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How does Turkey differ from Saudi Arabia in terms of religion?
Turkey has a more liberal form of Islam that predominates (especially in West Turkey) while Saudi Arabia has a conservative, Wahhabist form of Islam.
What type of Islam do the people on the Arabian peninsula practice?
Most Arabians practice Sunni Islam, but there are significant minorities of Ibadi Muslims (in Oman -- where they are the majority) and Zaydi Shiite Muslims (in Yemen). Most of the Arabs in Saudi Arabia identify strongly with the Wahhabist Strain of Sunni Islam.
How and why did Wahhabism develop as the dominant strain of Islam in Arabia?
Muhhammad Wahhab, a young religious scholar concluded that all Islamic states had strayed from the path of strict observance of the teachings of the Prophet. So in doing so he incurred the wrath of Allah, these strict teachings of al-Wahhab, was troubling to many muslims, they made him an outcast in Arabia until 1744, he then forged an alliance with the house of the Amir Ibn Saud, who immediately established a small Arabian state on Wahhabist principles.
What is the meaning of Wahhabism in Sunni Islam and how has it influenced Sunni Islam since the beginning of the 19th century?
Wahhabism is an extreme way of Sunni Islam. It is mostly practiced in Saudi Arabia. Honestly, Wahhabism started in Saudi Arabia and was used by the pro-American government of Saudi Arabia for political interests. Fath El Islam is a Wahhabi terrorist organization that was financialy and militarely aided by America and Saudi Arabia which attacked the Northern city of Lebanon, Tripoli, and ended in a political compromise between Syria and Saudi Arabia, and to a certain extent, the Lebanese army. Usually, Wahhabists are the ones who hate every one that is not Wahhabist. They hate Sunnis who are not Wahhabists, who don't have big beards and who don't hate Shias, they also hate Shias, they hate Christians, they hate Jews. I don't know what they do not hate. But other Sunnis are totally different. They are the tiny little part of the Sunna who are crazy. I am a Sunni and I am saying that.
Was Abd Aziz al Saud a dictator like Mustafa Kemal?
It depends how the question is intended.If the question merely seeks to ask whether King Abdulaziz as-Saud and President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk are both dictators, then the simple answer is: "Yes, they were both dictators."However, if the question is asking whether or not their styles of dictatorial rule were similar, the clear answer is: "No." King Abdulaziz created an absolute monarchy and aligned himself closely with Wahhabist Clerics, creating an indirect theocracy. Abdulaziz tried to maintain the cultural conservatism of Nejd and Hejaz and only allowed Westerners in to the country to the extent that they could contribute to petroleum extraction and refinement and minimal tourism. Conversely, President Ataturk was bent on a nationalist irreligious agenda. Ataturk eliminated the Caliphate and proclaimed Turkey a state without religion (much like how the US is a state without religion). He improved literacy by reforming the alphabet and worked closely with Westerners to modernize Turkey in everything from technology, to dress, to legal codes.
What is the name of the radical Islamic movement supported throughout the Middle east by Iran?
There is no transnational, violent, radical Islamic movement that Iran supports. Iran gives material support to Hamas, currently in power in the Gaza Strip, but Hamas does not operate outside of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Iran's elite Quds Brigade, a part of their Revolutionary Guards, helped in the formation of Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early 1980s during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and Iran continues to provide material support for Hezbollah as well. However, similar to Hamas, Hezbollah rarely operates outside of Lebanon - the only occurences I can think of would be cross-border raids into Israel. In short, Iran does not provide backing for the (Sunni) Wahhabist, trans-national terrorists groups traditionally associated with al-Qaeda; indeed, most of these groups view Shia Iran with as much suspicion as they view the US. Iran does support various movements that are capable of violence and traditionally viewed as radical but these are uniformly national movements with national ambitions, and do not operate "throughout the Middle East".
What is the Shiite Threat?
there is no threat wether sunni muslim or shia muslim . they are two main islamic sect which have main common beliefs as belief in Allah, his prophets and messengers, the day ofjudgment, some only want to conflict between them.
Is Islam against the separation of church and state?
There are Western Muslim leaders like Hamza Yusuf who argue that Islam can accommodate church/state separation, but there is no Muslim leader from the Islamic World that I am aware of who makes a similar argument. Christianity, as a religion, is fundamentally different in this regard than Islam or Judaism. Since "Christ's Kingdom" is not of this Earth, there is a strong argument in Christianity (extending back to Augustine) that there is a Divine Kingdom, but it cannot be replicated or enforced by men. This leads the way for terrestrial governments that are not necessarily inspired by the Church. (You need the Enlightenment to get to complete separation of church and state, but the beginnings are there.) Additionally, Christianity has several Hellenic aspects in addition to its Hebraic aspects that make it more open to a material worldview to a greater degree than Islam or Judaism. The reason that Israel is democratic has very little to do with religious Judaism. Israel was founded primarily by Atheist Jews or Secular Jews. Zionism is still significantly less important to Religious Jews than Secular Jews. Religious Jewish communities (both in Israel and in the Diaspora) tend to be quasi-theocratic in their own right. The thing is that since they only rule over neighborhoods, that they are seen to be less of an issue. However, in Israel, these neighborhoods are beginning to "enforce" male/female segregation and Jew/non-Jew segregation on public transportation that they use and this is causing problems for Israel as Secular State. Mohammed, by contrast, was a theocrat. He actually ruled a small empire for a few years and was city administrator of Yethrib/Medina for ten years. The Qur'an, Hadith, and especially the Sirat an-Nabi promote his style of leadership and the implementation of Islamic Law as governmental law. The clear tradition that only Islamic Law was legitimate came during the Umayyad period. When the Umayyads were believed to be too impious, people turned to the Imams to enforce the religious law and allowed the Umayyads to only have control in political matters as long as local Islamic law was enforced by the Imams. While pure theocracy no longer existed, there was now a tradition of explicit church-state cooperation, which continued all the way through the Ottoman Empire. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan (or political power) was close to the Caliph (the chief religious authority) and the two administered the different aspects of the Empire together. Saudi Arabian government today continues this tradition with the King serving as political power and the Wahhabist leaders serving as the chief religious authorities. In other countries, religious and political authority are fused (such as in Iran) or religious authority has been forcibly kicked out (such as in Egypt). However, a secular Egyptian regime is not typically considered "in-line" with Islamic doctrine.
Is Iraq a theocracy?
No Iraq is not a theocracy at the moment. Iraq, since before the formal naming of the Iraqi nation as Iraq and before many of the religions themselves, had been a civilized nation with a strong culture for millenniums. Religions were gradually embraced upon their arrivals with no particular revolutionary civil bloodshed or power grabs (in general) as was the case for many other nations. The exeptions of the pseudo theocracies of the Abbassids, Ottomans and Buyyids and similar caliphate empires are difficult to explain, but we will keep that aside for now. Eventually Christianity and Islam were the main major remnants of followed religions in Iraq, (with Christians currently fleeing to other Christian majority Western nations with better economies and less impact from wars due to modern ease of international transportation). However since Independence, no theocracy existed. A brief monarchy followed by a military autocracy did, however. This was, despite not being "democratic", one of the finest times for Iraq and made it one of the richest nations in the world with, in line with its thousands of years of tradition, a highly civilized and beautiful country and culture. Iraq has ranged in its type of government over the past century, including Pan-Arab Nationalism and Secularism, however, a theocracy has never been Iraq's profile. Not to say that theocracy was necessarily always bad, but it wasn't recently the form of government there. Despite the existence of religious holy sites in Iraq, and a correspondingly culturally-conservative (yet extremely tolerant) culture, the Political-Islamic agendas notable in other Muslim majority countries do not exist locally due to the different Islamic School of thought adhered to by Iraqis than the contemporary Wahhabi-salafist extremist Ideology that is currently gaining popularity. Wahhabist school of thought was rejected historically by the majority of prominent Islamic schools until this day, yet is recently gaining popularity by petro dollars in other places such as Egypt and also due to historic hegemony of Western and previous Imperialism on the alternative of regional Arab Nationalism. This extremism is still widely frowned upon in Iraq. Western intervention in the region has often experienced difficulty (or appeared to experience difficulty) in differentiating between anti-occupational sentiment and their arch enemy of religious extremism, and generally upset the fragile balance of the region and make a huge mess that will eventually have worldwide reaching implications. Even though one of the major school of thoughts followed, the Twelver Jaafari Jurisprudence, has showed potential to develop theocratic style political interpretation such as in Iran, such a model was not popular in Iraq and previously refused by many of the followers of that particular branch in Iraqi politics, such as the current Prime Minister. The current constitution tries to ensure that all ethnicities of Iraqis of all the different religious backgrounds get represented in the central civil government, at the same time with the efforts of doing that through democratic elections. At the same time they are members of the Arab league and have a majority Arab population, a population who, as a whole, historically feel culturally threatened by Persians, Western Imperialism, Kurdish Separatists and Jewish Zionist Invasions. Iraqis, however tough they may come across as, are kind, simple folk that can unfortunately sometimes be also easily manipulated and steered in particular directions Ideologically. So future outcomes can be difficult to predict.
Do some nations hate Jews?
Yes. There should be two ways for a nation to be considered a "Jew-hating nation", (1) nations where 75% of more of the general population harbor Anti-Semitic views, or (2) nations where the government actively condones or supports Anti-Semitism or espouses strongly Anti-Semitic views. Countries of both types exist.(1) Anti-Semitic Populations: According to the ADL Global 100 survey, the following 16 countries had populations where at least 75% harbored Anti-Semitic Views: Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Oman, and Egypt. Additionally, the survey did not include the following 6 countries which would likely also have populations where at least 75% harbor Anti-Semitic views: Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mauritania, Sudan, and Somalia. It is worth noting that we see no similar characteristics or surveys concerning the prevalence of hatred towards other ethnic or religious groups with the singular exception of the Romani/Gypsies.Also note that this survey and other similar surveys ask questions about Anti-Semitism only and do not ask questions that could be construed as Anti-Zionist, but not necessarily Anti-Semitic. Particularly Anti-Semitic views include, among others: (1) that Jews exert an strong amount of control or direction on politics and economics, (2) that Jews murder Non-Jews in order to gain access to their blood - usually for ritualistic purposes, (3) that Jews are disloyal/treacherous/deceiving to Non-Jews, (4) Holocaust denialism or "revisionism", and (5) that Jews provoke or cause most of the world's wars.(2) Anti-Semitic Governments: There are several countries whose governments have actively fanned the flames of the Anti-Semitism and have espoused Anti-Semitic doctrines as part of government policy. The most prominent today is Saudi Arabia, which has a number of Anti-Semitic laws and policies such as: (1) making it virtually impossible for a Jewish tourist to come to Saudi Arabia, (2) legally banning Jews from living or working in Saudi Arabia, (3) confiscating any Jewish religious paraphernalia, (4) paying for the printing and disseminating Jewish-hate literature such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf (although, surprisingly the Arabic version Kefaahi - كفاحي leaves out Hitler's half-chapter where he explains that Arabs are sub-humans that he respects because he sees Islam as a violent, conquering ideology that he feels like Germans should emulate), (5) funding mosques and imams in other countries to promote a Wahhabist agenda which includes, among other things, promoting Anti-Semitism.Another Anti-Semitic government is that of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which actually hosted a Holocaust Denial Conference. While there is debate about whether the number of Jews who were killed is 5.4 million up to 7.5 million, there is no legitimate debate that at least 5.4 million were killed, and the conference sought to minimize the number by orders of magnitude, i.e. 100,000 or so, or deny it completely. Iran has also provided direct funding to Hezbollah, whose founder Hassan Nasrallah is famously quoted as having said that he would prefer that all of the Jews came to Israel so that he would not have to hunt them down all over the world.Another Anti-Semitic leader is the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia who argued at the Organization of the Islamic Conference that Jews "cunningly get others to die on their behalf" and defended this statement against righteous international scrutiny.Note again, that, with the exception of the Romani/Gypsies and possibly the Baha'i in Iran, no ethnic or religious group is targeted by various different governments in such a systematic way.
Is there a peaceful way to change the government?
The process of rebellion can be peaceful. But the intention of a peaceful rebellion means nothing if government does not submit to the verbal will of the electorate.The only way to change the government in a democracy is to convince the majority of the people to support the change. When change is enforced against their will, the populace eventually comes into conflict with the government, peacefully or otherwise.Most governments are changed peacefully. Many of those by way of elections. There could be nasty arguments and some noise. But that's not war.
Which countries killed Jews during the Holocaust?
Countries against JewsGermany was against them during the holocaust and Europe blamed them for the Bubonic (black) plague.Answer 2:All of them, because the whole world is anti-semitist. Anti-semitism is a hate of Jews based on prejudice and stereotypes. I'm not talking about everyone individually; I'm talking about everyone collectively.answer 3The middle east countries such as Jordan, Iran, Syria, all want to see Israel demolished and claim it for there home land. Many middle east countries are against the Jews. Muslims claim Israel as their holy land making it their 3rd holiest site and the Jews claim it as there one and only, and is holy to them. Many Muslim countries despise the Jews for being in Israel.Many white European countries are not anti-Semitic like they use to be but in the past you would say they were. Most parts of Western and Eastern Europe were anti-semtic for various reasons, mainly because the Jews were blamed for Jesus death and then became major escapegoats and easy to blame after that. Today, these European nations are more impartial to the Jews.In the past there have been countries that trumped up hate towards the Jews but the past 50 years have been an improvement. For example, in the US the Klu Klux Klan was a white power movement and very strong in the South which condemned minority races and the Jewish religion along with other religions. The white power movement in the last 50 years had died out due to Lyndon b Johnson, Martin Luther king and etc.answer 4The Jews do receive a lot of hate but they are not hated as like the last 2000 years and playing viticrat only brings up a new type of of hate. Saying the whole world is anti-Semitic just brings a victimized state of mind which is easily hated. Can you think of anyone who hasn't been hated?
