Download History of the Middle East

History of the Middle East
I. The Prophet Muhammad
Life of Muhammad
• Born 570 AD in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
• Orphaned at 6, married Khadijah who was
15 years older
• 610 AD, during the Arabic month of
Ramadan, had his first vision of the Angel
Gabriel
• Nephew Ali was an early convert
• Muslim: one who submits to Gods will
Muhammad’s Hijra
• Meccans thought he would disrupt pilgrimage to the
Ka’bah.
• Ka’bah: black box full of pagan idols in Mecca
• Muhammad had another vision where he went to heaven
from Jerusalem at the Temple Mount and visited Moses
• 620 AD, In trouble at Mecca, people from Medina ask
Muhammad to arbitrate an argument
• 622 AD, Muhammad leaves for Medina (Hijra)
• Observes Yom Kippur and faces Jerusalem when praying
Conquest of Mecca
• In Media, Muhammad could not farm.
Raided caravans to Mecca.
• Battle of Badr, Muhammad defeats a force
from Mecca
• 629 AD: He takes Mecca without
bloodshed
Mohammad’s Personal Life
• Wife died in 619 AD (Khadijah)
• Took 9 more wives
• Married for alliances and married widows
of his slain friends. (9)
• Died in 632 AD
• No pictures of Mohammad.
• False Idols
II. Islam
What is Islam
What is Islam?
• Islam; act of submission to the will of god
• Believe in angles and jinns (spirits)
• Devil is called Iblis, al-Shayton. Devil is a fallen
angel whose job is to corrupt men and women.
(seems to be doing well)
• Believe that the Bible and the Torah are corrupted
and the Quran is the corrected version. (Hadith)
• Muhammad is the last of the prophets: Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Job, and Jesus
• Believe in Jesus but not as the son of god, Jesus
will come again on Judgment Day to fight Satan
(warrior)
Five Pillars of Islam
I)
Witness: There is no God but Allah and
Muhammad is God’s messenger (prophet)
II) Worship: pray 5 times a day towards Mecca.
Friday at noon in public
III) Fasting: during the month of Ramadan, during
the day. Are exceptions
IV) Tithing: tax to help the needy (10%) (sharing)
V) Pilgrimage (Hijra): pilgrimage to Mecca once
in lifetime to the Ka’bah
The Sixth Pillar: Jihad
VI. Jihad: struggle in the way of God
 Quran (9:29): fight against those who do not
believe in God or the Judgment day, and those
who refuse allegiance to the true faith” Jews
and Christians?
 Quran also says to be lenient towards Jews and
Christians
 Muslim conquerors did not convert nonMuslims. Lived peacefully and protected them
 Quran lays done harsh penalties for murder
Succession to Muhammad
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Abu-Bakr was the first Caliph
Caliph: leader of Islam
Ali: nephew of Muhammad
Sunni: believe in Abu-Bakr as heir, more
conservative
• Shi’i: believe Ali is true successor and that
family ancestors of Muhammad should rule as
Imans
• Today, no Arab nation and no Caliph
Main Causes of Middle East
Conflict
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Incomplete transition from religious communities to
nation states
Many Middle East people believe that their governments
are illegitimate
Quest for dignity and freedom from countries that have
endured subjection and are determined never to lose
independence again
Problems that come from outside governments that try to
help but don’t
Growing concentration of highly destructive weapons in
a region that is volatile and vulnerable
Section III
III. Creation of Israel
Palestine after WWII
• Jewish Agency – group supporting
immigration of survivors of the Holocaust
to Palestine
• British promised a state of Palestine (Arab)
• Jewish Agency condemned it – illegal
immigration
Zionist Movement
• Zionism: movement for a Jewish Nation
• Stern Gang and Irgun – Zionist terrorist
groups actively attacked the British
• 1946 – blew up the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem
Arab and Jewish Bitterness
• Palestine is called the “twice promised land” Both
Arabs and Jews claim it
• Balfour Declaration: British support Zionism.
Enter the US
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British asked US for help
Thought we would support Palestine
We supported a bilingual, bi-national state
Both Arabs and Zionists rejected it.
Jewish and Arab Bitterness
• Many Muslim and Jewish religious sites located in
Jerusalem
• Western Wall (Jewish), remains of the 2nd Jewish
Temple
• Dome of the Rock (Muslim) and the Temple
Mount(Jewish)
Israeli War for Independence
• May 14, 1948: Israel is created out of Palestine by
the UN with all five Arab UN members voting
against it
• Next day, 5 Arab countries invaded Israel.
• Peace at last but everyone forgets about the
Palestinian Arabs
• Jordan absorbs Palestine lands
• PLO is formed: Palestine Liberation Organization
(Yasir Arafat) Wants an independent state of
Palestine
1967 War (6 Days War)
• Nasser of Egypt asks UN peacekeepers to leave
Israel/Egypt Border
• King Hussein of Jordan flies to Egypt for a talk
with Nassir.
• Looks like a war?
• June 5, 1967: Israel, in a pre-emptive attack,
strikes Egypt, Jordan and Syria
• War is over in 6 days.
• Israel occupies (3 Occupied Territories) the Sinai
peninsula from Egypt(Gaza strip), West Bank
from Jordan (Old City of Jerusalem), and the
Golan Heights from Syria
The Rise of Sadat
• 1969: Golda Meir became Prime Minister
of Israel and brings US/Israel ties closer
• 1971: Anwar Sadat becomes leader of
Egypt
• Sadat wants the Sinai Peninsula back
• Egypt, Syria, and Jordan attack during the
Jewish holiday of Yon Kippur
The Yon Kippur War
• October 1973
• Syria, Jordan, and Egypt attack Israel during the
Jewish holiday of Yon Kippur
• Arabs did not know that they would do so good so
they did not know what to do next.
• Israel, because of the Holidays, called up their
reserves fast.
• Israel went on the offensive and actually crossed
the Suez Canal.
• US sold arms to Israel and in return OPEC started
a trade embargo on oil.
• By 1978 – Sadat visits Israel and restarts peace
process
Egypt Under Sadat
• 1978 – Jimmy Carter invites Egypt and
Israel to US
• 1979 – Camp David Peace Accords – Egypt
and Israel peace agreement – still holds
today
• 1981 – feeling betrayed, Sadat assassinated
by his own people
• Replaced by Hosni Mubarak
Iranian Revolution
• 1951- Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq tried to establish
a nationalized government and throw UK out and
free Iran from foreign influence – Pan-Arabism
• UK and US (CIA) overthrew him and but the
young Shah into power
• US and UK wanted Iran to lead Middle East
• Shah a bad ruler, modernization, economic
downturn, and Islamic fundamentalism led to
revolt in 1979
Ayatollah Khumeini (IRAN)
• 1979: Ayatollah Khumeini took over the
US backed Shah of Iran
• Militant students over ran the US embassy
in Tehran and took 63 hostages
• Carter’s rescue mission failed
• On the day Regan took office, all the
hostages were released.
The Rise of Saddam Hussein and
the Iran Iraq war (First Persian
Gulf War)
• Ba’ath party – Pan-Arab party takes power
in Iraq in 1968
• Saddam, took power in 1979 (Security)
• Attacked Iran in 1980 to get land back
• War ended in 1988 with Iraq the biggest
military in Middle East
• Invade Kuwait in 1991 (Second Persian
Gulf War)
Israel and Palestine Conflict
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PLO operates out of Lebanon attacking Isreal
1982 – Israel invades Lebanon and force PLO out in 1985
Israel starts allowing settlers to move into occupied territories
1987 – PLO starts the intifada violent demonstrations against Israel
1992 – Yitzak Rabin elected Prime Minister of Israel
1993 – Arafat and Rabin sign Oslo – PLO recognizes Israel – self
govern for PLO
PLO becomes legit – the Palestine Authority
1995 – Rabin is assassinated by an Israeli Jew
2000 – second intifada and Arafat sentenced to house arrest
2004 – Arafat dies – mysteriously – Mahamoud Abbas
PLO – splits and becomes Fatah party and the Hamas party
2010 – Fatah controls Palestine and Hamas control West Bank
The US and the Middle East
Terrorism and the US
• 2 basic schools of Terrorism
1) Terrorism can be deterred by striking back
at its perpetrators and cowering them into
submission
2) The only way to stop terrorists are to cure
the conditions that cause it.
• If you give in to terrorism, there will be
more terrorist attacks.
Terrorism and the US Con’t
• 1983: truck bombs kills over 214 US marines in
Beirut barracks. US was there on NATO
peacekeeping mission
• 1989 – Airplane explosion in Lockerbie, Scotland
(Libya)
• 1993: bomb explodes in the New York World
Trade Center killing 6. Plan was to have one tower
fall into another. No retaliation
• 1998: Within 9 minutes of each other US
embassy’s in Kenya and Tanzania are hit by truck
bombs
Terrorism and the US Con’t
(Online Assignment ME1)
• US retaliate by cruise missile strikes at
Afghanistan (camps) and Algeria (factory)
• Middle East response is to love bin Laden
more
• 2000: Aden, Yemen; USS Cole is struck by
two suicide bombers. 17 crew men dead
• September 11, 2001: 3000 people dead
• Bush 1 Bush 2
Soviet - Afghanistan War
• 1979: Communist take over Afghanistan during
the Cold War
• US sees it as a chance to give Soviets their
“Vietnam”
• US supports the Mujahedin, Muslim soldiers from
around the ME (250,000)
• US gets help from a young Saudi, Usama bin
Laden
• 10 year war rages with the Soviets leaving
• 1996: Taliban (Muslim religious group) takes
over Afghanistan
Desert Storm
• 1991: Iraq invades Kuwait
• Saudi Arabia asks for the US to help
• UN coalition decides attack is aggression
and authorizes force to expel Iraq only
• 100 hours war leaves the Iraqis on the run
• Usama bin Laden sees US on Saudi soil as
soiling holy land
Usama bin Laden
• Mujahedin: roaming soldiers of Allah after
Afghanistan war. Could not go home.
• Become the moral and military guardians of
the Islam world
• Form terrorist coalition called Al-Qaida
• Al-Qaida is well organize and establish 40
camps in Afghanistan to train terrorists
• Usama bin Laden decrees that there is no
difference between military and civilian
targets in US
• A Jihad is called: Holy war, war against
personal vices, armed struggle, Crusade.
• May 2nd, 2011: after years on the run, Navy
Seal Team Six catch and kill Osama Bin
Laden in Pakistan.
2001 Invasion of Afghanistan
• After the 9/11 attacks – the US invaded Afghanistan
and destroyed the Taliban October 2001
• Helped by the Afghanistan Northern Alliance
• Failed to capture bin Laden in a cave complex in Tora
Bora
• 2010, Obama orders 30,000 more troops there
• President Hamid Karzai asks for a lessor US role and
President Obama cuts troops levels to 10,000.
• 2014 - New President Ashraf Ghani allows US to keep
US drones and airplanes to help Afghan troops fight
the Taliban.
US Invasion of Iraq (Third Persian
Gulf War)
• March 2003 – US and UK invade Iraq with the goal of ending
the Ba’ath Party rule and remove Saddam Hussein from power
(Dec 13th)
• Iraq insurgency turns popular opinion against the war in US
• 2007, Bush putting General Petraeus in charge, sends additional
troops to Iraq to restore security (Bush troop surge) it works
• During the current transitional period – Iraq has been plagued
by violence from Sunni insurgents and Al-Qaeda terrorist
network.
• August 2010, Obama declares armed role of US in Iraq over,
troop levels fall to 50,000.
• December 15th, 2011 – last US troops leave Irag.
• 2012 – a group called ISIS goes on the offensive and takes over
Arab Spring
• Started in Tunisia on December 18th 2010.
• Mohamed Bouazizi – an unemployed graduate
student self-immolated himself after he was roughed
up by police for selling vegetables without a permit
• Arab Spring – a series of demonstrations and protest
throughout the middle east by mainly unemployed
youth upset over corruption, unemployment,
oppressive government, poverty, human rights
violations
• Most started by young educated people
Arab Spring Timeline
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Dec 2010 – Tunsia – Ben Ali resigns
Jan 2011 – Egypt – Mubarak resigns (Tahrir Square)
Jan 2011 – Libya – Civil War erupts
October 2011 – Libya – Gaddafi killed
Feb 2011 – protests start in Syria against Assad – maybe 3,000
people killed, Civil War close – children tortured
Nov 2011 – Egypt Elections – Muslim Brotherhood.
Dec 2012 – Arab League sends “observers” to Libya
Jordan, Israel, Algeria, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran
Led to regime change and many figures not running again.
October 2011 – Occupy Wall Street
Saudi Arabia – women movement
Should I add US invasion Iraq 2003?
US and Terrorism
• September 12, 2012 – Riots break out in
Egypt and Libya against a so called antiMuhammad web video produced in the US.
• US ambassador to Libya Christopher
Stevens is killed trying to flee as a mortar
round hits his car killing all inside.
• Town of Benghazi
ISIS
• Started in 1999 and in 2004 became al-Qaeda in Iraq
• Took part in the Iraq insurgency against US troops in Iraq
• By 2010 ISIS almost defeated and leadership was killed – lowest
number of people killed in insurgency
• By 2012 – regrouped and formed with former Saddam Hussein Iraqi
army commanders and relied less on foreign fighters (Sunni’s). Online
ME2
• July 2013 – broke into Iraqi prisons (Abu Ghraib) and freed over 500
veterans of the Iraqi insurgency.
• June 2014 broke away with al-Qaeda and officially became ISIS
(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)
• Today they hold large areas of Syria and Northern Iraq
The Islamic State
• On June 29th, 2014 – ISIL proclaims itself a Worldwide
Caliphate and its leader Caliph Ibrahim.
• Caliphate – claims religious, political, and military
authority over all Muslims worldwide.
• Very violent – Charlie Hebdo (France) Online ME3
• October 2014, ISIS advanced to 15 miles from Baghdad
forcing the US to put troops into Iraq to stop a total
collapse.
• Libyan city of Derna and a militant group in Egypt has
pledged to ISIL.
• They have a presence in Afghanistan and Yemen (which
recently collapsed)
ISIS
• January 2014, President Obama calls ISIS the
“JV” team.
• October 31st – a bomb goes off on a plane leaving
Egypt to Russia killing 224.
• November 12th, 2015 – President Obama calls
ISIS contained
• On November 13th, two suicide bombers kill over
40 people and wound 200 in Beirut.
• Also on the 13th, 5 separate attacks in Paris kill
over 129 people and injure over 300.
• President Obama calls it a “ setback”
Why the rise of ISIS?
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After the end of British, French, and Ottoman imperial rule in the early to mid-20th century, Arab
leaders failed to establish anything like stable democratic societies. Instead, they imposed unpopular
and brutal military dictatorships that prevented any real sense of national unity developing and
squandered the region's economic potential.
The Middle East's progressive and democratic parties failed, due to a combination of incompetence
and interference, to put together a viable alternative to these regimes.
This created a large population of people in the Middle East who were disenfranchised and looking
for a new form of politics. During and after the Cold War, Islamism rose to fill that void: It appealed
to an identity and a set of values that many in the Middle East shared and understood. This was part
of a global revival of different forms of identity politics.
Some governments — like Saudi Arabia's quasi-monarchy, quasi-theocracy — had an interest in
helping spreading a fairly hard-line version of Islam, as it shored up domestic legitimacy. Radical
Islamism also got a boost from foreign powers, as things like US support for Iran's brutal shah and
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan created understandable resentment that radicals were wellpositioned to support.
More recently, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring threw the Middle East’s normal
geopolitical order into chaos, creating a vacuum in which sectarianism became a powerful force.
ISIS flourished in this kind of religiously polarized chaos, bringing us to the point we're at today.