Transcript Making Sense of the Middle East

Now What?
David Koeller
September 2005
The Spread of Islam
The Ottoman Empire
European Modernization
In the 19th century Europe saw:
Industrial Revolution
Growth of Nation-State
Expansion of Liberal political
institutions
 Increasing reliance on science and
technology
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Muslim Countries attempt to
respond
19th Century Ottoman Reforms
 Sultan Selim III (1789-1807)
 Reforms the army to make it more like
those of Europe
 Introduces new weapons and tactics
 Army is trained by Europeans
 Defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Acre
(1799)
 Janissary revolt in 1807 ends reforms
19th Century Ottoman Reforms
 Mahmud II (1808-39)
 Begins reforms in 1826:
 Emphasizes artillery
 Changes government to be more
bureaucratic and organized
 Creates some local legislatures
 Centralizes administration
19th Century Ottoman Reforms
 Abdulmecid I (1839-61) and the
Tanzimat Reforms
 It adopted the Western philosophy that a
state was to o do for its people what the
people wanted or needed and could not
do for themselves....
Tanzimat Reforms
 Reform of Tax system (ended tax
farming)
 New Commercial Code based on a
French model
 Judicial reforms
 1846: First meeting of a parliament
Young Turks
 Wanted constitution and democratic
government
 Come to power in a 1909 Revolution
Islam and Democracy
 Umma—the community of believers
 Ulema—there are no clerics in Islam
 However: law comes from God
Ottoman Empire and War Goals
•The Ottoman Empire was one of two areas that
had not been claimed by one Great Power or
another.
•The fate of the Ottoman Empire was one of the
•important concerns during the war.
The Fourteen Points
XII. The Turkish portions of the present
Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure
sovereignty, but the other nationalities
which are now under Turkish rule should be
assured an undoubted security of life and an
absolutely unmolested opportunity of
autonomous development, and the
Dardanelles should be permanently opened
as a free passage to the ships and
commerce of all nations under international
guarantees.
British Commitments
The Sykes-Picot agreement
 Divided the Ottoman Empire between
Britain and France
Hussein ibn Ali, Emir of the Hejaz:
would be made Caliph
Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Emir of the Nejd:
would be king of an Arab nationalstate
Balfour Agreement
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild, . . .
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment
in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will
use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this
object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done
which may Prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing
non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political
status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the
knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
Treaty of Sevres
The Arabic speaking portions of the
Ottoman Empire were to be divided
between France and Britain.
Palestine and Mesopotamia to
Britain.
Syria and Lebanon to France
Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf coast
would be under British influenced
monarchs.
Treaty of Sevres
Turkey under Attaturk
British occupy Turkey
Greece invades Turkey to “liberate”
Greek city-states
Mustafa Kemal regroups Turkish army
and begins war against occupying
forces
Kemal [Attaturk] tries to establish a
secular state on a European model
Covenant of the League of
Nations
ARTICLE 22. [Mandates]
To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of
the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of
the States which formerly governed them and which are
inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves
under the strenuous conditions of the modern world,
there should be applied the principle that the well-being
and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of
civilisation and that securities for the performance of this
trust should be embodied in this Covenant.
Covenant of the League of
Nations
The best method of giving practical effect to this
principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should
be entrusted to advanced nations who by reason of
their resources, their experience or their geographical
position can best undertake this responsibility, and
who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage
should be exercised by them as Mandatories on
behalf of the League. The character of the mandate
must differ according to the stage of the development
of the people, the geographical situation of the
territory, its economic conditions and other similar
circumstances.
Covenant of the League of
Nations
Certain communities formerly belonging to the
Turkish Empire have reached a stage of
development where their existence as
independent nations can be provisionally
recognized subject to the rendering of
administrative advice and assistance by a
Mandatory until such time as they are able to
stand alone. The wishes of these communities
must be a principal consideration in the
selection of the Mandatory.
Mandates in
Arabia
Iraq (Mesopotamia)
An ethnically and culturally diverse
region.
 Tribal groups: Kurds and Bedouin
 Arabs, both Sunni and Shi’ite
 Nestorian (Assyrian) Christians
 Jews
No sense of national identity.
For local leadership, the British had to
rely on former officers of the Ottoman
army.
Ba’thism
Socialist.
Pan-Arabic.
Third-world Republicanism.
Pan-Arabism
A response to the problems of
modernization.
Looks to the unification of all Arabs
into a single national state.
The “United Arab Republic:” Egypt,
Syria and Iraq.
1956 Nasser Nationalizes
Suez Canal
Canal Company was owned by British
and French stockholders.
Britain, France and Israel join in a war
to take back the canal and to
overthrow Nasser.
US and Soviet Union intervene.
Egypt pays reparations for the canal.
1967: Six-Day War
Israel in 1967
1973: Yom Kippur War
Egypt and Syria attack Israel to
recover lost territory.
Peace with Egypt
1977: Pres. Sadat visits Jerusalem
1979: Camp David Agreement
Why?
 Humiliation of war with Israel
 Cost of war
 Possibility of aid from US
Abandons other Arab nations
The Islamist Alternative
After Yom Kippur War, Egypt looses its
leadership position.
Secular nationalism and the Ba’th
party are discredited.
New emphasis on Islamic identity, not
Arab identity.
Theorists
Sayyid Qutb—Egypt
Mawlana Mawdudi—Pakistan
Ruhollah Khomeini—Iran
Wahabbi
Mohammed Ibn Abd al-Wahab(17031791)
return to the basic Islam of the
seventh century, that is, to a purely
Arabic Islam
He formed an alliance with
Mohammed Ibn Saud
This led to forming Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia and Wahabism
With Yom Kippur War, Saudi Arabia
becomes very wealthy.
This money is used in part to support
its brand of Islam around the world.
Both mosques and schools are
subsidized.
Problems for the Constitution
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Federation or National Government?
Secular State? Islamic State?
Role of Women?
Oil Revenues
Political Identity
 Which comes first?
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Muslim
Iraqi
Shi’ite or Sunni
Arab or Kurd
Family or Tribe
Ethnic Divisions
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Sunni Kurds
Sunni Arabs
Shi’ite Arabs
Christians (Assyrians)
Turkmen
Problems of Federation:
Possible Breakup of the Country
 Turkey fears the formation of a
Kurdish state
 US fears that Shi’ite state could
become subordinate to Iran
 Sunni Arabs could join with Saudi
Arabia
Problems of Federation:
Oil Revenues
 Oil deposits are located
 in the Shi’ite region in the South
 in the Kurdish region in the North
 The Sunni region in the center is
without oil reserves
De-Ba’athification
 Ba’athism
 Secular and nationalist movement
 Socialist and pan-Arabic
 Hussein turned it into a personality cult
Problems of De-Ba’athification
 Not all joined the Ba’ath party
because they believed in its views
 All government officials were
Ba’athists
 The elite army units were Ba’athist
Problems of De-Ba’athification
 Remove too many Ba’athists and you
remove people who have the
technical expertise needed to run the
country
 Remove too many Ba’athists and you
have a large unemployment problem
 Remove too few Ba’athists and you
have criminals at large
Problem of US and Imperialism
 To many the constitution is already
suspect because it appears to be
imposed by the US
 This perception will be strengthened
if:
 US insists of separation of Mosque and
State
 US insists on equal rights for women
Robert Pape: Suicide Terrorism
“ . . .[M]odern suicide terrorism is best
understood as an extreme strategy
for national liberation against
democracies with troops that pose an
imminent threat to control territory
the terrorist view as their homeland.”
Suicide Bombings
 Pape finds that suicide terrorism:
 Is almost always directed against
democracies
 Is a strategy consciously chosen by a
weak group facing a stronger enemy
 Has a specific strategic objective
 Is nationalist, rather than religious
 Is almost always directed against an
occupying foreign power
Opposition Elements
 Iraqi nationalists see US as occupying
force
 Islamists see US as a crusader state
 Sunni muslims who would be a
minority in an democratic Iraqi state
What are the US options?
 Stay the course
 How long a commitment?
 Will the US be perceived as an imperial
power?
 How will this be perceived by Muslims in
other states?
What are US options?
 Pull troops out now
 Could lead to civil war
 Civil war could easily expand into
regional war
Points
 Islam and Democracy can be
compatible
 Problem of a post-colonial state
remain
 Need to allow the Iraqi state to
evolve
Islam had been one of the
dominant cultures of the world
 Muslims regard themselves as the
inheritors of the biblical tradition.
 Muslims created one of the world’s
great civilizations.
 While Europeans were in their Dark
Age, Islam dominated Eurasia.
The Qur’an
<qur’an> “Recitations”
Believed to be literally the
word of God
Teachings
Radical Monotheism
<Muslim>: “one who
submits”
<umma>: the Community
of all Muslims
Five Pillars of Islam
<Shahadah>: “There is no god but Allah
and Mohammad is his prophet”
Prayer five times a day.
<Zakat>: giving alms to the poor
Fasting during Ramadan
<Hajj>: if possible, a pilgrimage to
Mecca once in one’s life
Jihad
<jihad> “struggle”
Struggle against one’s desires
Struggle against society’s
pressures
Dar al’islam
Dar al harb
Shari’a: Islamic Law
<Shar’ia>: “The path to be
followed”
 Law is regarded as divine
 Humans must submit to God’s law
 Law addresses one’s actions
 Rewards and punishments in the
afterlife
Sources of Shar’ia
Qur’an
Sunna from the Had’ith
Consensus of opinion <Ijma>
Analogy <Qiyas>
Personal application of intellect
<Ijtahad>
Jurisprudence
Worship: purification, salah (prayer),
zakah (tax), sawm (fasting), Hajj,
Jihad.
Finance: trade, interest, purchase,
leasing & hiring, debts, gifts,
endowments, deposits, hoarding
Jurisprudence
Penal: murder, theft, adultery, slander,
robbery, drinking, oaths, coercion.
Family & Personal: marriage, divorce,
custody, support, inheritance, freeing
of slaves
Ulema: Legal Scholars
They are not a priesthood or clergy
They are recognized for their learning
and piety
They are not officers of the
government
The government can enforce the
rulings of the ulema
<fatwa> A legal opinion
Fiqh: Jurisprudence
Four schools of Law
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Hanafi
Maliki
Shafi’i
Hanbali
Agreement on about 75% of decisions
Sects: Sunni
The majority of Muslims are
Sunni
<Sunnah>: “Path” or “way”
Sects: Shi’a
Recognize Mohammad’s son-in-law as
legitimate successor
Look to the example of Ali’s son
Hussein
Twelver Sect regards 11 “Imams” as
successor
Tend to place emphasis on poor and
oppressed
Sects: Shi’a
Traditionally regard politics as profane.
The ulema (mullahs) therefore have
little to do with the government.
Sects: Sufi
Islamic Mysticism
“Mystical union” with Allah could be
taken as a claim of divinity
Sufi can be Sunnis or Shi’as