Some may be educated and economically well off, within particular fundamentalist sects, but use an idealistic vision of the past to provide a solution to what they see is lacking in the contemporary world. This was true of the Muslim Brotherhood of 1929, which used religion as part of its ideology of colonial resistance -- and is also true of many of the terrorist leaders of the modern groups threatening America today. (Gelvin, 2004, p.295) An advocacy of a return to origins has provided a powerful way for Muslims to advocate regional solidarity, national resistance to a hated leader or colonial power, or simply for a cause that is supposed to remedy the present.
The difficulty of articulating a liberating ideology within a fundamentalist mindset, however, should not be dismissed. Even the contemporary Egyptian author of The Committee, which portrays an Middle Eastern government secretly dominated by oppressive blond Westerners, provokes a comparison in the reader's mind with similar autocratic and oppressive Arab leaders in Iran. Fundamentalism may provide a source of self-definition, but it offers a means of ideologically justifying autocratic and oppressive control.
Identification
American Civil War: Finally established America as a unified nation and world actor, under a central, federal authority, and brought the South into the modern, industrial world.
Article 22 of the Charter of the League of Nations: Gave freedom to former colonies of the Ottoman Empire to exist as independent nations but with administrative advice and assistance by outside powers.
Balfour Declaration (1918): This partitioned British-controlled Palestine into two territories, one dominated by Jewish residents, the others by Arab Palestinians.
Bretton Woods System: The Bretton Woods System established the need for all nations to abide by a single, unified monetary system, which was first tied to the price of gold.
Cairo Conference of 1921: A March 1921 a conference presided over by Winston Churchill held in Cairo to settle postwar Middle Eastern affairs. At the Cairo Conference the British decided to name one of Sharif Husayn's sons as the leader of Iraq, a territory then under British control.This established a pattern of installing British favored rulers as a means of controlling Middle Eastern territories from within, Britain later did in Egypt until the rule of Anwar Sadat.
Capitulations: The policy of conceding territory to an aggressor, as the European Allies did to Hitler, before Hitler's invasion of Poland.
Commercial Revolution: In Europe, the creation of private banking and more secure national monarchies. This international trade and a money economy to take hold within the region. It also stimulated trade and exploration overseas, and an increased interest in navigation. As a result of this revolution, the world grew more internationally focused. Improved seafaring led to increased trade between nations -- and to colonial expansion.
William Knox d'Arcy: an Englishman who was one of the first founders of the modern oil industry of
It was intended to make the Ottoman nations more economically competitive with Europe.
Islamo-nationalism/Islamo-anarchism: The advocacy of unity based upon shared a shared Islam past, or an Islamic, anarchist denial of western systems of government, with Islam instead offered as the guiding political light for the region.
Mustafa Kemal: leader of the post-World War I Turkish nationalism movement and the first president of the independent, modern Turkey
Rentierism: This suggests that countries with economies largely dependent upon exporting oil tend to become autocratic and economically underdeveloped in other areas and thus fail to flourish as modern nation-states.
Reza Shah: The last Shah of Iran. His corruption and authoritarian rule allowed the Ayatollah Khomeni to encourage lower-class Iranians to support a fundamentalist Iranian revolution. His rule also encouraged anti-American sentiment in Iran, given that the hated Shah was backed by America.
Salafism: a fundamentalist, purist school of modern Islam popular in Saudi Arabia
Seven Years' War (1756-1763) Conflict between Frederick the Great of Prussia and the other major European powers, including France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. England allied itself with Prussia. Frederick the Great established the foundation for a unified Germany as a result of this war, and laid the seeds for the creation of the map of modern nation states in the European community.
Third Worldism: The proclamation of the unity of all so-called developing nations, or formerly colonized nations, regardless of former animosity or region, because of their common economic struggles and political legacy of colonialism
U.N. Resolution 242: the 1967 UN Resolutions 242 and 338 stipulated that Israel must withdraw completely from these territories acquired during the 1967 War, when the Arab states recognized Israel's right to exist.
World Systems Theory: theory of social change with a focus on role and relationships between societies rather than individuals.
Vilayet-e faqih: part of the Shiite Islamic faith holds that all Muslims should eventually strive to be under one leader
Works Cited
Friedman, Thomas L. "Cursed by Oil." The New York Times. Op-ed. 9 May 2004.
Gelvin, James. The Modern Middle East: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Ibrahim, A. The Committee. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2001.
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