Transcript The Persian Gulf War

“Islam is Politics”
-Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran 1979
EGYPT
• Gamal Abdel Nasser
• Egypt still in control of
Suez Canal
Shah with US
Pres. Carter
Iranian Revolution,
1979
• Many Muslims did not like the Shah (leader) of Iran
because of his connections to the West and his new
reforms (women educated, westernization,
modernization)
• Majority of Iranians were poor
Riots
• Fundamentalists viewed
begin
shah as a traitor to Islam
Islamic Fundamentalism
• Movement to reorder government and society according to Islamic
laws (Sharia Law)
• Islamists believe that Muslim countries have strayed from the path of
true Islam by following Western models of political and economic
development
• Violence
Ayatollah Khomeini
• In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shi’ite
Muslim, led a Revolution to overthrow the
Shah
• Set up a theocracy:
govt. run by
religious leaders
American Hostage Crisis
• During the Revolution, Radical Muslim Students seized the U.S
Embassy and held 66 Americans hostage for 444 days.
• The hostage crisis severely damaged the US/Iran relationship
Hostages
Iran: Islamic State
• Khomeini set up an Islamic State headed by himself as “Supreme
Religious Leader”
• Religious leaders controlled the military, made laws, courts, and
education.
• Public Morality was enforced:
• No mingling of opposite sexes
• Women must veil
themselves in public
• Alcohol was banned
Islamic Laws in Action
Stoning
Lashing
Executions
Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
• Iraq (Saddam Hussein-dictator) attacked Iran because of border
disputes and because the Ayatollah called for revolution on Sunnis
• 500,000 dead on both sides.
• Iraq used chemical weapons
• Iran and Iraq agreed to a
cease-fire in 1988
• Both countries economies were disrupted in
the 80s as a result
Iran Today
• In Iran today, many young people are demanding more freedoms in
Iran
• Protests
• Freedoms:
•
•
•
•
•
Voting Rights
Moral Rights
Economic Rights
Freedom of Entertainment
Less Oppression
The Persian Gulf War
• In 1990 Iraq accused neighboring Kuwait of drilling into an Iraqi oil field and
stealing oil
• Iraq attacked Kuwait
• U.S.-led coalition launched the Persian Gulf War- attacked the Iraqi forces in
Kuwait
• In weeks, Kuwait was freed.
• After the war
• the UN continued its economic sanctions
• insisted that Iraq destroy its chemical and biological weapons
• Also to agree not to develop nuclear weapons.
• But Iraq failed to fully cooperate with UN weapons inspectors…
Terrorism and Islam
• Terrorism:
• Uses violence to achieve a political or religious end (terrorist: someone who
commits terrorism)
• Quran does not allow the killing of innocents or suicide
• Terrorists believe they are jihadists: die in defense of religion, become
martyrs
• Jihad:
• “Striving or Struggling in the Way of God” – some interpret as a call to war,
would you?
9/11
• Terrorists hijacked four
passenger airplanes and crashed
them into the WTC and the
Pentagon
• The fourth crashed in rural PA
• Nearly 3,000 died
Osama Bin
Laden
Al Qaeda
Taliban in
Afghanistan
The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack against
the United States Navy destroyer USS Cole on
October 12, 2000
War on Terror
• U.S. targeted al Qaeda and the Taliban
• Taliban-group that was governing Afghanistan according to strict
interpretation of Islamic law
• 2001-U.S. forced Taliban out of Afghanistan
• Osama Bin Laden was shot and killed on May 2, 2011 by U.S. Navy
Seals and CIA
What do you think
of this example of
freedom of
expression?
The Iraq War-2003
• U.S. leaders worried that Hussein might have deadly
weapons that he could give to terrorists
• Another U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, quickly
forcing Hussein out of power.
• American weapon inspectors failed to find stockpiles
of biological or chemical weapons or evidence proving
Hussein had a role in 9/11
• Insurgency ensued
• Growth of ISIS after US leaves Iraq, thoughts?
Statue of Saddam Hussein
being toppled in Firdos
Square after the US
invasion of Iraq
Saddam shortly after capture by
American forces, and after being
shaved to confirm his identity
December 2003
Iraq Timeline
• 2004 political power was transferred to the Iraqis
• 2005 Iraqis voted in the country’s first multiparty
election in 50 years and later approved a new
constitution that would make Iraq an Islamic federal
democracy
• November 5th, 2006-Saddam Hussein was found guilty
of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death
by hanging. (Dec. 30, 2006)
• All US Forces were mandated to withdraw from Iraqi
territory by December 31, 2011 under the agreement
signed in 2008 by President Bush-completed on
December 18, 2011