Term
| Water: A renewable or Finite Resource |
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Definition
- Water is critical for life, food production, and industrial processes
- Nine out 14 Southwest Asian states face water-short conditions
- this is the most concentrated region of water scarcity in the world
- NASWA averages a natural increase of 1.8%
- Growing populations increases stress on water sources (600 million now)
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Term
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Definition
- Dry/arid climate prevails throughout the realm
- Exceptions:
- Peripheral regions of Turkey
- Northwestern section of Iran
- Oases
- Nile and Tigris and Euphrates River valleys
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Term
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Definition
- The majority of the population in this realm lives not in the dry arid regions, but around water resources.
- - The Nile (Egypt – 78 million)
- Mediterranean Sea (Turkey 77 million)
- Euphrates and Tigris Basin (Iraq – 31 million)
- Lower mountain slopes of Iran, south of the Caspian Sea (Iran 74 million)
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Term
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Definition
- Relates to language as a cultural feature of this realm
- “Who is an Arab” problem
- Arabic is the dominant language in most States of the realm, but it is not one language.
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Term
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Definition
- In Non-Arab States, indigenous languages dominate.
- Turkey – Turkish (77 million) come from Central Asia
- Kurds (35 million)
- 20% of Turkey, 15-20% of Iraq, 8% in Syria, and 7% in Iran
- Iran – Farsi (74 million)
- Israel – Hebrew (7 million)
- North Africa -Berber
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Term
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Definition
- Muhammad(571- 632 AD)
- Quran is the holy book
- Five Pillars of Faith
- Repeated expressions of Creed
- Frequent prayer (5 times per day)
- Month of daytime fasting (Ramadan)
- Alms-giving
- Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
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Term
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Definition
- Muhammad (571-632 AD)
- Koran is holy book (Quran)
- Islam is monotheistic like Judaism and Christianity
- Islam is a universal religion, like Christianity, but unlike Judaism (which is particularistic)
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Term
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Definition
- Muhammaed (570-632 AD)
- Born in Mecca in 570 AD
- Revelations from Allah in 611
- Fled to Medina, a Jewish City then called Yathrib, in 622 (the Hegira), because businessmen in Mecca were not happy with his teachings
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Term
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Definition
- Defeats the Jewish tribes in Medina (after a hudna with some Jewish tribes).
- Medina is made the administrative capital of an Islamic State.
- In 630, he returns to Mecca with 10,000 men and captures the city
- Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem
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Term
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Definition
- Differences over who would succeed Muhammad, the Caliph
- Sunnis supported Muhammad’s father-in-law (not a blood relative)
- Shi'ites supported Ali, a cousin of Muhammad
- Iran is the heart of Shi’ism. Shah tried to make a secular state and was overthrown by imams in 1979 and an ayatollah took over (Khomeni)
- Sunni states began to fear their Shi’ite minority who felt empowered by the Shi’ite take over in Iran
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Term
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Definition
- want to return to earlier forms of the faith – ban books, enforce dress codes, have religion run the governments (Wahhabism in SA starting in 18thcentury)
- Al-Qaeda (Osama bin Laden) is in the revivalist camp and wants to overthrow the Saudis and other states and establish Islamic Regimes
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Term
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Definition
- want to reinterpret Koranic teaching in light of the modern world
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Term
| Christians in the Middle East |
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Definition
- Christians are about 2% of the population; half (Coptics) are in Egypt (12 million) (?)
- Lebanon is now 30% (?) Christians where there is a government policy of confessionalism
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Term
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Definition
- Impact of Oil
- Urban Transformation
- High incomes, but vary with price of oil
- Infrastructure expenditures
- Industrialization
- Regional disparities (haves vs. have-nots)
- Foreign investment
- Intra-realm migration (5 million in SA)
- Inter-realm migration
- Support for revivalism
- 77% of world’s oil in NASWA
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