One of the most pressing issues in modern geopolitics is the rise of a radical and violent terrorist sect in the Middle East. Most prominently associated with Al Qaeda during the early half of the 21st century and as of 2015 it’s even more extreme splinter group The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. While many in the West are shocked by the violent motivations and anti-Western philosophy of these movements the truth is that Islamic Radicalism has roots that stretch far back through the fog of history to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of European economic, social, and military might in the region. With the partitioning of the old Ottoman territories after World War I and subsequent occupation by Western European colonial powers, the historical strategy of colonization came into play; place a foreign-backed minority-led government into power to serve as a puppet regime acting for the benefit of the controlling foreign interest. This socially unsustainable colonial strategy placed the majority of many countries, including Egypt and Syria, into conflict with the empowered minority. Other more homogeneous countries, such as Iraq and Iran, discontent to live under the oppressive de-facto rule of a foreign power, grew embittered towards their colonial patrons and puppet dictatorships and turned towards the perceived purity and social benefits of embracing political movements based in Islam and Pan-Arabism.
Prior to the First World War the Ottoman Empire, sitting at
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, popularly known as ISIS and Daesh, is the 21st centuries rising global threat to humanity. The world has united to reduce and ultimately prevent genocide. In the paper ISIS will be referenced as Daesh. The initial part of the essay will cover Daesh origins, ideology, goals, and objectives. It is essential to know the similarities of the present Daesh brutalities and historic barbarisms of Wahhabism. The rest of the essay will focus on leadership, funding, and capabilities, such as physical bases support locations. The conclusion will attempt to raise concern of the internal threat within the United States. This essay will be limited to sources not having access to restricted or classified information. The closing goal of this essay is to embolden the serious threat to the United States and other countries seeking pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
‘Temptations OF Power’ is an impressive scholarly work that illustrates the contemporary circumstances of Islamist and Illiberal, uprising movements in the Middle East and North Africa. The book packs Hundreds of interviews with officials of Islamist and illiberal organizations, to advance a new understanding of their political ideologies. Nevertheless, the book gives many stories and details about the political movements in the Arab Nations encountering repression by totalitarian regimes. Moreover, it analyzes the reasons of democratization consequences on other parts of the world excluding Arab Nations. Also, explains various challenges met by the Muslim Brotherhood through different political epochs.
Maintaining theocratic governments revolves around utilizing religion as the main decision maker for political affairs. Over time, groups of individuals grow indignant with opposing ideologies of how theocracies are enforced. This then creates difficulty for a country to disregard public beliefs of theocracy being portrayed as rule of religion over the state, which results in pressure on governments. Islamic Wahhabism has ultimately led to both of these countries becoming subjected to projecting influence to the Arab world. Many terrorist organizations take advantage of unreliable governments in order to overturn their powers. If these countries support these organizations to prevent revolutions and corruption, other countries becoming judgmental of theocracies is not surprising. Need therefore arises to investigate why conflict and terrorism are viewed as benefactors within the theocratic regimes of these two
From the time when the United States invaded Iraq eleven years ago, a noxious insurgence aeriated at numerous customs of conflict which has attested irrepressible, malleable, and tenacious strive to convey on hostility. A nation of Saddam and al-Zarqawi, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) reins a third of conjointly Syria and Iraq in its charisma avowed bravura of war. Around the beginning of 2010, U.S. and Iraqi forces destroyed two topmost al-Qaeda and Iraq frontrunners; which then sanctioned Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to become the spearhead of an assemblage destabilized by a strenuous operation directed at culminating a Sunni uprising in the country (CNN, 2015). By virtually all provision, Iraq is entangled in civil war. In addition, ISIS has engrossed nearly twelve thousand supporters from overseas already and at least three thousand devotees are from the West (Feroli & Dulin, 2013).
The modern conception of the Middle East was molded in the early 20th century. The French and the British both formulated their foreign policy in the Middle East to help advance their own self interests. Power hungry and desperate for new land, British and French governments struggled to shape the Middle East. Britain’s unwillingness to learn about the people living in the Middle East, coupled with their underestimation of Arab nationalism, made for an inauspicious state. People in these Middle Eastern nations were unable to advocate for themselves and were taken advantage of by corrupt government officials or imperializing western powers. The French and British erred by disregarding pertinent information about the nationalist feelings of the
About 90 percent of Egyptians are Islamic. Most of them are Sunni Muslims. The other 10 percent is christian. Early Islam was spreading wildly throughout the Middle East. The spread of Islamic as well as economic and social factors fueled this expansionism. By the end of the Islam’s first century, Islamic armies had reached far into North Africa and eastward and northward into Asia. Among those first countries Egypt.
While the aftermath of World War II is often referred to as one of the primary creators of deep rooted turmoil in the Middle East region, the effects of the Cold War and the United States often over-zealous battle against communism is just as much a contributor if not more. The Arab world and the Middle East region were clearly going through quite an extraordinary period throughout World War II and its conclusion, primarily with the creation of most of the states we recognize today and struggling with the continuation of colonialism. These factors set the stage for the emergence of strong nationalist sentiments and Pan-Arab movements across the Middle East. Unfortunately, and much to the detriment of the region, the leaders of these young
Terrorism can be defined as both a global and a regional phenomenon. Globally, terrorist activity has increased since the late 20th century and has emerged as one of the critical issues associated with early 21st century geopolitics. In a regional sense, specific terrorist groups emerge in particularly troubled corners of the globe in direct response to ongoing issues in those regions. And while terrorist groups are region-specific and often ethnically or politically aligned to a specific set of ideological tenants, they are also often funded and supported through international and transnational support networks. According to our readings and discussions this week, we have established that this transnational support for terrorist organizations
Florence, the winter of 1507, Leonardo da Vinci dissects a human body for the first time. Da Vinci, most well known for his artistry, was infatuated with the human anatomy. He produced a book titled “On the Human Figure” that entailed a sequence of drawings, mainly of the skull. Though through writing the book he became even more curious about the inter-workings of our bodies. So, this is where I would go given the chance to travel through time. When Leonardo da Vinci explored the anatomy of man that had passed in a hospital, in Florence. The build up of adrenaline as the abdomen was cut and pulled open. Having never seen even a picture of what an anatomical heart looked like, or given an idea of the shear mass of a liver. Not having any preconceived ideas, because it simply had never been
2014). Focusing on people and the needs of people are the most important part of what makes an effective leader. Leaders accept the responsibility of achieving goals or getting results through the efforts of the followers (Leonard, 2017).
Even the most superficial analysis of Middle Eastern events and misadventures of the past ten years would acknowledge the prophetic clairvoyance of this first argument. The post-US withdrawal sectarian crackdown and violence in Iraq has shattered its delicate secular evolution potentially sparking a new civil war, has given rise to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), drawing in thousands of disaffected Islamic youth from all over the world, conflated a civil conflict in Syria that now
Ethics and morality are not the same. Morality sets guidelines for people to know what is right and what is wrong. Ethics is the study of morality. Individuals who study ethics are the ones who set those guidelines for what is right and what is wrong for the rest of society. Ethics are often based off of rules and principles that guide people's lives. Many theories have been developed by people who have studied ethics to determine different types of thought processes of people when making moral decisions.
This scholarly interest has resulted in a spate of research output from multiple disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. There are two ubiquitous trends in the literature on extremism and terrorism. First, a majority of the conversations locate the causes of contemporary extremism and radicalization in the religious edicts of one religion namely, Islam (Parent and Ellis, 2011). Second, a large number of
Majid Khadduri is an Iraqi born author who was known for his prolific work in regards to the history of the Middle East and how it affects the current geopolitical climate. Born on September 27th, 1909 in Mosul, Khadduri received his education at the American University of Beirut for his BA and PhD; for 12 years, from 1937 to 1949, he served as a law professor for the Iraqi ministry of education and as a member of the first Iraqi delegation to the UN. The Islamic Conception of Justice takes a very comprehensive approach to the question of justice found in Islam and reflected in the Islamic community, and is among the last of Khadduri’s published works (Killgore, 1996). Khadduri has written books and works in regards to individual states, its history, relation to other states, as well as taking broader, more holistic approach when he writes about general concepts and ideas and how they are understood by different groups of people in space in time. Khadduri served as a lecturer in the University of Indiana and then Chicago before finally settling at Johns Hopkins University. During his tenure Khadduri served as a visiting professor for at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Virginia and Georgetown University. He died on January 25, 2007, in Potomac, Maryland, United States at the age of 97 (Klubes, 2007).
Centuries of colonialism, Eurocentrism, and global policing has given the European world, particularly the Anglosphere, a bit of a hero-complex. There is an all too common way of thinking that, within the past couple of decades or so, European and American political, cultural, and military forces have just begun a cultural infiltration of the previously isolated and primitive Middle East. It is believed by many that western entities are modernizing the Middle East. The veracity, utility, and morality of such actions will not be discussed here. What will be discussed is that the inverse of that assumption is true: it is as a result of centuries of progress in the Islamic and Arabic world that modern global society as a whole exists today.