10 Things Everyone Should Know About the Middle East

Most people–especially in the West–know very little about the Middle East
and the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to
understand, and engage in intelligent discussion about, current events.

For example, frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia
Muslims, and most think the words
“Arab”
>
and
“Muslim”
>
are pretty much interchangeable. They aren’t. So here’s a very brief primer
aimed at raising the level of knowledge about the region to an absolute
minimum.

Basics

1. Arabs
   > are part of an ethnic group
   >, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there
   have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general,
   you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the
   main Arab language (Arabic
   >).

2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of
   Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria,
   Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.

3. Islam
   > is a religion. A Muslim
   > (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. So you wouldn’t say
   someone follows Muslim or is an Islam, just as you
   wouldn’t say someone follows Christian or
   is a Christianity.

4. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They
   have a strong clerical presence via
   Imams
   >
   and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion
   correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians.
   They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more
   direct line to God than the Shia.

5. People from
   Iran
   >
   are also known as
   Persians
   >, and they are not Arabs.

6. Arabs are Semites
   >. We’ve all heard the term anti-Semitism being used —
   often to describe Arabs. While
   antisemitism
   >
   does specifically indicate hatred for
   Jews
   >, the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and referred originally to
   anyone who spoke one of the
   Semitic Languages
   >.

7. According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25
   >]. Jews descended from
   Abraham
   >‘s son
   Isaac
   >, and Arabs descended from Abraham’s son
   Ishmael
   >. So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.

8. Sunni Muslims make up most of the Muslim world (roughly 90%). 1

9. The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is
   Indonesia
   >. 2

10. The rift between the Shia and Sunni started right after
    Muhammad’s death and originally reduced to a power struggle regarding
    who was going to become the authoritative group for continuing the
    faith.The Shia believed Muhammad’s second cousin Ali should have taken
    over (the family/cleric model). The Sunni believed that the best person
    for the job should be chosen by the followers (the merit model) and
    that’s how the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, was appointed.Although the
    conflict began as a political struggle it now mostly considered a
    religious and class conflict, with political conflict emanating from
    those rifts. Unsupervised Learning — Security, Tech, and AI in 10
    tech—and why it matters.

Sunni vs. Shia | Arab vs. Non-Arab

Here’s how the various Middle Eastern countries break down in terms of Sunni
vs. Shia and whether or not they are predominantly Arab. Keep in mind that
these are generalizations; significant diversity exists in many of the
countries listed.

• IraqMostly Shia (roughly 60%), but under Saddam the Shia were
  oppressed and the Sunni were in power despite being only 20% of the
  population. Arab.

• IranShia. NOT Arab.

• PalestineSunni. Arab.

• EgyptSunni. Arab.

• Saudi ArabiaSunni. Arab.

• SyriaSunni. Arab.

• JordanSunni. Arab.

• Gulf StatesSunni. Arab.

References

1. The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing – Religions

2. The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing – Indonesia
   >

3. Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims
   >

4. Wikipedia | Shia Muslims
   >

5. Wikipedia | Arabs
   >