Most in the United States don’t know much about the Middle East or the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand world events and, consequently, our ability to hold intelligent opinions about those 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 speak the main Arab language (Arabic).

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

5. 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 Shia. Arab.

• Jordan Sunni. Arab.

• Gulf States Sunni. Arab.

Conclusion

What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 20 minutes to write and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the United States, including those in the media, the house of representatives, and probably even the Pentagon, lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region.:

References

¹The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing – Religions

Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims

Wikipedia | Shia Muslims

Wikipedia | Arabs

According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way.

United Nations officials said the so-called Rastas were once part of the Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after committing genocide there in 1994, but now it seems they have split off on their own and specialize in freelance cruelty.

Honorata Barinjibanwa, an 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

[ They Do It To Destroy Women ]

Apologize to the world.

Here’s what needs to be said; I leave it up to the speech writers to say it more eloquently:

Dear world, we of the United States of America would like to apologize for you for the last eight years. The man that just left office was a travesty. Despite the fact that we elected him, we do not support his actions on a number of fronts. Even most who at one point supported him are now sorry they did so, and have learned from their mistakes. I am here to say is that things, as of today, will be changing. I intend to restore the good name of this country in this world — to restore the respect that has been damaged during recent years. I intend to do this not by simply making claims or promises, but by illustrating through action that we are in fact sincere in our contrition. So, as of today, we are ending the mistake known as the Guantanamo Bay detention center. We are also investigating and discontinuing all overseas secret interrogation and prison operations. In addition, we are making plans to withdrawl our troops from Iraq as well as a number of other remote locations. It is important that this troop redeployment not be interpreted as weakness by either our friends or our enemies. Our failure to achieve our goal in Iraq was not due to the failure of the United States Military, but rather due to the lack of a solid, moral reason for being there in the first place. America is peerless when justly fighting to defend itself or its allies, as seen in WWII, but even a military as great as ours cannot win when we are not fighting for the right reasons. We shall not make that mistake again. Our new vision, and our new promise to you, is that we will return to a message of inclusiveness and friendship throughout the world. We intend to return to the paradigm of leading by example, and by competing through innovation and economic development rather than war. We know it will take time to heal the damage that has been done, and we accept that. But rest assured that we realize our country has gone astray, and that we are taking immediate action to regain your trust and respect. Your partner and friend, - The United States of America