A country in disarray. A national crisis, within the nation of Qatar, which has implications and ramifications nationally, regionally, and worldwide. In the near future, this nation will host the World Cup, in 2022, where they have been under backlash and scrutiny over worker conditions and human rights, but there are a lot of problems that need to be dealt with at the current moment within the government and its own people. Qatar faces a new problem as nine countries surrounding Qatar have cut diplomatic ties, as reported by CNN. Countries involved with the cut include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Mauritius, Mauritania, the Maldives and Libya. The ties include countries that have long lasting conflict …show more content…
All Qatari citizens must leave these countries, including foreign diplomats, airline flights have been canceled, and all citizens of the foreign countries are no longer allowed to travel to Qatar as well.
To begin, history has proven that the Middle East division between the Sunnis and Shias plays an important role in situations like these. Saudi Arabia, a heavy Sunni country, is a country that had cut ties with Qatar, one reason being the relationship between Qatar and Iran, a heavy Shia country (Abdo, Amos, Reza Gause, Hoffman, Husain, Nasir, et al. 2014). Both of these two countries are said to be rivals within the Middle East, and this crisis is a prime example that illustrates the impact of the differences of these two divisions, within a religion, have on diplomacy. To fully comprehend the animosity between the two rival states, one must learn and understand both the Sunni and Shia, and the long religious history behind it. All Muslims believe that there is one god, Allah, and the messenger of Allah is the prophet Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims come from who they each believe succeeded Muhammad; the Sunnis believe Abu Bakr was the successor, where Shia believe Ali, who was related to Muhammad, was the successor. Although the religion is the same, today both sides still disagree on teachings and practices. The Economist explains why there are tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and why religion plays a part in the
Saudi Arabia and Iran are two countries that sit on opposite sides of the Sunni/Shiite divide, which can be argued as being the most prominent issue the Middle East faces today. Saudi Arabia is predominantly known to be a Sunni state, while Iran is largely inhabited by Shia Muslims. Both countries aspire to be the hegemonic powers of the region. Ethnically, Iran is known to be a Persian land, unlike Saudi Arabia that is known to be in the heart of the Arab world. These two countries are separated by the Arabian Gulf and throughout the twentieth century and up until today, the relationship between the two countries has been notoriously contentious. Within the past few years especially relationships between the two states have been very fragile with Saudi Arabia ending diplomatic ties early in 2016. The two states are strained over many issues of which are, interpretations of Islam, oil export policy and hegemonic regional leadership.
To start off, even though Sunni and Shia Muslims share the same religion, they disagree who should lead after Muhammad death. Sunni Muslims take up 85 to 90 percent of Muslims. Sunni Muslims believe Muhammad did not clearly
For the United States, the Gulf region remains one of the most geo-strategically important locations in the world for diplomatic, intelligence cooperation, and business opportunities such as hydrocarbons and arms. This strategic cooperation has provided the region some stability, particularly with the rise of Iran and the Shi’a crescent and the chaotic outcome of the war in Iraq. The council members have also relied on the United State to fend off some of the domestic challenges to the existing regimes that are both internally and regionally rooted.
The Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam have been feuding for hundreds of years dating back to the beginning of the Islamic religion. The deity or god of the Sunnis is Allah. The Sunni branch of Islam is the larger of the two branches with over 80% of the Muslim population. The Sunni are the majority in most of the countries that have Islamic followers. There are a few different translations of what Sunna stands for, one of which is “Habitual Practice.” The differences between the two branches can be traced all the back to the 7th century CE when the disagreements as to who should succeed Muhammad. Sunnis believe that the Muslim community should maintain the right to select who the successor to Muhammad is going to be. The Shiite branch
The United Arab Emirates, (UAE) is currently making a large impact in Yemen. The crowned prince of UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi , Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is focusing on helping Yemen. Sheikh, with the help of the Emirati military, hopes to: repair Yemen’s government, destroy the Houthi rebel movement, and secure the travel of resources, like oil, through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Although it seems that the UAE is striving to repair Yemen, the UAE is also benefiting from taking action in Yemen. The UAE government fears the extremists and terrorists surrounding the UAE, have expanded to Yemen, posing a great threat to the UAE. By taking action in Yemen, Sheikh and the UAE aim to cease the spread the extremists and terrorists beyond Yemen’s
Many countries generally such as Saudi Arabia and Iran specifically hate each particularly other in a subtle way. This definitely is really due mostly to really religious differences, which generally is quite significant. Both countries really are Muslim but there particularly are different types of Muslim which actually hold different beliefs in a subtle way. These different beliefs split Saudi Arabia and Iran apart in a subtle way. Saudi Arabia and Iran literally have differences which causes conflict, or so they basically thought. Religion for the most part is a particularly key difference between Saudi Arabia and Iran in a subtle way. After Prophet Muhammad died, his followers split into different beliefs, or so they definitely thought. Sunni Muslims definitely believe that anyone can generally be caliph, which mostly is fairly significant. Shia’s on the really other hand essentially believe that the caliph definitely has to for the most part be a descendant of Muhammad, or so they basically thought. Saudi Arabia really is Sunni while Iran mostly is Shia, so this for all intents and purposes is basically due mostly to definitely religious differences, for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief. The Islam religion specifically was founded by Mohammed in a subtle way. Sunni Muslims for all intents and purposes believe the leader can basically be anyone, which kind of is quite significant. Shia Muslims for all intents and purposes believe that the leader
Disagreement between Shias and Sunni have been the most important splits in Islamic religion, which are ongoing problems since the 7th century to present-day, conflict in Islamic history has initiated blood spills from generations to generations and is still taking life’s while differences in social and equal opportunities that have taken deep roots in the minds of future leaders.
A religion that will employ great influence in a civilization of more than one and a half billion people. The Prophets death also had the opportunity to split the religion into two main branches the Sunni and Shi’a. The Sunni who are 80 percent of Muslims, and they believed that, Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, to the successor. As for the Shi’a who only make up 15 percent of the Muslims in the world, believed an imam, in their case Ali, cousin, and son-in-law, should be the successor; due to their blood relations. However, with their differences aside, they shared the common belief that Prophet Muhammad was a messenger of Allah. Both the Sunni and Shi’a also share the belief that there are five pillars of Islam: (1) the harmony of Allah and the prophethood of Muhammad, (2) the five obligatory prayers, (3) fasting, (4) charity, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca. Both branches oppose several kinds social change that is done by western ideas, and instead have the primary objective of the establishment of Islamic law as the sole basis of their government. The question still is who should have been the rightful successor of the Prophet Muhammad. Someone who is in blood relations or someone who was a close
Such a position was of great influence in the Middle East what is further exacerbating the fears of Saudi Arabia about the changes is the United States’ refusal to participate more actively in the ongoing war in Syria and Yemen against its competitor, Iran. Eisenstadt states that, in the political spheres of Saudi Arabia, it is believed Shiite Iran is a rival for leadership not only in the region but in the entire Muslim world. The Saudis believe that Iran is behind most conflicts and hot spots in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposite sides of the civil war in Syria and Yemen. Particularly strong in Riyadh and in the other capitals of the Arab Gulf states, there is a fear of the growing influence of Iran on its Shiite minority.
Another source of conflict as reported by Sørli et. al stems from the religious differences. As a whole, the Middle East is comprised of followers of Islam. But within the Islamic religion are the Sunni (which account for the majority), and the Shia. Tension lies between the two sects, especially given the fact that the Shia often hold the positions of power (Sørli, 147). Another major
On 2 December 2010 it was announced that Qatar would host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, after the FIFA Executive Committee voted in a secret ballot in Zurich. The government of Qatar’s successful proposal bid defeated four other candidates to stage the 2022 edition of the world’s greatest sporting event: Australia, Korea Republic, Japan and the United States of America.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the most important tourist destinations in the region. The Arab spring had a very minor effect on the country’s tourism as it did not have a revolution but tourists in countries such as the Americas and Eastern Asia and some European countries were still slightly worried to visit any Arab country as it could be hit by the domino effect of the Arab Spring. UAE is not a neighboring country of any of the countries that had revolutions but it is in the same region.
But Amnesty International described the recent decisions as " much less than the radical changes necessary to remedy the abuses committed against the amount of foreign labor " in diameter. Amnesty said in a statement issued by the day, that the measures proposed country intersect traveled with the findings of the law firm of international cost the Qatari government to investigate the problem, a report which confirmed the findings of the organization about violations against foreign workers in this country. Qatar has decided to ease restrictions on foreign workers after exposure to international criticism ahead of its hosting of the World Cup football in 2022. Qatar has been subjected to intense pressure to force it to abandon the
In the heart of the Middle East is a country known by many Westerners for its oil production and, often, extremist beliefs of groups within the country. The country is Saudi Arabia, and though it is thought of by many as a rather backward country, Saudi Arabia has a rich history and culture, and it is a country that revolves around Islam and the worship of Allah as the one true God.
UAE is located at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Gulf sometimes referred to as Persian Gulf, bordering Oman , and Saudi Arabia to the south, sharing sea borders with Qatar and Iran (CIA World Factbook). The population is estimated to be 9.446 million and consists of 1.4 million Emirati citizens and 7.8 million expatriates, majority of whom came from India, Pakistan, Philippines and other Arab countries. It was established in 1971 as a federation of seven emirates (states). Each emirate is governed by a monarch; together, along with some elected representatives, they form the Federal Supreme Council – legislative organ. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates.