Philosophy Blair Gagnon

Religion

The Role of Religion in the Middle East Religion has always been an important factor in the history of the Middle East. Jerusalem is holy to the three largest monotheistic religions in the world: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Dominance over the region has shifted from one religious affiliation to another over the years, bringing battles both political and religious that continue to this day.

Judaism was the first of the three monotheistic religions to dominate the area. Christianity began in the region of Palestine and spread out towards Western Europe where the majority of Christians lived by the Middle Ages. While Europe was in a period of declining growth during the seventh century, the Middle East region was flourishing under the influence of Islam. The Prophet Mohammed, born in 570 C.E., united the inhabitants of the area into a common belief that "there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet." Although Mohammed encouraged the conversion of existing Christians and Jews in the area, he also promoted tolerance. Gradually, more and more people converted to the new religion.

With the exception of the Crusades, the Middle East has been dominated by Muslims for almost fourteen centuries. The disintegration of the Ottoman empire following World War I led to conflict over Jewish claims to the region, specifically to the land of Palestine. The creation of the State of Israel brought renewed religious tensions to the region, and the fight over who rightfully owns the land continues.

Effects Religion has on Middle East

Muslim religious thinking has given the rules for living, including social and political life. The key concept here has been shari'a, the "path" God has laid out for believers to follow. This means that actions are evaluation as "obligatory," "recommended," "permitted," "discouraged," or "forbidden." The details of this are worked out in fiqh which is a religious book.

Elaborate You might ask, “Don’t we American’s have to ask ourselves the same questions before we do things?” Yes we do but, American’s have less traditional values than Middle Easterners. This means that people in the Middle East are more prone to use Islamic values and remind themselves to consider if what they are doing would conform to their religion.

Economic Philosophy

Oil In the Middle East, the main source of income is in exporting oil.

Oil is such an important resource in the Middle East that many, many wars have been fought over it. For example, the Gulf War in was a result of Iraq invading Kuwait because Iraq believed Kuwait was overproducing oil and damaging Iraq’s economy. The production of oil is controlled by OPEC. What is OPEC?

OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

OPEC Countries Not every country in the Middle East produces oil and not every oil producing country is in the Middle East. Algeria, Africa, Angola, Africa, Ecuador, Iran, Kuwait, Libyan, Iraq, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Gas Prices There is some controversy with OPEC. Some say that since OPEC is an organization that unifies all the oil producing countries, it is able to control the price of oil in the world at its free will, disregarding supply and demand. This explains why the price of gas can go up without there being any obvious reason.

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