A Brief Analysis 

of the Middle East Today

Ammer Qaddumi

July 26, 2019

You usually hear an awful lot about the Middle East these days. It seems as though every time you check the news, there’s something new about an airstrike in Syria, or a confrontation in Palestine-Israel, or the starving children in Yemen. 

But how could this be?

How could the Arabs be in as bad of a predicament as they are now?

Being an Arab-Muslim myself, I will try my best to outline for you the general history of the Middle East, and the different events that have led to the current situation. There are numerous perspectives from which this may be told, and this is not the same story you may hear from others, but it is the one I have experienced and would like to share.

Ottoman Period

As many of you may be aware, the vast majority of the Middle East was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, who ruled Anatolia and much of Arabia for some four hundred years. During this time, the majority of people in Arabia were bedouins, who roamed the desert in tribes. These tribes paid taxes to the empire, but were allowed to practice their own way of life, allowing a peaceful existence of Arabs and Turks. 

According to Ekrem Bugra Ekinci, a writer at Daily Sabah, “The Ottomans recognized Arabs as 'brothers in religion.’” But the mutual respect that had kept the empire strong began dying in the early 20th century, when a newly created left-leaning political party, called the Committee of Union and Progress, overthrew Sultan Abul Hamid II and created an unstable social atmosphere for Arabs. 

Seeing the opportunity, foreign influences, including imperial powers, began instilling nationalistic ideas into the population. With the new government backing the Axis powers in the First World War, Britain sent an army intelligence officer by the name of T.E. Lawrence to aid the Arab army, being led by Prince Faisal of Mecca, to fight the Ottomans from within. Despite promises from Lawrence of an independent state for the Arabs, they were deceived.

The Allied Powers Britain and France had in fact signed a secret agreement, called the Sykes - Picot Agreement, in which they outlined how the Ottoman Empire would be divided amongst themselves once they had been defeated.

This agreement was created by Europeans who had no regard for the current Arab populations living in the area, and thus when the agreement was signed, it created borders that separated co existing tribes and grouped together opposing ones, creating the ideal environment for unstable societies.

Post World War I and the Mandate Years

When the Allies won the Great War, their plans for the Middle East couldn’t proceed as they had hoped, for they largely owed their victory to the assistance of the United States, and the sitting president of the time, Woodrow Wilson, was a staunch opponent of colonialism and imperialism. He helped create the League of Nations, which stipulated that no country could annex territory from the former Ottoman and German Empires.

The solution for the Allies was to adopt a different form of influence, called a Mandate, in which they would assist a new country in developing enough to become independent by utilizing “their resources, their experience, or their geographic location.”

While these new restrictions were designed to prevent new “spheres of influence” for imperial powers, the territories of the former Otttoman Empire were divided just as agreed in the Sykes - Picot agreement. 

So now there were these newly developed territories of Palestine, Iraq, and Trans-Jordan, all under British Mandates, while Lebanon and Syria were under French mandates. 

After understanding this background, you look to where all the conflicts in the Middle East have been.

Because of the way Britain and France chose to deal with their new mandates, creating unfitting borders and using force to quell anticolonial movements, the new countries were doomed from even before they were officially established. When it came to Britain and France handling the Middle East, the former pursued their own selfish interests for power and oil instead of letting the Arabs decide for themselves. Had they done that, the situation may be totally different and the Arabs may have been a thriving people. But they never got a chance.

The Consequences we are Facing Today

Today’s Middle East is, in more than light terms, a disaster.

After the mandates, there was an incident in Persia in 1979, called the Iranian Revolution, which established an Islamist Republic in Iran. 

The new kingdom of Saudi Arabia had been formed earlier in 1932 and later discovered vast oil reserves throughout the region, which provided the country with a source of revenue to fund its fundamentalist Wahhabi social structure (which by the way has been one of the main sources of unstableness in the region).

A majority Shi’te population in Iran and a fundamentalist Sunni majority in Saudi are what have led to some of the worst atrocities in the Middle East, most recently the proxy wars in Yemen and Syria and the escalating tensions in the region.

But beyond Saudi and Iran, things haven’t been too bright for anyone else. The list is saddening:

 In Palestine, where the Arabs were undermined by the British-backed Zionist movement that created the State of Israel, and with it a conflict that has lasted since 1948. 

In Lebanon, where a bloody civil war between Muslims and Maronite Christians destroyed the country for 15 years. 

In Iraq, which has seen a war with the United States, and after more than $2 trillion in expenses is still the nesting ground of radical’s looking to take advantage of a political vacuum. 

In Syria, where the oppressive, Russian-backed regime of Bashar Al-Assad mercilessly bombs innocent men, women, and children. 

The heartache is too much.

The Arabs have suffered at the hands of oppressive governments that would not be so had the West been more understanding of their situation, and from the hatred between shi’ite and sunni factions of Islam. 

It is understandable that there would be efforts to initiate sweeping changes to Arab societies, in order to propel them into the new modern world, but that unfortunately doesn’t work. As seen in countless examples throughout history, change takes time, and the haste with which the West attempted to modernize the Middle East has led to the devastating consequences of today.

So to sum it up, the Middle East was not considered a violent region until modern times, when Western meddling resulted in newly created, unstable countries, and political vacuums set the stage for individuals to create radical organizations that abuse Islam.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. If people like yourselves know of what’s happening, then misconceptions about Muslims and Arabs can be forgotten. A better tomorrow for the Middle East, and ultimately the world, starts with the truth.

Sources: 

Ekinci, Ekrem B. “Turkish-Arab Relations from Past to Today.” DailySabah, Www.dailysabah.com, 20 Nov. 2015, www.dailysabah.com/feature/2015/11/20/turkish-arab-relations-from-past-to-today.

Trotta, Daniel. “Iraq War Costs U.S. More than $2 Trillion: Study.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 14 Mar. 2013, www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314.