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Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Arabs and Persians?

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In Thursday's column, I gave what I thought was a pretty broad yet concise summary of the Islamic State, their attacks on Paris and where the terrorist organization fits into the Syrian situation. Then a reader sent me a note that said, "Thanks for sorting that out, but I have one question: what's a Kurd?" Another asked why Iran was backing forces against the Islamic State. Consider this column part two of my All you need to know about what’s happening in the Middle East briefing.
 
What is Islam?
 
I suppose any discussion about Islam should start with a basic understanding of the religion, which many Americans seem to lack. Islam is one of the three Abrahamic religions. Much of the American confusion over the religion is rooted in the misconception that it worships a different God than Christianity, as is the case with religions such as Hinduism. Quite the contrary, Islam is actually a different interpretation involving the same origins, which is why it, along with Christianity and Judaism, are referred to as Abrahamic, as they all claim lineage to this character.

Judaism is the original Abrahamic religion and, hence, oldest among the three, though it accounts for a mere 0.2 percent of the world’s population, while Christianity (32 percent) and Islam (23 percent) are by far the most numerous. Most Americans, Christian or otherwise, understand that Christianity was a split from Judaism involving Jesus Christ and the idea that he was the son of the same God worshiped in Judaism, sent to Earth as told in the New Testament. The Christian and Jewish faiths depart at this belief.

In Islam, which came along about six centuries later, there is the crucial addition of their Prophet Muhammad, who, according to their beliefs, was given the Quran by that same God. In the Quran, there is still the creation story of Adam and Eve, the story of Abraham, Moses and even Jesus (who is thought to have been a prophet, though not the son of God). Muslims (the term for people who practice Islam) believe Muhammad to be the last prophet sent by God in order to restore Islam, which they believe to be the original faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc. Allah and Jehovah are simply different terms for the same God in each faith.

That is a quick, down and dirty explanation of their origins; however, all three of the religions eventually grew to include different beliefs that caused new or competing faiths to be created. In Christianity, not only was there the Protestant Reformation that broke from the early Catholic Church in Rome, but eventually religions with Christian origins claimed new prophecies and broke off to separate faiths the same way Islam had earlier.

For example, as recent as the early 1800s, there was the Latter Day Saints movement, which believes that God and Jesus Christ returned to present themselves to American Joseph Smith. According to their beliefs, Smith was then directed by an angel to a buried book revealing the supposed history of ancient Israelites who lived in America before the birth of Christ but knew of his coming. This book, which Smith said God helped him translate from gold plates written in an ancient language, is now known as the Book of Mormon.

Just a few decades after Smith–and in the same area of upstate New York–the supposed Godly visions of Ellen G. White became prophecies that would distinguish Seventh Day Adventists. Adventists were an offshoot of followers of William Miller, who had prophesied a second coming of Christ in 1843. Though somewhat lost to history, the massive national movement of Millerites numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with many giving up all of their possessions in preparation for the advent, only to suffer what became known as the Great Disappointment, during which White claimed to have had her first prophetic vision.

In Islam, followers began arguing over what came next almost immediately following the death of Muhammad in the year 632 AD. Sunnis believed that Abu Bakr, the father of Muhammad's wife, was his rightful successor, while Shias believed that Muhammad had appointed his cousin (also husband of his daughter) to be the next caliph, making him and his descendants the successors, in opposition to the Quran's prescribed method of using the consensus of the Muslim community for choosing leaders.

Sunni Islam went on to become the dominant religion of the two, with approximately 90 percent of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims adhering to it. While Shia Muslims comprise only about 10 percent of the world's Muslim population, they are the overwhelming majority in Iran, which is one reason why that country tends to have complicated relationships in the region. The Islamic State (formerly ISIS and ISIL), is a violent Sunni Muslim extremist group. As a result, Tehran has typically backed Shia forces both within and beyond its borders in fights against them and/or Western powers.

Shia Muslims are also the majority in Iraq, which led to Iran supporting Shia forces while we were fighting there and during their battles with the Islamic State. The country you don't hear as much about is Saudi Arabia, though that nation is ground zero when it comes to Sunni Muslim terrorist groups. The Islamic State's funding has been tied to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, all of whom are sort of U.S. allies. You're probably scratching your head at that one, and I don't blame you.
 
The Saudi Connection

Saudi Arabia has long enjoyed a preferred status in the United States. As I've noted before, on the day after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. airspace was completely closed except for flights that shuttled dozens of Saudi royals and members of prominent Saudi families (including the bin Ladens) out of the country. Nearly all of the terrorists reported to have been involved in 9/11 were Saudi nationals. This relationship was forged after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, when the U.S. basically decided it would align itself with the OPEC leader, offering a large and consistent flow of petrodollars, along with military protection, in exchange for consistent oil production and the return of much of that money into U.S. investments.

The result has been not only an increased reliance on that country's oil flow but an economic reality in which Saudi Arabia's massive cash investments have resulted in them owning somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the entire U.S. economy, drastically increasing their already significant influence. Add in the complex financial ties it has established with companies like the Carlyle Group and the dynasties like the Bush family and the web gets even more tangled.

Saudi Arabia is a complex country. It is a kingdom with an absurdly rich royal family that pacifies the vast population of not-so-rich residents with free education, subsidies and cash payoffs. Ironically, that has led to an increasingly fundamental population and the growth of the ultra-extreme Wahhabism, an ultra-orthodox branch of Sunni Islam. The connection between Wahhabism and the House of Saud (royal family) goes back three centuries. It is the official religion in the country, which gives free doctorates in its theology–the most common form of higher education sought by its citizens.

Saudi Arabia regularly performs public beheadings for offenses that include such ridiculous notions as wizardry (Salem witch trials, anyone?), yet you never hear a peep from the U.S. in terms of condemnation for its atrocious human rights record. Wahhabism is the inspiration for the Islamic State and because most Wahhabists consider the monarchy to be filled with apostates, many experts predict the exact fundamentalism being propagated by the royal family will ultimately be its demise.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been linked to funding terrorist operations that disrupt democracy, progress and moderation (and therefore the balance of power) in the Middle East, in Arab countries moving toward modernity such as Tunisia. In this way, the Islamic terrorists are sort of like its wild dog. It can sick them on countries it feels threatened by, simply because the threats I just mentioned make those countries apostates in the eyes of the extremist groups. So the Saudis end up with the United States backing it against any threat from conventional states, while the Islamic State and other terrorist groups do its bidding on lesser matters.
 
In the end, it seems unlikely that we will solve the problem of terrorism at the hands of Islamic extremists without dealing with Saudi Arabia. Further complicating that pathway is China's increasing coziness with the Saudis. China has no domestic oil to speak of, yet it has to deal with the fastest rising demand for oil on the planet. Balancing power between the U.S. and China leaves us even more hesitant to loosen our ties with the Sauds.

What is a Kurd; Who is Arab?

The Kurds are an ancient group of around 30 million people indigenous to the Mesopotamian plains and highlands in what is now northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeast Turkey, northeastern Syria, and southwestern Armenia. For this reason, we often hear of Kurds as they relate to a number of different conflicts in the Middle East. They are a people without a country (though, somewhat ironically, they do have a national anthem).

Kurds are distinctive by race, culture and a Kurdish language that includes a number of different dialects, though none are official. As far as religion goes, the majority are Sunni Muslims, though they are represented by many other religious sects. In terms of language and culture, they share many similarities to Iranians. In recent decades, Kurds have fought for autonomy in Turkey and were an important part of the conflict in Iraq, where they held a majority stronghold and in many ways were even able to keep Saddam Hussein in check during his reign (it was those northern Kurds who Saddam attacked with chemical weapons when he "gassed his own people“).

They have also been prominently involved in the conflict in Syria, where they have fought back the Islamic State from territory they occupy. In fact, they may be able to claim more success against the Islamic State through their combined efforts than any actual country. Further complicating the current conflict, Kurds are still fighting with Turkey over disputed territory on their border, though they are also both fighting a common enemy in the Islamic State nearby.

What do Kurds want? Simple, the same thing that every other large, distinct culture wants; their own state with borders recognized and respected by the world around them. The fact that they don’t have that is more evidence of the ham-fisted approach the Western world took to carving up the Middle East in the first half of the last century to suit the parties involved rather than those affected, most notably in Iraq, where the West forced three very distinct cultures that spilled over into other countries to exist in a box of our choosing.

While I’m at it, I’ll also note that the term Arab, which is oh so often misapplied by Americans, simply refers to the commonality of the Arab language and its culture. Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persian peoples. Indians are not Arab, as they speak Hindi. Arabs make up only about 20 percent of the Muslim population. There are 22 Arab-speaking countries in total, mostly in northern Africa and the Middle East.

All of this is quite confusing, I’ll admit, especially since we do so little to really teach the intricacies of foreign culture in the U.S. education system. As a result, the frustration, fear, anxiety and anger that follows attacks like the ones in Paris this month, too often end up without a rational place for Americans to point them, resulting in a Bomb Them All mentality, without the ability to succinctly explain who "Them All“ actually is. Muslims? Arabs? The entire Middle East?
 
There was another guy who convinced his country that exterminating a certain people was the answer to their safety and prosperity. The United States lost 400,000 lives fighting to defeat him and built a giant memorial in their honor. I hope we don’t soon forget that.
 
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Dennis Maley is a featured columnist for The Bradenton Times. His column appears each Thursday and Sunday. Dennis' debut novel, A Long Road Home, was released in July, 2015. Click here to order your copy.

 
 
 
 

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