The Sunni, the Shia, and the Middle East

The Sunni, the Shia, and the Middle East

The Gist

OF COURSE a minority group would live in the oil-rich
parts of the Persian Gulf....

As has been mentioned before on this blog, the Shiite-Sunni divide continues to deepen as Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran fight proxy wars all over the Middle East. Sunni's make up the majority of Muslims around the world, but Shiites make up the majority in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and Iran (and the province in Saudi Arabia where all of the oil is located). At their core, both sects believe in the same basic tenants: giving to the poor, the belief that there is only one God and that his prophet is Muhammad. The split occurred over a disagreement over who would succeed him. The Sunni's believed that a successor should be chosen by the community, while the Shiite's wanted a member of the Prophet's family to take over. Internal strife soon followed, but it wasn't until Persia/Iran adopted Shia Islam in the 16th century (ironically, Iran had until that point been a center of Sunni learning) that the religious division morphed into one with geopolitical implications. That Shiite's in places like Saudi Arabia (where Shiites allege abuse by Riyadh) and Bahrain (whose Shia-led revolt in 2011 was brutally put down with the help from the Saudi's), are generally poorer, less educated, and marginalized only adds to the problem. However, it needs to be stressed that the Shiite-Sunni "conflict" is only part of what is dividing the Middle East. Perfect example of the complexity of the issue: during the Iran-Iraq War, the Sunni's of Iran didn't back Sunni Saddam Hussein, nor did the majority Shiite in Iraq rise up and back Shiite Ayatollah Khomeini....and now you know the gist. 

The Kurds

The Kurds

The Gist

With ISIS in the news, the plight of the Kurds (and the not-real-country of Kurdistan) has come to forefront…again. The Kurds, until recently, have simply had a century’s long streak of bad luck. It doesn’t help that the four countries they live in are as follows: Iran (currently under western sanctions and accused of wanting to obtain nuclear weapons), Iraq (no explanation necessary), Syria (in the midst of a civil war) and Turkey (who has worked against an independent Kurdistan since the founding of modern day Turkey in the 1920s). After the end of the World War I, when the Ottoman Empire’s Middle Eastern empire was being divided up, the Allied victors overlooked the Kurds. Since the time, they have been one of the largest stateless people in the world. Since the first Persian Gulf War, the Kurds of Iraq have enjoyed a certain level of autonomy (after then President Saddam Hussein gassed them, the international community thought it might be a good idea). Will the Kurds get their own country, especially after they have been at the forefront in the battle against ISIS? Probably not. They are not economically self-sufficient, the United States is not keen on breaking up the federal Republic of Iraq, and an independent Kurdistan would strengthen Iran and embolden Turkish Kurds (something that the United States sees as detrimental to American interests in the region)...and now you now the gist. 

ISIS, IS, the Caliphate, the Islamic State

ISIS, IS, the Caliphate, the Islamic State

The Gist

The Islamic State is a Sunni group that was originally part of Al-Qaeda that broke away back in February, 2014 which currently controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Its stated purpose is to create a caliphate (the term was first used by rulers to describe the original Islamic empire in the 7th century). There are many theories as to how we got this point, but as always in the Middle East it’s a bit complicated. First, President Obama waited a bit too long to back one side or the other in Syria, creating a vacuum in that country’s ongoing civil war. Second, President Maliki of Iraq antagonized his Sunni countrymen by blatantly favoring Iraqi Shiites and marginalizing Sunnis, making it very easy for the Islamic State to win them over to their side. The Islamic State makes it money selling crude oil (somehow everything Middle East-related is stained with oil) on the black market. Although the world is rallying against the Islamic State with targeted airstrikes, what will be interesting will be how the Kurds fair in all this. The Kurds have long wanted their own state (they didn’t fare well when the colonial secretary Winston Churchill was drawing up Mideast boundaries back in the 1920s). The Kurds have solidified their hold on their autonomous region and may be able to convince the world that Kurdistan should join the community of nations as a full-fledged member. Also interestingly, the crisis has left such foes as Iran and the United States on the same side….and now you know the gist.