Effects Of Religion On The Northern Africa And Southern Asia

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Effect of Religion and Oil in Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia
The Northern part of Africa (Maghreb) and the Southwestern Asia regions constituting Levant, Anatolia and Mesopotamia are considered to be the birthplace of the world’s 3 major religions. Also, this region accounts for more than 60% of the world’s oil reserves. Religions have had significant effects on the region adding to its strengths and detriments just as has oil contributing to its growth and at the same time its wars.
Cities such as Jerusalem are considered to have been sites for important events directly affecting each of the religions aforementioned. As a result, the different religious groups have been fighting to have control of the specific regional sites such as the Western Wall, Dome of Rock and the Church of Nativity (Rowntree et al., 2011). For example, there have been conflicts between Israel versus Palestine for Jerusalem to protect their sacred grounds; and the Israeli-Iranian conflict that would spur trouble even to the US. Earlier in history, the religious trends involved the Judeo-Christian practices of monotheism until after A.D 622 when the advent of Islam saw the region becoming overwhelmingly Islamic. The development of Islam spurred the growth of Islamic fundamentalism that advocated for preservation of Islamic customs, fusion of civil governance and religious rule, and challenged western popular culture. Consequently, theocratic states such as Iran were established. Religion was

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