North Africa/Southwest Asia 1: Oil, Islam and Conflict

  1. Defining the Region

A.African Atlantic shore (Morocco)  steppes of inner Asia

  1. crossroads: Europe, Asia, Africa
  1. World of Oil

A.3 zones of enormous petroleum reserves = 65% of world’s known reserves

  1. southeastern Arabian Peninsula  head of Persian Gulf
  2. North Africa: Algeria - Libya - Sinai Peninsula
  3. Caspian Sea/Tengiz Basin: AzerbaijanCentralAsianRepublics

B.transformative -- Saudi Arabia

C.supranationalism: OPEC

1) members: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Libya, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nigeria, Angola

2) goal: control supply

  1. Caspian Sea oil - current “Great Game”
  1. historical geography
  1. Great Game: 19th century struggle to control Central Asia
  1. current oil boom: Caspian Sea/Tengiz Basin
  2. issue: how to get the oil out
  1. routes from Caspian Sea

1)RussiaBlack Sea

2)Supsa, GeorgiaBlack Sea

3)Tbilisi, Georgia Ceyhan, TurkeyMediterranean

4)IranPersian Gulf

5)AfghanistanPakistanArabian Sea

6) Eastern European Black Sea ports Western Europe

7)KazakhstanChina

  1. future markets
  2. physical geography

1)mountains

2)seismicity

3)Bosporus

  1. war-torn region
  1. U.S. consumption: our “soft spot”
III.World of Islam
  1. source region of 3 major religions: Islam, Judaism, Christianity
  2. Muhammad
  1. born 570 AD in Mecca
  2. Hijra (flight to Medina) June 16, 622 AD
  1. Tenets of Islam
  1. Sharia - Islamic law criminal code
  2. sources of teachings
  1. Koran/Qur’an
  2. hadith
  1. Five Pillars of Islam - devout Muslims
  1. shehada - profession of faith
  2. salat - praying obligatory 5 times/day
  3. zakat - almsgiving
  4. fast of Ramadan
  5. hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca
  6. jihad - 6th “pillar”
  1. 2 major factions of Islam:
  1. Shiites
  1. Shiite/Sunni split
  2. Shiites worldwide

1)~15% of Muslims

2)Iran

  1. Sunni
  1. Sunni worldwide ~85% of Muslims
  2. rising fundamentalism
  1. Sunni v. Shiite - Iraq
  1. Women and Islam
  2. veiling
  1. “hijab” – any woman’s dress that follows Islamic principles
  2. Egypt's loss in 1967 Six-Day War
  3. Iran's theocratic revolution
  4. (un)veiled: Muslim Women Talk about Hijab
  5. range of cloaking
  6. women’s attitude toward cloaking
  7. sexual conduct
  1. strict Islamic states: death penalty for adultery

1)Nigeria: Amina Lawal

2)Afghanistan: Khayyam and Siddiqa

  1. honor killings
  1. impact of Islam varies by country
  2. Saudi Arabia (Sunni)
  3. Turkey (secular)
  4. Afghanistan (Sunni) - Taliban
  5. Islam around the world
  1. 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide
  2. 90% live east of Karachi (Pakistan)
  1. Islam today/tomorrow -- fundamentalist religion and democracy
  1. World of Conflict
  1. arbitrary borders
  2. regional conflicts
  1. Israel and Arabic neighbors

a.UN partition Palestine/created Israel May 14, 1948 – Jewish homeland

b.war  territory gain/loss

c.Palestinians

d.Fatah (secular nationalist) v. Hamas (Islamist)

e.the wall

f.Israeli settlements

g.terrorists or freedom fighters?

  1. Kurdistan: Turkey, Iraq, Iran
  2. political pawns
  3. Kurds in Iraq
  4. Iran
  1. Shah Pahlavi
  2. Ayatollah Khomeini - 1979 Islamist revolution
  3. fundamentalist Shiite
  4. “Axis of Evil”
  1. Afghanistan
  1. ultra-orthodox Sunni
  2. the Great Game: Walkan Corridor
  3. USSR’s “Vietnam” 1979-89
  4. Taliban “religious student”
  5. “graveyard of empires”
  1. Iraq
  1. artificial state

1)rival factions: Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds

2)Sunni dominate

  1. Iraq-Iran War: 1980-1990

1)capitalize on turmoil

2)Sunni/Shiite; Arab/Persian; secular/Islamist

  1. 1991 Gulf War - Desert Storm
  2. Iraq War 2003

1)“Axis of Evil” ~ Saddam Hussein

2)WMD

  1. future? “New Middle East Map”
  1. Arab Spring
  2. 2011 – “Jasmine Revolution” Tunisia
  3. Egypt
  4. Libya
  5. Yemen
  6. Syria
  7. the region – what now? What does democracy look like?

N Africa/SW Asia - p. 1 of 3