What is the 'Middle East'?

     What is the ‘Middle East’? This phrase is commonly used throughout the world to represent a geographical region, but where is it exactly? What countries would you include? The term ‘Middle East’ originates from Europe, specifically the British. They often referred Eastern Europe as the ‘Near East,’ and Asia as the ‘Far East.’ Asia is still known as the ‘Far East’ even today! Thus, they referred to the area between the ‘Near East’ and the ‘Far East’ as the ‘Middle East.’

      So what countries does this include? The Middle East is centered around Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it includes the Arabian Peninsula, but it also spans all the way west to Morocco, and northeast to Iran. Turkey can be argued to be a part of the Middle East.

     There are six unifying factors of the Middle East.  The first, is that the area is very dry. Virtually the entire region that is considered the Middle East is a desert. A Desert is not determined by temperature, but rather by the amount of rainfall. A desert receives ten inches or less of rain a year. Thus, the largest desert is Antarctica, not the Sahara. The Sahara is the largest hot desert. There is an exception to this unifying factor, which would be the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Another exception would be the Mediterranean coast of the North African countries that are included.

       The second unifying factor is that the Middle East has the majority of oil reserves in the world. The Middle East has at least six times more oil than any other place in the world! The Persian Gulf has the most oil. As you move away from the Gulf, the less oil you will have. Thus, Morocco barely has any oil. Because the Persian Gulf exports the largest amount of barrels of oil in the world, they have a large number of chairs in OPEC. OPEC stands for Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries. Although the United States has oil reserves, they are not a part of OPEC because they do not export the oil. The United States consumes all of the oil that it produces; it is in the top ten producers of oil. In fact The United States is also the number one importer of oil! OPEC sets all of the prices for the oil in the world, which is why the United States is so active in the Middle East. OPEC accounts for 79.6% of all of the world's oil exports. Iran is a member of OPEC, and also an enemy of the United States. They would like to raise the oil prices for the United States. OPEC will not allow this to a certain point because if the oil prices become too high, America will try to find alternate fuel solutions.

     The third unifying factor of the Middle East is the Arabic people. Although the Arabic people are the most populous people in the Middle East, there are major variations as well, including the Persians, Israelites and Hebrews, Turkish and Kurds, and the Berbers. The Kurds reside in the mountains of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. As Islam grew, the Arabs moved to spread the religion across all of the Middle East, and even beyond. The Berbers are the people who inhabited the Morocco area hundred of years ago. The Berbers were the people who invaded Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese and Spanish called them the Moors, who were in the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492. The Berbers, or Moors, were a part of the Magreb, which is the north coastal belt of people in Africa, which resides mainly in Morocco. Thus, Berbers=Moors, who are part of the Magreb.
 
    The fourth  and strongest unifying factor is Islam. The only exception to this factor is Israel. Islam is separated into two categories, Sunni and Shi’a. Unlike in Christianity where there are major divisions in theological beliefs, like Catholics and Protestants, Sunnis and Shi’as believe the same practices. Sunnis believe that Mohammad’s successor was a non-family member, while Shi’as believe that Muhammad’s successor was his son in-law. 90% of Muslims are Sunnis, and 10% are Shi’as. The majority of Shi'as live in Iran. This has caused a great amount of tension along the Persian Gulf. If Iran were to attack anyone, it would be the other side of the Persian Gulf before the United States. Because of this, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed. This is comprised of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Quitar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. These countries fear being attacked by Iran, so they decided to come together so that they could be stronger; it is a similar idea to NATO. The United States supports the GCC because they against Iran. Thus, the United States has been selling billions of dollars of weapons to the GCC over the past few years.

   The fifth factor is that there are many issues going on in the Middle East. There are territorial issues, resource issues (oil and water), civil wars for political control, Sunni and Shi’a conflicts, terrorism and extremists, and foreign involvement issues. There are many problems going on in the entire Middle East. All of the countries had very poor economies, and have had poor leadership. The people are becoming educated, and are starting to demand a change.  This is the main reason why Turkey may not be a part of the Middle East. It has a great economy and no issues, where only their religion is the same.

    Turkey has been trying to become part of the European Union in the past few years. It has become a very strong power because of its growing economy. The European Union has denied Turkey admission. It is believed to be because Turkey is an Islamic country, whereas the European Union is mainly Christian. Because of this, Turkey sometimes refers to the EU as the CU, the Christian Union. The European Union fears the free movement of Turks throughout all of Europe. Turkey is a member of the UN as well as NATO! The United States strongly supports Turkey, and wishes that the EU would allow its admittance. The United States hopes that if other Middle Eastern countries notice Turkey's success, that has a secular government, they would follow Turkey by example.

     The last unifying factor is that they are behind in times. They are just now starting to change their government. Many of the Middle Eastern countries are relatively new. Most countries are not even one hundred years old! In addition, many of the governments are not run properly, so there are many uprisings and civil wars going on, like in Syria. Egypt is another example. In Morocco’s case, the kind foresaw conflict; therefore, he revised the constitution so that he would not be overrun. This change happened two years ago, and everything has mostly run smoothly since in Morocco.