10 Things Everyone Should Know About the Middle East

By Daniel Miessler on July 28th, 2008: Tagged as History | Politics | Religion

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.

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.

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

  • Iran Shia. NOT Arab.

  • Palestine Sunni. Arab.

  • Egypt Sunni. Arab.

  • Saudi Arabia Sunni. Arab.

  • Syria Sunni. Arab.

  • Jordan Sunni. Arab.

  • Gulf States Sunni. Arab.

References

1The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing – Religions

2The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing – Indonesia

Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims

Wikipedia | Shia Muslims

Wikipedia | Arabs

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  • mashaziva

    Study history . Some facts you might learn: Jews populated the area known as Israel for over 5000 years. Jerusalem was the capital of Israel before and during the birth of Christ. Jews lived in Arab countries for thousands of years, as arabs lived in Israel. Over 600,000 jews were expelled from their homes in arab countries before and after 1948 and no one is suggesting that they be able to return to their ancestral homes with or without reparations.
    Learn the facts. Research this for yourself and dont buy into the lies being spread.
    And then answer this question: Jordan controlled the west bank and east jerusalem from 1949-1967 during which time they expelled the Palestinians to refugee camps in Syria/Lebanon. Why didnt the world demand that Jordan create a Palestinian state. Why did the world stand by and allow generations of palestinians to be hoarded in refugee camps? why?

  • aguywhoisMuslim

    You know honestly I am Muslim and this site not bad (haven't read many of the comments, but the site post itself is pretty accurate to my eyes). If any non-Muslim reads and understands what is written here he/she knows more than 90% of Americans about Islam.

    But not everything you said is exactly right. If you want to use an analogy, protestants are more like wahhabis (the extremist subgroup of Sunnis). Sunni Islam is the large majority of Muslims, and many Sunni Muslims revere saints. Only stupid wahhabis don't. Shi'a respect saints but they have their own, and they really focus on the “imams,” who are universally descendants of the Prophet (s). Sunnis use the word “imam” in a different way. Shi'a might say either “Imam” (initial cap) meaning certain descendants of Prophet (s), or “imam” (small 'i') meaning the person who leads prayers and gives instruction at a mosque. Sunnis use the word “imam” in a way similar to the way Shi'a use the word for the person who leads prayer.
    There are many other differences also, but they are matters of belief and practice, in the way that Seventh Day Adventists are going to be different from Jehovah's Witnesses or, certainly, from Catholics.
    Real Sunni Islam reveres the descendants of the Prophet (s), but wahhabis don't.
    There is not really a grand Sunni-Shi'a conflict. There have been wars, of course, but saying there is a long-term ongoing conflict between Shi'a and Sunni is not right–it is just as true to say that there is a long-term ongoing conflict between Protestants and Catholics. It might be true in a very limited way but is on its face an ignorant statement.

    Wahhabis say there is no clergy in Islam (and they mean Sunni Islam) but actually there are learned people that Wahhabis don't want to recognize. Also there are saints, almost universally revered in the Muslim world, who are despised by Wahhabis. There is a lot more detail and nuance to this, of course, but what you have said is a good basic starting point.

  • Benjamin

    “protestants are more like wahhabis (the extremist subgroup of Sunnis)”

    I almost decided that this was so preposterous that it was not worth replying to, But I am highly offended. I do not think that all Muslims are zealots and terrorists. Obviously, you think that all Protestants are this way. It must be because you are as ill-informed about Christian denominations as most Christians are about Islam and its different sects.

    I am a Protestant. The word comes from protesting against the tyranny of the Catholic church a few hundred years ago, not from extremist attitudes such as “killing infidels”. If you want to make an intelligent analogy, then study before you post. You are as caustic as extremists in our camp.

  • http://www.4-way.org unblock_porn

    Very accurate and good info.

  • http://willtoexist.com Trevor

    No. Iraq is mostly Shia just as the author stated. Kurds only represent 16-18% of the total population and have Sunnis, Shias, Yezidi and Christians not to mention non-religious groups among them.

  • http://willtoexist.com Trevor

    Seriously? Would you honor my request to add (STFU) after everything you ever type in caps? Silly.

  • http://willtoexist.com Trevor

    No. Iraq is mostly Shia just as the author stated. Kurds only represent 16-18% of the total population and have Sunnis, Shias, Yezidi and Christians not to mention non-religious groups among them.

  • http://willtoexist.com Trevor

    Seriously? Would you honor my request to add (STFU) after everything you ever type in caps? Silly.

  • Toni

    Can u make a list that is student friendly and accompany a phot of what you write so special ed students can understand the concept TFusco@sjsdny.org

  • Toni

    Can u make a list that is student friendly and accompany a photo of what you write so special ed students can understand the concept TFusco@sjsdny.org

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  • Name

    “The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia.”

    What does that have to do with the Middle East?

    Perhaps we should add “11. Indonesia is in Southeast Asia, not the Middle East”!

  • http://danielmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    There's always one.

    It's an interesting fact that it's NOT the Middle East.

  • Richard P.

    IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM IRAN IS NOT ARAB WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THOSE ARAB SCUM

    We get it, sand nigger.

  • JB

    Interesting…

    But not as interesting as the Electronic Cigarette…

  • frosso

    What I understood in this very good article, is that Egyptians are Arabs. Your family is from Egypt? Correct? And…The Arabs are Christian Muslims. That means that they believe in Jesus Christ. I hope I understood Correctly.

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  • Name

    Palestine is not a country.

  • boyd

    I believe Bahrain's population is mostly Shi'a (60%) but the ruling family is Sunni. Which has caused them quite a few issues in the past (revolts) and still makes it one of the less stable country in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

    (I live and work in the UAE, for now.)

  • boyd

    and when you post as a guest you get a random picture from someone else… yeah :)

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  • jdlyndon

    It's all well and good saying that most terrorists are Muslim (and it's probably true). But you have to realize, Americans are just more cunning and sly about the way they go about killing massive amounts of people. America uses covert terrorism; this means instead of using bombs and missiles (which they also use obviously) they will bring the enemy down from within, by means of misinformation, propaganda, blackmail; they will turn a society against it's self.

    You also have to understand how frustrated these people are, some of the things they and their parents have gone through since WWII are terrible and a lot of them blame the USA and their allies. The USA has put a lot of funding into many wars etc including the Gulf War, and the Palestinian – Israeli conflict.

    In fact the USA gives more aid to Israel than any of the other countries combined. Roughly 10 times more tax payers money goes to Israel than goes to fight the greatest plague the earth has seen since the middle ages; AIDS.

    So you can hardly blame anyone for thinking that USA and Israel are one-and-the-same.

    Moreover, if you stopped to listen to our friendly neighborhood Osama Bin Laden, you would realize that his main hatred for the USA stems from the Palestinian – Israeli conflict. as you can see here http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/the…

    Anyway, sorry for the rant I just thought I would demonstrate that they really are just as bad as each other.

    If my mother was in charge she'd just bang both their heads together and send them to bed with no dinner.

    • Mt

      really????????????????????????????

    • Arik

      Just note that you two are talking from completely different moral standpoints.

      Will has a Western morality which values human lives and sees suicide bombers as the most abhorrent form of terrorism. Influencing another’s society is lower in the scale of horrible.

      jdlyndon has an Arab morality which values society being unchanged by external influence as the most abhorrent form of terrorism, and suicide bombing is a response on par.

      THIS IS THE PROBLEM IN THE MIDDLE EAST

      Not the “we have a different religion” but “we have a different set of moral values”.

      – Arik

      • Anonymous

        I don’t really think I’m talking from any Moral stand point: To be frankly honest, I don’t care, I’m not on anyone’s side, I’m just saying USA should stop sticking their nose in everyone else’s business politically, then maybe they wouldn’t get attacked by terrorists.

        I’d just like to point out, I’m not Religious.

        BTW what’s the “problem” with having different morals? – Try reading “The Genealogy of Morals” by Nietzsche.

        • Arik

          jdlyndon,

          Everyone talks from a moral standpoint. It’s in the way you think and act.

          The problem with having different morals? that depends. If the moral values are compatible or at least not interfering with one another it’s just fine.

          The problem starts when you think that an attack by terrorist is a justified reaction to “sticking nose in others’ business” and I think it is completely unjustified never ever in any circumstances. But you can’t even understand my point of view because to you it looks legit and you have no idea how I can’t see how the US had it coming.

          That is the problem. Our morality is not just different. It is incompatible. I cannot tell you which one is better because it changes based on the perspective of the viewer. From my point of view, my morality is superior. Obviously you think the same about yours. How do we solve this?

          – Arik

          • Anonymous

            I mean, I probably have morals, but that’s not the point of my comment, – I’m just trying to say: If you slap a Tiger in the face, it’s probably going to bite your hand off.

            Is the tiger “right” to bite the guys hand off for a slap? – Probably not, but You shouldn’t play with tigers in the first place.

            The Arabic world never asked to be “Saved” by USA.

            USA should get all the money they put into killing other people in the name of freedom, and instead put it into fixing their broken aspects of their own society such as Education, Heath, Drink/Drug Abuse, Crime, The Depression Epidemic, and the Economy.

            Meanwhile leave the middle east to fuck their own respective countries up.

            • The Fear of terrorism is massively disproportional to the actual risk of terrorism.

            You are more likely, as an innocent bystander, to be killed accidentally by a police officer, that to be killed by a terrorist.

            by the way if you had a “Western morality which values human lives” as you put it, you’d realize that the War in Iraq has killed over 4500 AMERICAN people so far. More americans were killed in the war than all terrorist attacks in the last 10 years including 9/11.

            Except this time the average age of the victims is 21 years old!

            Not to mention the 655000 Iraqis

            Then there’s Afganistan… but I won’t even go into that.

            I think if you REALLY value human life and you take a minute to think about it, and stop buying the lies and giving into fear you’d see that there is a MUCH bigger threat to Americans (and the world) than Muslims etc:

            The US government!

  • Nirg

    Here's another facts: of all Arab, Persian, Turkish and Muslim countries, Israel is the only state in the state in the middle east that Christian arabs aren't leaving.
    Palestine and Lebanon for example, both both have “democratic” regimes, have the highest rate of Christians looking for shelter in western countries (with Israel among them)

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  • http://www.hevlacoffeeco.com/ Low Acid Coffee

    Very nice facts. This would help every western people to understand and know some facts on Middle East.

  • Jennifer

    Very informative and interesting facts. When I started reading, I expected that I would already know most of the facts. It turns out that over half of them were new information. It shows how blind ignorance can be. It's great to be informed. It blew me away that Arabs are actually Semites, because I always associated :anti-semitism” with anti-Jew. To find out that Arabs are Semites is very interesting. And the fact that people from Iran are not Arab….who would have known? I feel stupid for not recognizing these things earlier. Thank you to the author!

  • Jennifer

    Very informative and interesting facts. When I started reading, I expected that I would already know most of the facts. It turns out that over half of them were new information. It shows how blind ignorance can be. It's great to be informed. It blew me away that Arabs are actually Semites, because I always associated :anti-semitism” with anti-Jew. To find out that Arabs are Semites is very interesting. And the fact that people from Iran are not Arab….who would have known? I feel stupid for not recognizing these things earlier. Thank you to the author!

  • Kiwimarsi

    Thank you for posting this. Ignorance is I stumbled across your website for IT research. But this is good. I'll stick around to find some more easter eggs.

    kiwi

  • Kiwimarsi

    Thank you for posting this. Ignorance does not equal bliss.
    I stumbled across your website for IT research. But this is good. I'll stick around to find some more easter eggs.

    kiwi

  • Leroux

    Very nice ! A friend gave me the link to this article and I am glad he did. Now I can start to understand all this. Stuff like this should be taught in school, I can't understand why most people don't know about this.

  • http://twitter.com/lotusebhat mark arnold

    Excellent blog entry. I have an advanced degree in Comparative Semitic Languages (in addition to work I do in infosec). Finally good to see someone other than we specialists articulate the broader definition of all that is Semitic.

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  • MS THING-CRAZY

    SO WHAT THE THING

  • Mary kelleher

    hi

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    I am a resident in middle east but didn’t knew such facts regarding it.

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  • MGrann

    Daniel,

    Great information! Obviously the folks at CNN, ABC, NBC, etc have not stumbled on this page. Same with the politicians in D.C.

    -MG

  • guest

    Very informative, thanks! (Followed a link from Sam Harris to your free will piece and saw this.)

  • student

    ha

  • LOL

    Who’s R. Kelly?

  • OFWGKTA

    what do you guys have against bruno mars?

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