Jerusalem. It is revered by Jews at the location of two biblical temples and is the holiest site in Judaism.

Abraham (who is he, which religion(s), why important)

Abraham was the first Hebrew patriarch and is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

Ramadan

Remembers the month in which the Revelation took place; Koran was first revealed to Mohammad

Muhammad

\- Seen as the last and greatest prophet  of God

\- Most holy of all men

\- Was not a God, was not the Son of God

\- “Megaphone” for God

\- God spoke to him

\- God delivered the Koran through him

Sharia Law

Religious law of Islam; Law under Caliphate system.

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Sharia is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith.

Sunni (majority/minority, basic beliefs)

Sunni Muslims hold the belief that they must have faith in Allah and his prophets, believe in the righteous deeds presented in the Quran, and accept Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) as the final prophet in order to even get a chance at entering Paradise. *(Majority - Meritocracy)*

Shia (majority/minority, basic beliefs)

Shias believe that God always provides a guide, first in the direct descendants of Ali, known as Imams, and then ayatollahs, or experienced Shia scholars who are sought as a source of emulation. The sect splintered due to differences over the proper line of succession among Ali's descendants. *(Minority - Nepotism)*

Why did these 2 groups (Shia and Sunni) split from each other?

The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced. 

Nepotism

People chosen based on who they know/are related to.

Meritocracy

People chosen based on ability.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

The Sykes–Picot Agreement was a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual partition of the Ottoman Empire. Western Powers drew the boundaries we use today. Western Powers chose kings and royal families (became dictators).

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They went behind each other’s backs and this shows the *Imperialism* in the Middle East

Diaspora

The scattering of a people, away from their homeland. 

Caliph

A successor to Mohammad; ruled as spiritual and political leader. 

Caliphate

Form of government led by a Caliph; Type of Theocracy.      

Sharif of Mecca

The Sharif of Mecca or Hejaz was the title of the leader of the Sharifate of Mecca, traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the surrounding Hejaz. The term sharif is Arabic for "noble", "highborn", and is used to describe the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson al-Hassan ibn Ali.

Ottoman Empire

Importance of Empire? Most powerful Islamic Caliphate in history.

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What city did they conquer? Constantinople.

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Importance of the Fall of Constantinople? Ottomans took a European city = Islam ‘beats’ Christianity

What caused the fall of the Ottoman Empire?

It picked the wrong side in World War I.

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Siding with Germany in World War I may have been the most significant reason for the Ottoman Empire's demise. Before the war, the Ottoman Empire had signed a secret treaty with Germany, which turned out to be a very bad choice.

Theocracy (what is it and where is it)

A conservative religious regime whose laws are heavily based upon Islamic Sharia law. In places such as *Iran*, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population.

Secular

The separation of religion from civic affairs and the state—has been a controversial concept in Islamic political thought, owing in part to historical factors and in part to the ambiguity of the concept itself.

Westernization

The adoption of the practices and culture of western Europe by societies and countries in other parts of the world, whether through compulsion or influence.

Ayatollah(Ruhollah/Imam) Khomeini

An Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. Khomeini led an Islamic revolution in Iran, took the country away from the political leader called the Shah, and ran Iran as a theocracy.

Iran Hostage Crisis

When the Shah came to America for cancer treatment in October, the Ayatollah incited Iranian militants to attack the U.S. On November 4, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun and its employees taken captive. The hostage crisis had begun.

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Prisoners released by students 30 mins after President Raegan was inaugurated (444 days)

Iron Dome

Considered among the most advanced defense systems in the word, the Iron Dome uses radar to identify and destroy incoming threats before they can cause damage. The all-weather system was specially designed to help combat shorter-range rudimentary weapons like the rockets fired from Gaza.

Refugees

Persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection.

Intifada

The Palestinian *uprising* against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, beginning in 1987.

Zionism

A movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.

Hamas

Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

2 State Solution

 The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.

Six Days War

The Six-Day War or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states from 5 to 10 June 1967.

Why is there conflict? What stands in the way of peace? (Between Israel and Palestine)

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. 

Arab Spring (what is it, what started it)

A young street vendor in Tunisia named Mohamed Bouazizi is harassed by police. To revolt, he set himself on fire in front of a government building. This event led to the many actions of the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation.

Arab Spring and the role of Social Media

 Social media played a significant role facilitating communication and interaction among participants of political protests. Protesters used social media to organize demonstrations (both pro- and anti-governmental), disseminate information about their activities, and raise local and global awareness of ongoing events.

Bashar al-Assad

A Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the Secretary-General of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which espouses the ideologies of neo-Ba'athism and Assadism.

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The United States (U.S.), the European Union (EU), and the majority of the Arab League called for Assad's resignation from the presidency in 2011 after he ordered a violent crackdown on Arab Spring protesters, which led to the Syrian civil war.

Muammar (Muhammad Abu Minyar al-) Gaddafi

A Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the de facto leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011, first as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.

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Gaddafi defended his government's actions by citing the need to support anti-imperialist and anti-colonial movements around the world.

Proxy war

A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities.

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Fighting “through“ other countries

Kurds

Kurds or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. Their century-old fight for rights, autonomy, and even an independent Kurdistan has been marked by marginalization and persecution.

Free Syrian Army

The Free Syrian Army aims to be "the military wing of the Syrian people's opposition to the regime", with the goal of defeating the Syrian government through armed operations and the encouragement of army defections. The Free Syrian Army is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the government of Bashar al-Assad.

Is the required dress of Women in every Arab country the same?

Nope!

Burqa

Outer garment worn by women to cover body in public. Burqa traditionally include the mesh panel/veil to cover eyes/face

Hijab

In modern usage, hijab generally refers to head coverings worn by Muslim women. Veil that covers the head and chest

Niqab

Cloth that covers the face, but leaves eyes uncovered, connected to Hijab

Abaya

“cloak”, loose robe like dress worn by women