Reading Assignment #3

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Terrorism and Homeland Security, 9e

CHAPTER 8 Jonathan R. White

Learning Objectives, Part 1

Define the Middle East as a historical, geographical, and cultural metaphor.

Briefly sketch the origins of Islam.

Describe the difference between Shiites and Sunnis.

Discuss the historical significance in the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of Zionism.

Learning Objectives, Part 2

Summarize the impact of World War I on the Middle East.

Describe the formation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli wars.

Explain the emergence of terrorism after the 1967 Six-Day War.

Briefly sketch the history of modern Iran.

Background to the Middle East, Part 1

Problems in the Middle East can be associated with multiple factors over the past two centuries.

The origins of the problems can be found in:

Imperialism

Poverty

Government corruption

Political repression

Religious fanaticism

Background to the Middle East, Part 2

Terrorism with all of these problems and further complicates virtually every issue.

Fear of a regional war over development of a nuclear arsenal or a nuclear exchange is of concern in a politically unstable region.

Mohammed’s Revelation

Mohammed was born about 570 on the Western calendar in the Arabian city of Mecca.

God is vast, all encompassing, and without form.

The pronoun he is used, but God is gender neutral.

What can be known about God comes from revelations from the four major Prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.

Mohammed was to be a prophet to the Arabs.

Muslim Community at Medina

Muslims believe Mohammed created the perfect Islamic community at Medina, combining a just government with religion.

Because of their victory at Badr, Muslims increasingly came to believe that God was on their side and that their cause would be championed in heaven.

Mohammed suddenly died in 632.

The Shiite-Sunni Split, Part 1

Question of leadership spawned debate and eventually a civil war:

According to Arabic tradition, Mohammed’s male heir should lead the community.

Nevertheless, Mohammed claimed to have revealed a new law that said the importance of the community would take precedence over tribal rules.

The Shiite-Sunni Split, Part 2

Sunnis believe that Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (Rushadin) served as the true successors to Mohammed.

Shiites only recognize Ali.

They wanted Hussien to lead a purified Islamic movement, returning to the simple principles of his grandfather, Mohammed.

He was killed with a small band of followers at Karbala in 680; one of the most important events in Shiite history.

The Golden Age of Arabs

Two dynasties, the Umayyads (661–750) and the Abbasids (750–1258), ruled the area in the years following Mohammed.

The Twelvers came to believe that twelve divinely inspired men were sent by God to lead the community.

Martyrdom and voluntary sacrifice became the trademark of the Twelve Imams.

Middle East Issues

Three critical events took place that helped to shape the modern Middle East:

The Ottoman Empire, the Turk-based government that ruled much of the Middle East, was falling apart in the 19th century.

Palestinian Arabs were wary of the Jewish settlers and tensions rose.

After WWI, the Middle East was divided, not with respect to the area’s political realities, but to share the spoils of victory.

Three Sources of Violence

Political control of Israel and Palestine

Who would rule the Arab world

Relations between the Sunnis and Shiites

Stated another way, these problems are:

The Palestinian question (control of Palestine)

Intra-Arab rivalries and struggles

The future of revolutionary Islam

Early Zionist Movement

As Jewish settlers bought land, they purchased large parcels next to each other.

They established governing councils for their farmland and refused to sell land back to Arabs.

They were acting in defiance of the sultan’s refusal to allow Jewish self-government.

World War I and Contradictory Promises

Balfour Declaration of November 1917 promised to create the state of Israel.

Sykes negotiated a treaty with the French to extend spheres of British and French influence in the old Ottoman empire.

At the end of the war, the British created a series of Arab countries dominated by strong, traditional family groups.

The Birth of Israel

Exhausted by WWII, the British sought a UN solution to their quandary in Palestine.

On May 15, 1948, the UN recognized the partition of Palestine and the modern nation-state of Israel.

Arabs attacked the new Jewish state and the Irgun’s terrorism fell by the wayside.

Both Arabs and Jews shifted to conventional warfare and would fight that way until 1967.

The Six-Day War

In 1967, the Israelis demonstrated their superiority over all their Arab neighbors—although better equipped and outnumbered, in six days Israel doubled its territory and soundly defeated its opponents.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) began a series of terrorist attacks against civilian Israeli positions.

Arab States Split

One group, represented by King Hussein of Jordan, was anxious to find a way to coexist with Israel.

A few nations, like Egypt, simply wanted to avenge the embarrassment of the Six- Day War.

Represented by the Baath Party, groups of Arab socialists called for both Arab unity and the destruction of Israel.

Middle East Terrorism Categories

Suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli and Western positions in Lebanon

Militias fighting other militias in Lebanon

State-sponsored terrorism from Libya, Syria, and Iran

Freelance terrorism to high-profile groups

Terrorism in support of Arab Palestinians

Attacks in Europe against Western targets

Israeli assassinations of alleged terrorists

Uniquely Persian

Iranians are not Arabs; they are Persians, and they have strong ethno-national ties to the ancient Persian Empire.

When the Arab and Mongol armies rode through Persia over the next centuries, the Persians maintained their historical cultural identity.

Iranians developed a hierarchy of Shiite Islamic scholars, including local prayer leaders, masters of Islam, ayatollahs, and grand ayatollahs.

British Influence and Control, Part 1

Oil production had a tremendous impact on the way that the British used Iran.

Anglo-Persian Oil Company was formed and the British started took oil profits out of Iran.

Although direct economic imperialism has ended in Iran, Iranians still regard Western oil companies as an extension of the old British arrangement.

British Influence and Control, Part 2

The British believed Iran might be the next country that the communists would target.

The British searched for a leader to stem the potential Soviet threat.

Reza Shah Pahlavi: with British support, he became shah of Iran.

Reza Shah had befriended Hitler, and he saw German relations as a way to balance British influence.

Prelude to the 1979 Revolution, Part 1

After Reza Shah’s reign was over, his son became the modern shah of Iran, but his ascent was traumatic.

In August 1953, Pahlavi returned to the office that had been denied him during Iran’s brief fling with democracy.

He created a secret military police force, SAVAK, to locate and destroy his enemies.

Prelude to the 1979 Revolution, Part 2

SAVAK infiltrated Shiite opposition groups in Tehran, and the army attacked Qom.

There were thousands of arrests.

Demonstrators were ruthlessly beaten or, in some cases, shot in the streets.

By 1963, many potential opponents were murdered or held in custody.

The shah ordered Khomeini deported to Iraq instead of executing him.

The Revolution, Part 1

Khomeini’s rise to power was a key to the revolution.

Under his leadership, the mosque came to be perceived as the only opposition to the shah and the hated SAVAK.

The shah pressured Saddam Hussein to remove Khomeini, who was forced to flee Iraq in fear for his life.

The Revolution, Part 2

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 caused another form of terrorism to spread from the Middle East.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard arrived in the Bekaa Valley and established the nucleus of a new type of revolutionary force, Hezbollah.

The Call to Karbala

Khomeini used a mixture of repressive tactics and political strategies to consolidate his power in Iran; he is best understood within the Shiite tradition of Islam.

The Ayatollah Khomeini was guided by the message of Karbala, and he removed Islamic scholars and political leaders who disagreed with his message.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 1

The Middle East is a cultural concept. It can refer to a geographical area, but the boundaries are not distinct.

Islam is one of the world’s great monotheistic religions. Believers contend that God is revealed through prophets and that Mohammed was the last and greatest Prophet. God’s holy law is revealed in the Quran, and Islamic law can be interpreted by the sayings and actions of Mohammed.

Islam has many different branches. The two main branches—the Shiites and the Sunnis.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 2

The Arabs and Israelis engaged in a series of conventional wars from 1948 to 1973, and the Israelis demonstrated their military superiority in each one. Afterwards the Palestinians turned to terrorism as a method for confronting Israeli military superiority.

Modern Iran formed within the context of European imperialism. The British and the United States were instrumental in placing Iranian leaders on the throne.

Iran disavowed the United States after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.