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Middle East
An area comprising the countries of southwest Asia and northeast Africa. In the 20th century, the region has been the continuing scene of political and economic turmoil.
2,574 Questions
What 3 sub-regions make up the Middle East?
There are actually six sub-regions that make up the Middle East: Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia, Levant, and Egypt.
What are the three main conflicts in the Middle East today?
There are an extensive myriad of problems in the Middle East, including but not limited to:
1) Corrupt Rulers and No Infrastructure: Many rulers in the Middle East are content to deprive their people of modern infrastructure and development. They prefer to hoard the money their people give them to build palaces and repressive armies to protect those palaces. As a result, many of the necessary infrastructural and developmental changes which should have happened never occurred. One of the main results of the corrupt governments has been the instability of many Middle Eastern countries.
2) Regional Disunity: Middle Easterners have gone to war with each other at numerous times and in numerous places. Nearly every border in the Arab World has played host to a military engagement of some type. The Arab World has never had anything even close to the European Union or the Schengen Border Agreement. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference are much more like the United Nations and have no superstate components. Although Middle Easterners, as individuals, may feel connected across borders, like those between Syria and Lebanon or those between Iraq and Kuwait, their governments do not.
3) Anti-Educational: There is a strong and pervasive attitude in many Middle Eastern countries that a Western-style education, seeking a high degree of literacy and scientific knowledge is undesirable. Instead, there is a strong pull towards a religious education. This leads to minimal technological innovation in the Middle East (outside of Israel). Very few Middle Easterners (other than Israelis) have won Nobel Prizes in Scientific Fields.
4) Lack of Human Rights: Most Middle Eastern countries deny their citizens fundamental human rights such as equality before the law, freedom to express their opinions (even if they are unpopular), freedom of assembly, equality for women in education and marriage rights, freedom of movement, an end to the slave trade (in a minority of Middle Eastern countries), and other infringements. Statistics have shown a high-level of correlation between the presence of human rights and economic and political affluence.
5) Water Problems: The Middle East has a rapidly expanding population and very minimal stores of freshwater, leading to numerous conflicts to control the limited amount of water that each country has. However, desalination is beginning to turn the tide on this water issue slowly and steadily.
6) Failure to Compromise: Unlike Western Societies which see public debates and elections as a fair mechanism for deciding which opinions should get the Right of Way, many in the Middle East prefer to staunchly advocate their position by whatever means are necessary because they are assured of their correctness (either by God or personal conviction). This means that both domestic and international policy issues that produce gridlock have the potential to erupt in conflict and extreme measures as opposed to a general consensus that people can agree to even if they are not in love with it.
7) Failure to Permit Ethnic Autonomy: Many minority ethnic groups in the Middle East, such as the Kurds, the Balochis, the Alevis, etc. find themselves in states run by other ethnicities that deny them the ability to have a strong say in their affairs. Instead of granting them autonomy, like European countries in similar positions have done, they choose to repress them. This has gone on to the point where the only recourse is full-scale revolt.
8) Tribal Conflicts: Especially in Arab States, there are numerous tribes that have long-standing feuds with one another and threaten to disturb the peace. Creating a national identity that can supersede this tribal identity is critical for making the state safe enough for domestic commerce as well as finding a method to arbitrate tribal disputes within a state mechanism to prevent revenge killings and further violence.
9) Lack of Foreign Investment: Due to the frequent instability and the strong Anti-Western sentiment in many Middle Eastern countries, foreign companies are not willing to invest in production and infrastructure in these countries and will choose more stable and friendly nearby countries. Sri Lanka and Vietnam have seen much more investment than Pakistan or Egypt for exactly these reasons.
10) Women's Rights: This depends far more on a particular country's laws and predominant views of the clergy in that country than any basic "Middle Eastern" issue. In Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive. In Lebanon, proof of elementary education is required for women to vote but not for men and voting is compulsory for men but optional for women. Middle Eastern countries have typically been behind Western States in the proliferation of women's rights, but this is more typical third world countries in Africa and Asia than just the Middle East.
Are there any Christian Churches in the Middle East?
Answer 1
Obviously..... Christianity started in the middle east.
Answer 2
Some Christian Churches in the Middle East include: the Copts of Egypt, the Maronites of Lebanon, and the Assyrians, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, and Chaldeans of Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel.
What is difference between middle east countries and gulf countries?
The Middle East is the region as a whole which contains six major areas: Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Persia. The Arabian Peninsula is southern part of the Middle East made up of the countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, and Yemen.
suljuks
What countries in the Middle East have the least amount of oil resources?
Lebanon and Cyprus have the least amount of petroleum reserves (none). Israel and Jordan have a low amount of oil reserves (less than 5 million barrels).
What two countries produce the most oil in the Middle East?
The two largest petroleum producers in the Middle East are SAUDI ARABIA and IRAQ, but Iran is a close third. Algeria and Libya each produce less than half of what Iran produces, but they are the largest petroleum producers in North Africa.
Water is the physical characteristic that most affects the settlement patterns of North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Which Muslim countries in the Middle East have diplomatic relations with Israel?
There are four: Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar
In some respects there is a fifth one too: Morocco.
What part of the Middle East is Bahrain in?
Bahrain is an island in the Persian Gulf along the coast of Saudi Arabia.
What were the materials used for the Burj al Arab?
The Burj Al Arab is made of-
- steel
- concrete
- Teflon coated with fiberglass
- Dy neon coated with DuPont Teflon
What are the modern countries in the Middle East?
The countries which are typically considered the Middle East are; Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel/Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman, Iraq, and Iran.
There is often confusion over countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, these countries are considered to be in Central Asia. Also, some North African countries (Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, and Algeria) are sometimes called the Middle East because they are mostly Arab/Islamic, however only Egypt is considered to be in North Africa AND the Middle East.
Answers may vary because the Middle East is more of an idea than a specific geographic entity with some people considering all Arab or Islamic countries to be the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is modern on the eastern side for the most part despite its bad human rights record. The United Arab Emirates is one of the most modern countries in the Arab world. Israel is very modern, as well as the northern-most parts of Egypt including Cairo. Lebanon is becoming very modernized indeed, especially in Beirut. Also, India is modernizing at a rapid rate.
In which wars was Israel involved?
- Independence War (1947-1949)
- Sinai War (1956)
- Six Day War (1967)
- War of Attrition (1969-1970)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- First Lebanon War (1982)
- Second Lebanon War (2006)
- In the 1991 Gulf War, Israel didn't actually fight/participate, but, for about a month, was attacked without provocation by Iraq with many scud missiles.
- Between the above official wars, there were many more clashes between Israel and the Arab countries surrounding it that lasted for several weeks, months, or years.
- Subjectively, it may be said that, since 1948 (Israeli Statehood), Israel has never stopped being in a never-ending war with its neighboring Arab countries.
Is Tunisia part of the Middle East?
Yes. Tunisia is part of North Africa, specifically the Maghreb region.
What was the highest recorded temperature in Middle East?
The hottest ever recorded temperature in the Middle East is 54.0 degrees Celsius, in Tirat Tsvi, Israel. The coldest temperature was recorded at in Saudi Arabia at -12.3 degrees Celsius in Turaif.
Who should occupy Israel the Jews or Palestinian Arabs?
The way the question is written is to assume that it is not theirs, which is not the case in the slightest. According to historical, religious, legal, and political grounds, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine at least partially, if not entirely, belongs to the Jewish people.
1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.
In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.
2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21 and 17:104.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).
3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)
4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but should capture the sentiment of the question.
Why do historians refer to this area as middle east instead of southwest Asia?
the term middle east is Eurocentric,meaning that it is based on the European
perspective of east.
middle east is half way between Europe and China.
