Chapter 1 Objectives and Tools of World Regional Geography

EL.The Urban Way of Life

47. Cultural and Historical Geographies

EM.The Promised Land of the Jews

EN.Christianity: Death and Resurrection in Jerusalem

EO.The Message of Islam

48. Economic Geography

49. Geopolitical Issues

EP.Chokepoints

EQ.Access to Oil

ER.Access to Freshwater

ES.Terrorism

There is no single definition of the Eurocentric term “Middle East.” The Middle East and North Africa region used in this book contains the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Afghanistan, plus the disputed Palestinian Territories and Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.

Approximately 500 million people live in this region, with three countries (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) taking nearly half of that total. The Middle East contains some of the fastest growing countries and territories in the world. The wealthy Arab oil-producing states along the Persian Gulf are heavily urbanized, while the very poor countries of Yemen, Sudan, and Afghanistan are rural.

Most of the Middle East and North Africa is arid or semiarid, and animals, plants, and people have developed strategies to avoid or endure the continual drought. There are few major rivers, and areas with plentiful rainfall are rare. Access to fresh water is a critical geopolitical concern in the region, especially for “downstream” countries such as Israel and Egypt. The mountains and uplands provide respite from the intense desert heat. The Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan contains peaks over 25,000 feet, while the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface at 600 feet below sea level.

Life in the Middle East can best be understood using the Middle Eastern “ecological trilogy” of villagers, pastoral nomads, and urban dwellers, and how each of these groups interacts with and benefits the others; the villagers represent the cornerstone of this trilogy. Many nomads have been sedentarized in recent decades. Classic Middle Eastern cities (medinas) were often organized around a central mosque and marketplace, with residents living in quarters determined by ethnicity.

The Middle East was a culture hearth and the birthplace of civilization. The majority of the people living in this region are Arab, but Turks, Persians, Kurds, and many other non-Arab ethnic groups also reside here. The Middle East is also the home of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jews live almost exclusively in Israel now, and (usually small) Christian minorities can be found in many countries in the region. Islam is the dominant faith in every Middle Eastern nation except Israel. The five pillars of Islam are the profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims share these pillars, even though there was a division within Islam early in its history that has led to sometimes acrimonious relations between Sunni Muslims and Shi’ite Muslims.

Overall this region is poor, despite the oil-rich Gulf states. Only Israel qualifies as a true MDC. Most of the economies of Middle Eastern nations are based on oil exports. Two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves are located in this region, but the creation of OPEC in 1960 stimulated oil exploration outside OPEC member countries. Oil flows out of the region through a number of vital chokepoints. The United States has a vested interest in protecting those chokepoints and ensuring the continued export of oil, though U.S. support for Israel in 1973 prompted an Arab oil embargo against the U.S.

Terrorism is now one of the main areas of concern for the U.S. in this region. Israel has been the target of numerous terrorist attacks by various Palestinian groups because of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. U.S. interests in the region had also been subject to attacks even before the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 on U.S. soil by members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida Islamist group. Smaller terrorist attacks continued afterward in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere, while the U.S. counterattacked by ousting the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan, and later the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.

103. 
     The countries in this region are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. The disputed Western Sahara and the “Occupied Territories” of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are also included. The three most populated countries are Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. The highest population growth rates occur in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian territories; the lowest growth rates in the region are in Tunisia and Iran. [pp. 207-208]
     

104. 
     Most of the Middle East and North Africa is dry, with desert or semiarid/steppe climatic conditions. The major mountain ranges are the Atlas Mountains, in Morocco and Algeria; the Asir Mountains, in western Saudi Arabia and Yemen; the Pontic and Taurus Mountains in Turkey; the Elburz and Zagros Mountains in Iran; and the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. The Sahara Desert occupies most of the North African countries in the region, and desert conditions also prevail over most of the Arabian Peninsula and from Syria to Afghanistan. Only a few major rivers flow through this region, including the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. The heaviest rainfall in the region falls across northern Turkey. [pp. 208-211]
     

105. 
     This region can be described as a culture hearth as civilization itself first developed here, approximately 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The major faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all originated in this region. Many of the plants and animals widespread in modern agriculture were first domesticated here. Important advances in science, technology, art, architecture, and language were also diffused to the wider world initially from the Middle East. [p. 219]
     

106. 
     The major ethnic groups of the region include the Turks of Turkey, the Persians of Iran, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, and the Arabs throughout most of the rest of the region. An Arab is anyone who is of Semitic Arab ethnicity and whose ancestral language is Arabic. Jews were originally a distinct ethnolingustic group, but that definition does not strictly apply anymore. Kurds speak a language related to Farsi, but have no official homeland of their own. A Muslim is anyone who practices the Islamic religion. [p. 219]
     

107. 
     Judaism does not have a fixed creed but all Jews are encouraged to behave according to the laws God gave to Moses. Jewish identity is based upon the common historical experience shared over thousands of years. Famine and invasions periodically removed the Jewish people from Canaan (Palestine) until the occupying Romans scattered Jews all across their empire in the Diaspora. The decimation of Jewish numbers across Europe during World War II led to the creation of modern day Israel. Christianity emerged in ancient Palestine after a small group of disciples accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Christianity was initially persecuted under the Romans but became Rome’s state religion after several centuries. Christianity eventually spread across Europe and around the world, though it does not have a major presence in the Middle East. Islam is by far the dominant religion in the region; it originated in the early 600s A.D. in Saudi Arabia. Muslim armies swiftly conquered the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, and the old Byzantine and Sassanian Empires after the death of Muhammad. Islam continued to spread, by explorers, merchants and military force, across northern Africa, southeastern Europe, and across Asia and into Indonesia. [pp. 219-226]
     

108. 
     The schism between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam began after the death of Muhammad, who had not chosen a successor to take his place as caliph. The difference between these two groups results from differing ideas of who should become caliph: Sunnis argued the person with the strongest leadership skills and greatest piety should become caliph, while Shi’ites insisted that only direct descendants of Muhammad himself could become caliphs. [p. 225]
     

109. 
     While Algeria, Egypt and Sudan have some oil reserves, two-thirds of the world’s proven petroleum reserves lies in the countries surrounding the Persian Gulf, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. [p. 226]
     

110. 
     The Carter Doctrine states that the United States will use any means necessary to defend its vital interests in the Middle East. Oil was that vital interest, and at the time “any means necessary” meant that the U.S. was willing to go to war, possibly even nuclear war, with the Soviet Union to defend its access to Middle Eastern oil. [p. 230]
     

111. 
     Faced with a potential threat from an Iranian nuclear weapons program, the United States seems to have two choices: diplomatic dialogue or military action. The former option is one already followed by Russia, China, and European countries in their dealings with Iran. The latter option of a “surgical strike,” taking out or severely damaging suspected weapons development sites, while effective in the short term, would economic and political have repercussions throughout the region and beyond. [pp. 232-233]
     

112. 
     An upstream country is usually more powerful than a downstream country, simply because water flows downward and the country located upstream is often more able to maximize the amount of water it takes from that river. Downstream countries can sometimes tilt the water balance in their favor by military force or by treaty, such as Israel and Egypt have done. [pp. 230-231]
     

113. 
     Hizbullah and Hamas are Islamic terrorist groups opposed to Israel and are often clandestinely supported by Iran. These groups have religious, political and cultural aims, particularly against Israeli and U.S. interests. Their terrorist strikes against Israel also have the effect of derailing any implementation of the various peace agreements reached between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Al-Qa’ida is a transnational Islamist organization seeking to unite other Islamist groups worldwide to further their common goals, mainly to remove the military, economic, and cultural interests of the West in general and the United States in particular from the Middle East and other Muslim regions, and to re-establish the caliphate, the empire from Islam’s “golden age.”[pp. 232-234]
     

This module should enable your students to…

• 
  Recognize the tensions between Muslims and Hindus in South Asia that often give rise to violent conflict
  
• 
  Appreciate how the partition of India created lasting problems in political relations, resource use and allocation, and industrial development
  
• 
  See that food production has kept pace with enormous population growth in South Asia
  
• 
  Consider the role of high technology in reshaping the economies and outlooks of South Asia’s peoples
  
• 
  Recognize the serious consequences of political insurgencies in Kashmir, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka
  

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