Home Page: OCIN INITIATIVE
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Prologue
3. Three identities in the Middle East
From now on, I will follow the history of the Middle East for 70 years after the war according to my own opinion. I think that there are three identities in the Middle East. The first one is "blood" identity. The second is the "religious" identity. And the last one is "ideology” identity. I will frequently refer these three identities in each chapter. I, therefore, would like to briefly explain hereof.
Firstly, "blood" identity is a biological identity, contemporary, called as DNA. This is given naturally when we were born as a human being. The identity of "blood" is "race". The largest race in the Middle East is "Arab", but in the Middle East some other ethnic groups such as the Turkish and Persian ethnicity coexist (Although there is the definition of "Jewish", but Jewish can not be said to be "race" in biological meaning).
The ethnicity, namely race, is a rather big concept. Blood relationship connect each other.The closest blood relationship is parent and child, brothers and sisters, which is called "family". If you expand to relationships such as uncle, aunt, cousin, etc, it will be "relatives". When covers distant relatives, it will be "clan". Furthermore, "tribe" overwhelming "clans", and eventually reaching the "ethnic" category.
In a modern society where urbanization has progressed, as described by the word "nuclear family", nowadays, the connection of blood is limited in family members or relatives. "Clan" or "tribe" is almost absolute. The word "ethnic group", which is the biggest concept, is still frequently used today, but it is often used as a political slogan. On the other hand, in the Middle East (especially among the Arab peoples) not only the top powerful persons but also ordinary citizens use widely the identity of this "blood".
The identity of "blood" is a congenital one inherited as DNA, too, but on the other hand, the identity of "religion” and "ideology" gets acquired after his berth.
Regarding religion in the Middle East, Islam has overwhelming influence. Not only Arab ethnic groups, but also Turkish people and Persian races are mostly Islamic Muslims. Of course, in the Middle East there are Christian believers such as the Egyptian Coptic or Jewish country Israel, too. Both Muslims, Christianity and Judaism have a common character of monotheism. They are Abrahamic religion. But because of that reason there is a long history of struggling each other and hatred. Especially the confrontation between the Islamic states and the Jewish state Israel cannot be foreseen the future.
In addition, Islam in modern Middle East has a confrontation between Sunni and Shiite sects. Furthermore even among Sunni there are conflicts between fundamentalist and moderate. Needless to say, the conflict is common in religious fields not only Islam but also Christianity. Look at the religious war between Catholic and Protestant in Middle Ages. But in the Middle East where the modern Western Europe civilization has penetrated, the conflict of religion is still a big problem and even sharpened in the modern age of globalization that the Internet has developed.
The third identity is political or economic ideology with principle and assertion. After being relieved from the bondage of religion in Western Europe in Middle Ages, the conflict of ideology has appeared. Through the era of Industrial Revolution and mercantilism, ideology has transformed into capitalism. In the historical process, inequality of wealth distribution became a problem. The socialism and communism ideology have spread globally.
The appearance of the Soviet Socialist Federation (Soviet Union) by the Russian Revolution had spread socialism worldwide. Western capitalism and Soviet socialism originally had mutually incompatible nature. But in order to combat the totalitarianism of Nazis in Germany, they fought together to overthrow Nazism. And World War II was over. As soon as war is over, US-led West alliance conflicted sharply with Soviet-led East alliance. It was called "the Cold War era". Even if we call it "the Cold War", in fact, hot wars as surrogate wars by both side occurred allover the world. The Middle East has also become one of the battle front. Before liberated from the spell of religious Islam, the Middle East has caught up in the ideological war. This has expanded the disorder moreover.
I would like to consider again the order of time series between "blood", "religion" and "ideology". "Blood" is inherent and genetically native as DNA. In comparison, "religion" and "ideology" are acquired after berth. In most cases, "religion" sticks to children during uninhibited childhood. Christian babies are baptized, and Muslim babies grow up hearing lullaby of the prayer words "Azan" from the mosque. In contrast, "ideology” is imprinted into the brains of individuals through education (especially through higher education). In other words, these three elements are taken in order beginning with congenital "blood", then "religion", and "Ideology" in the last. This is a natural order.
Looking at the national level, the ethnic nation, the religious states and ideological states of capitalism or socialism appears from time to time. In Western Europe three identities have appeared separately in history with a considerable time span. They never appeared simultaneously. However, in the Middle East three identities have been appeared in parallel in the short history of 70 years after World War II. Disorder and tragedy in the Middle East were born in such circumstance. This is what I want to say.
(To be continued ----)
