Five Ingredients that Differentiate the Middle East

Climate – The climate in the Middle East varies so extremely, from the southern most countries of Egypt and Sudan to the northern most of Armenia and Turkey.  However, there are some facts that would make this seem false.  “…the world’s 15 most water-scarce countries — Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel and Palestine — are in the Middle East,” (Friedman).  Despite the fact that these countries all share a scarcity of water, this is simply one aspect of it all.  The climate zones of these areas differ greatly.  For example, turkey has a moderate climate with hot, dry summers and mild wet winters.  This is a stark comparison to Yemen, which consists mainly of extremely hot and arid desert land.  And then there is Pakistan, which in the single country alone has a hot, arid desert, a temperate northwest, and an arctic northern region.

Political Groups – From Fatah to Hamas to the Palestinian Liberation Organization and more, the various political groups in the Middle East reflect upon the different perspectives of the people.  “Political Islam is very much a product of the modern world,” (Gelvin 309).  The policies that are in place in the modern world, the amount of super powers in comparison to the third world countries, and the developing region of the Middle East have shaped each of these organizations in specific ways.  Fatah is a major Palestinian political party, yet is also a part of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.  Hamas, Fatah’s Islamist faction rival, does not hold ties with the PLO, and is considered a terrorist organization.  To add even more to the complexity, the PLO was also considered a terrorist organization at one point in history as well.  The immense differing opinion of each political group in the Middle East has shaped many of the citizens’ ideologies and morals.

Shia and Sunni – The Sunni and Shia sections of Islam are in constant struggle with each other, ultimately creating division where unity is needed.  “Although sharing a common sacred history, each group strove to develop its own interpretation of scripture, its own ideas on theology and the law, and its own community of faith,” (Aslan 306).  Perhaps the greatest conflict between the two groups is within the recognition to the true heirs to the caliphs.  The Sunni branch believes that the first four caliphs, Mohammed's successors, rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslims. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate religious leaders.  Shiites, in contrast, believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed.

Palestine and Israel – One of the most largely talked about topics when speaking of the Middle East, the war in Palestine/Israel truly divides the Middle East as a region more than anything else.  Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the region of Palestine/Israel has been one of the most heated areas in the world.  Numerous important wars have occurred in the region, including the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six Day War in 1967, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  The origins of this ongoing crisis were sparked initially during the time of the Holocaust, when thousands of Jewish people were forced to flee their homes.  As such, the Jewish diaspora ultimately lead to the expulsion of thousands of Arab people from the land of Palestine.  This led to the Palestinian belief in a right of return, and the Jewish belief that Palestine/Israel was their natural homeland to begin with.  “This dispute is, simply put, a real estate dispute,” (Gelvin 217).

Age and Population – The Middle East is without a doubt a growing region in the world.  Currently, most European nations have fewer than 20% of the population at or below age 15.  In some areas of the Middle East this number is drastically different.  For example, 48.7 percent of the population of Yemen is currently under the age of 15.  Although this is good to show that the nation is youthful, it will ultimately lead to many problems.  Think twenty years in the future, when nearly 50 percent of the population is at age 25.  Unemployment rates in regions like this are already consistently low, and unfortunately that number will only skyrocket.  However, other areas in the Middle East won’t experience this problem at quite the extreme.  The United Arab Emirates has almost half of what Yemen has, 25.8 percent of the population under the age of 15.  With the Middle East being such a large region, the scale of age and population is drastically different between each country.