What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

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1. [...] This post has been updated here. [...]

   Pingback by A Middle East Primer — 3/30/2008 @ 9:36 pm

2. Great post it certainly is important information that most people in America don’t know. People also don’t know that the majority of muslims are actually asian. Malaysia and Indonesia are the 2 countries with the most muslims in the world, followed by India then Pakistan (yes surprising isn’t it that India has more muslims than Pakistan?). None of these countries are arab yet most of the world’s muslims reside in those 4 countries

   Comment by Suhayl — 3/30/2008 @ 9:48 pm

3. Yes very interesting. I must admit to knowing most of it except for the regional break down. But I especially liked the way you use Catholic and Protestant as comparisons - very clever.

   Comment by JasonManely — 3/31/2008 @ 1:33 am

4. This is a good quick primer, but I do have one point to contend:

   “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.”

   I think this statement is a little oversimplified and also a little bit incorrect. Both Sunni and Shi’a muslims have imams. “Imam” means “leader” in Arabic, and in one context it refers to the person who leads a service at mosque (like a priest in Catholicism, or a preacher in Protestant Christianity). In Shi’a Islam, “imam” also refers to the line of succession to the caliphate (the Islamic papacy, if you will) that split off after the killing of Hussein, the son of ‘Ali and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

   Saying that Shi’a Muslims are like Catholics and that Sunni Muslims are like Protestants seems wrong, because Shi’a split off from Sunni (Orthodox) Islam, not the other way around, and the two developed along separate lines. A better parallel to Catholicism and Protestantism in Islam might be Wahhabism, a branch of Sunnism that began as a conscious effort to “reform” Islam based on the feeling that it had gotten off-track and is currently the state religion of Saudi Arabia. It’s also unfair to say of Shi’a that they “promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly”, since in my experience just about every religion promotes this.

   Comment by Dave — 3/31/2008 @ 1:36 am

5. Actually, Syria is majority Sunni.

   Comment by Beetle B. — 3/31/2008 @ 5:05 pm

6. Great post.

   Comment by Josh H — 3/31/2008 @ 6:34 pm

7. Here’s some more: - Afghanistan is not in the Middle East, it’s part of Southern Asia.

   • Islam, Christianity and Judaism are all based off of the same scriptures and stories (for the most part). What Muslims call Allah, and Christians call God, and Jews call Hashem is all the same god - they all believe in the same God (different names, same exact god)

   • Islam and Judaism as mentioned previous point, are very very similar in so much that they are to refrain from shell fish and pork, what Jews call Kosher - Muslims call Halal.

   • In Islam, the covering of the face for women is not part of the religion, the burqas you see are actually condemned within the Quaran - it is extreme conservatives that have taken to instil these rules. In the same way Catholics have instil rules on birth control, where there is no real literal mention of it in the bible.

   -In Arabic, the term Jihad does not mean holy war. The term has become known as that because the media has dumbed it down and sensationalized the word. The real meaning of Jihad is ‘to strive or to yearn’. Prefixing holy to it means to strive for holiness, suffixing war means to ‘yearn for war’, suffixing peace means ‘to strive for peace’, suffixing education means ‘to strive for education’.

   The term is one of the most improperly used Arabic phrases.

   /end rant, begin bashing

   Comment by PsychoApe — 3/31/2008 @ 6:58 pm

8. Good post. Concise and well informed. I wonder if High Schools in US are teaching the basics of Islam, in order to encourage tolerance and discourage biases.

   Comment by Asim — 3/31/2008 @ 9:32 pm

9. Israel is in the middle east too…

   Comment by Thomas — 3/31/2008 @ 9:36 pm

10. Oops - sorry for that comment; I wasn’t aware it would actually submit. This was a great post - thank you for the quick primer.

    Comment by Jorge — 3/31/2008 @ 9:37 pm

11. What Every American Should Know About the Middle East…

    dmiessler.com — 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 th…

    Trackback by www.ntopics.com — 3/31/2008 @ 9:37 pm

12. Good work - should be required reading by everyone in public office, law enforcement and … oh hell, everyone should read this.

    Cheers.

    Comment by Robbo — 3/31/2008 @ 9:40 pm

13. I have a handful of muslim friends at my University and we once got into a talk about religion. My father is a Methodist Preacher and I admitted to me friend that I honestly didn’t know much about Islam other than - Same God from the house of Abraham - The history of Shia and Sunni but I lacked any sense of the spiritual orientation. I found it sounded just about the same as Christianity or Judeaism. I know there are differences, but really they are all the same. One thing that did surprise me is the fact that Jesus is considered a higher Prophet than Mohammed, but he isn’t the messiah because he wasn’t the son of god or something of that nature.

    Comment by Dustin — 3/31/2008 @ 9:43 pm

14. Well, sorry to ruin the party, but it seems that not even here you are getting the facts correctly. Syria is not a Shia Arab country. Syria’s population is 74% Sunni, 16% druze, alawite and others and 10% Christian. The ruler Bashar Al Assad is an Alawite.

    Comment by Eddie — 3/31/2008 @ 9:43 pm

15. The funny thing is I know all this and I still don’t care.

    You can define Jihad and try to place it in a light that is not horrible but when it comes down to it, a portion of the Muslim world calls on jihads to kill and silence anyone who has a view they consider wrong. While I would say almost all religions have this in some form (psycho Pro-Lifers claiming God told them to fire bomb a place comes to mind) the Muslims seem to riot and react the most violently when their little world is threatened or perceived to be threatened.(Should be noted this is in response to a comment and not the main article)

    I also wonder where the writer is getting his stats to say most Americans use Arab and Muslim interchangeable. I know of no one personally that thinks all Arab’s are Muslim or that all Muslim’s are Arab, a large portion of Arab’s are Muslim while as has been pointed out a large portion of Muslim’s are not Arab.

    As for the Islam and Muslim point that is just semantics and the sign of a language that is constantly changing. Annoying maybe but thats what English does it changes into something new every generation.

    I will give you an A+ though overall its a quick review. I will say though that you might want to add in counter points to items that most people bring up on why Arab/Muslim countries “suck”. Such as actively oppressing women, this can be in subtle forms as in forcing them to wear certain clothes, not allowing make up, restricting education etc.. to more forceful acts such as mutilating their private parts.(I think another note should be added here that Iraq was actually closer to a western mindset on education and working women until America invaded) They are also one of the few religions/regions that still do such barbaric acts as beheading and hanging.

    Frankly I find that a lot of the problem stems not entirely from the religion as I have friends that are Muslim but from the culture/governments that have stemmed up from it and claim it as their anchor when justifying horrific acts. The problem is how can you encourage education and development in a country whose very mindset is to reject such influence and acts, not easily obviously and obviously America and the west have failed on all fronts to do such. (I would also like to note that ignoring them or letting them be is not an option as frankly in a global community as we have now isolationism and hoping it goes away will not work)

    Thats the end of my rant … I probably wont come back here so please don’t spend a lot of time on insulting me, just putting a point out there.

    Comment by J — 3/31/2008 @ 9:46 pm

16. Actually, and as pointed out, Syria is Majority of Sunni: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-29954/Syria. The ruling power right now is a Shia sect (which not on good terms with the rest of Shia either), Alaouits and Druze. This should be corrected as it help explain a lot on Syria’s current behavior.

    Comment by Lulu — 3/31/2008 @ 9:52 pm

17. Good Post… But Idiots will be Idiots, and America is full of them. I think that some people in this country know the difference between those people, but it is in their interest to create dissent. Order out of Chaos…

    Comment by Mike D — 3/31/2008 @ 9:53 pm

18. We don’t need to bash you PsychoApe, as the frantic nature with which you seek to defend the most violent and intolerant religion on earth speaks for itself. “Same scriptures…same God…they all believe in the same God…same exact God.” Man, chill out.

    No matter what the Quaran might or might not condemn, one need only look at how radical Islam behaves in the world today to conclude they do not worship the same God as the peaceful Muslims, or Christians, or Jews. Whereas the U.S. at least tries to target the enemy and avoid innocent casualties, the Islamic fascist specifically targets innocent women and children for slaughter everyday. Or they bring their own women and children into battle to make sure they are killed, knowing the media will blame America and not the cowardly trash that loved themselves more than their family. All this in the name of Allah. Not the same God. Sorry.

    One does not need to hate Muslims (and truly the majority are peaceful) to see even a small percentage of radicals equals millions upon millions of a new breed of Nazis in the world. Radical Islam is the number one threat to civilization. And if they worship a “God”, it’s the one below, not above.

    Comment by Andrew — 3/31/2008 @ 10:02 pm

19. I find it rather odd that Israel is not in the list of “Middle Eastern countries” while Palestine is. You know, considering Israel is a “country”, while Palestine is not. Perhaps Americans should know that as well.

    Comment by Tom — 3/31/2008 @ 10:06 pm

20. who cares they are all fucking terrorist!

    Comment by the dark knight — 3/31/2008 @ 10:12 pm

21. Thank you for this. I dedicated a post on my blog to directing my readers to come give it a quick read. http://matthewhelmke.net/index.php/2008/03/31/45-what-every-american-should-know-about-the-middle-east

    Comment by matthew — 3/31/2008 @ 10:14 pm

22. Thank you. I enjoyed the piece and have directed the readers of my blog to come read it themselves. http://matthewhelmke.net/index.php/2008/03/31/45-what-every-american-should-know-about-the-middle-east

    Comment by matthew — 3/31/2008 @ 10:17 pm

23. It should also be pointed out that all religions with roots from the middle east Islam,Christianity,Judaism are all based upon Zoroastrianism.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

    Comment by PPK — 3/31/2008 @ 10:22 pm

24. Great post, I think it would be good too to mention the Persians and how they differ from the Arabs. Most Americans don’t know the difference or that there even is one.

    Comment by Jason — 3/31/2008 @ 10:30 pm

25. [...]   [...]

    Pingback by $i++ » Blog Archive » What Every American Should Know About the Middle East — 3/31/2008 @ 10:32 pm

26. Palestine was never technically a country, but then again the majority of the Middle-East was carved up after World War 2, so quite a few of the countries that exist today aren’t “natural” when it comes to how they really should look.

    As to Israel, this blog seems to be dedicated to the Middle-East that readers have never heard of and have no clue about. Israel is one of the most well known nations in the world, but those nations surrounding it are often miscast as kith and kin to the “Axis of Evil.”

    As a response to Andrew, as much as you may deride these countries for their cultures, overall there aren’t that many places that can call themselves truly better. Christianity has the same fanatic following as many of Islam’s more infamous groups, they simply do not have a war zone close enough at hand to become as violent.

    The U.S. and Israeli military both have warcrimes under their belt, and you’d do well to realize that atrocities are committed every day because we do not understand just how we may be insulting or destroying another culture. To believe our own propaganda machine and how they portray our “liberation” of nations is no better than to listen to the radical islamic groups and theirs.

    Comment by Darius — 3/31/2008 @ 10:48 pm

27. And let’s remember, there are Arab atheists, the sanest of the bunch.

    Comment by Effer — 3/31/2008 @ 10:48 pm

28. You should also note that Arabs are semites, so when Jews call Arabs anti-Semitic, well…

    Comment by Erydan — 3/31/2008 @ 10:49 pm

29. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East (tags: culture politics religion) [...]

    Pingback by O’DonnellWeb - This is not a homeschooling blog » Blog Archive » links for 2008-03-31 — 3/31/2008 @ 11:31 pm

30. “lack cursory education on religion”

    How many Muslims in the middle east know the difference between Lutherans and Catholics? Ignorance and intolerance runs deep here. I suppose I should post on my blog a basic Christianity education for morons like you.

    Fortunately, I have faith that there are peace loving free thinkers somewhere in the middle east and I refuse to insult their intelligence. I will not force them to learn about my culture, but instead just accept the world is very diverse and that there are some things they can’t understand.

    The middle east extremists will never reach peace because of their inability to let people free think. Peace without freedom to think is impossible.

    Good luck there. Keep blogging.

    Comment by Jon — 4/1/2008 @ 12:05 am

31. [...] This is a brief and easy to follow explanation of ethnicity and religion in the Middle East. For example, the difference between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims in Iraq–you know, the two sides fighting for power in Iraq’s civil war. And for the big dummies, the synopsis includes how Arab is not a religion, it’s an ethnic group. (read it here) [...]

    Pingback by The Middle East for Dummies | reallygoodmagazine.com — 4/1/2008 @ 12:24 am

32. [...] Miessler wrote a short, easy to read, one page article on his blog yesterday that impressed me. He gives a very quick and extremely basic introduction to the Middle [...]

    Pingback by The Linux Index » Matthew Helmke: What every American should know about the Middle East — 4/1/2008 @ 12:26 am

33. Great post, thanks for doing the legwork on this and putting it all in a simple to absorb package. =]

    Comment by Dave Bullock / eecue — 4/1/2008 @ 12:38 am

34. Thanks all for the excellent comments. I’ve made some updates based on the information I’ve received.

    Comment by Daniel Miessler — 4/1/2008 @ 12:45 am

35. I grew up in the middle east, specifically the UAE and then Qatar. I think ive had the oppurtunity to live there all my life associating with people from all over the world as it is extremely multicultural and i have had the oppurtunity to travel through the UK, the US and ive been in Canad for the last 3 years. I think somethign that needs to be adressed is that where im from, Doha, we’re pretty aware of american/english/canadian culture because theres a high amount of ppl from that region in the GCC, theres a fuckload of american media, music movies and such, and theres been an influx of american soldiers that you see in the malls. People in america and such arent aware because the only aprt they see of us is what they see on the news which is usually of war torn areas and stuff. This is where, and im basing thsi on talkign to americans and canadians over the last few years ive been here, the problem arises. There is an immediate acceptance of what you see in the newspaper and movies of what arab culture is depicted as. That is a huge problem. Let me tell you right now, that within the GCC the hardest country to live in is Saudi Arabia but EVEN THEN if you live in a compoun/gated community as many foreigners do, your free to do watever the fuck you want. Qatar and the UAE are the same. the only issue is public displays of affection, like making out and shit in public. Thats because of the conservative culture. But you go to a club youre free to do watever, there are bars, there are liquor stores. You are free to do all that shit. We dont pay taxes, life is fairly straightforward and people are there to work so theyre nto trying to fuck with the governemtn who for the most part leave you alone cuz they need professionals. I spoke to an american dude in Dubai who watched me and my buddy play chess at a starbucks and he struck up a convo with us telling us about ppl in Miami, where he was from, saying OMG take a bullet proof vest and did u ride aroudn on camels. Its liek ahem ahem its mroe liek fuckin benzes and beemers around here.

    There is a stronngggg cultural influence and you will see that if you come down through to the UAE and Qatar and such. It is a beautiful place to live where life is easy. Theres the same range of girls some are sluts some are nice some are shy. THeres the same range of guys. Doha is a little dull in terms of activities but its pickign up. But all in all thats the GCC in a nutshell.

    Now the best part? Jordan, Syria etc? Theyre fuckin liberal as shit! You can get drunk,get high, fuck around and do watever u wanna do for cheap. Theres a strong cultural issue with liek dating girls from well known families sure. But fuck u can do watever u wanna do. Lebanon was the best for that.

    But you guys will never know until someone explains it all to you. I mean you cant necessarily blame Americans for not knowing enough outside of the USA, what you can blame them for is believing everything that they hear from the news whole-heartedly. That is never a smart thign to do…always check sources before makign a decision. If the CIA ahd done that, there would be 4,000+ more american citizens with their families right now enjoying their lives, and there would be a million more iraqis who im sure whould have rather continued living then have been slaughtered by a senseless war.

    GUys do soem research, google image search doha and dubai and abu dhabi and itll give you an idea of what the GCC is like. I spent 20 years there and as soon as i graduate im headed back :)

    Comment by Gauthaman — 4/1/2008 @ 12:48 am

36. The term “Anti-Semite” was actually coined by the Nazi’s in specific reference to Jews, and therefore Anti-Semitism is clearly defined as anti-jewish hatred or policy.

    Comment by howiegreen — 4/1/2008 @ 1:00 am

37. I have to object to your very first point about what makes an “Arab” an Arab. Although there are ethnic “Arabs” and people who live in “Arab” countries; the best and only way (in my opinion) to understand what makes an “Arab” and Arab is language. If Arabic is your first tongue then you are Arab. Even if you are blue-eyed and blonde and live in Lebanon.

    Comment by Seth — 4/1/2008 @ 1:18 am

38. Decent post. You might be interested in my side-by-side table at http://www.loryx.com/issues/Sunni%20vs%20Shi`ia.htm

    Comments and corrections to the table encouraged and invited.

    Comment by D'n Russler — 4/1/2008 @ 1:31 am

39. Sorry, that was an old url. If you’re interested, look at http://www.loryx.com/issues/SunnivsShiia2.htm

    Comment by D'n — 4/1/2008 @ 1:34 am

40. Perhaps another post: “What the Middle East should know of America?”

    Comment by Jason — 4/1/2008 @ 1:39 am

41. Islam is the largest religion in the world.

    Comment by Mat — 4/1/2008 @ 2:13 am

42. Persia doesnt exist. People from Iran are Iranians. There is no persian embassy, no persian passport, no persian presence in the UN. Now that I think about it the only persian thing i know of is the rug my chair is on. The Turks should go around being called Byanitites, people from mexico should be called mayans, and anyone in south america should be incan.

    Comment by jimmy james — 4/1/2008 @ 2:25 am

43. @Andrew that’s a weak argument. your religion which I guess is probably christianity is no better then islam. christianity is just as violent, if not more. come over to Asia and see how your missionaries act. there’s all sorts of Christian terrorist attacks but they don’t get reported on International news because its quite common and Christians don’t want to hear about Christian terrorists, they reserve the word terrorist for Muslims. They instead call them Christian hardliners which is bs because let’s call them what they are, terrorists.

    Comment by Bola — 4/1/2008 @ 2:36 am

44. Bola: could you provide some links for more information? What demoninations and churches are involved? I know many missionaries, to Asia and many other locations, and they do things like teach schools and build houses. If you have concrete proof of wrongdoing, I’d love to know whom to yell at here on this end (USA).

    Comment by Joseph — 4/1/2008 @ 3:17 am

45. I should also add that if they’re going around killing and otherwise terrorizing, they are not Christian, no matter how much they pretned to be.

    Comment by Joseph — 4/1/2008 @ 3:17 am

46. terrorist 1. a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism. 2. a person who terrorizes or frightens others. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorist

    a terrorist can be of any color or race and any religious background. examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianterrorism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamicterrorism

    Terrorists win when we pay attention to their cause. They use guerrilla warfare to provoke and destroy. The idea is to “intimidate the general population.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare

    “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Mahatma Gandhi

    Comment by astralab — 4/1/2008 @ 3:22 am

47. (A) “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.”

    What is interesting is that Jews and Arabs have dramatically different interpretations about who-was-who. One son offered for sacrifice, one son supposed to be a leader of their people. Both groups claim the more favorable of the two sons was their patriarch

    (B) Re. Christian Arabs. Not sure what is scientifically correct — but I do know that many Coptic Christian Egyptians regard themselves as ethnically distinct from Arabs. They believe that ‘Arabs’ came later from the peninsula and are not descended (at least not as directly) from the indigenous people of the Nile Valley.

    Comment by Michael I — 4/1/2008 @ 3:39 am

48. While there are Christian Arabs in the Middle East, there is also a large population of Assyrian Christians in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. The Assyrians, like the Copts of Egypt, regard themselves as ethnically and culturally distinct from Arabs.

    Comment by Emil — 4/1/2008 @ 3:49 am

49. “yes surprising isn?t it that India has more muslims than Pakistan?” Only to idiots(that’s you!). India has over 1 billion people.

    “In Islam, the covering of the face for women is not part of the religion, the burqas you see are actually condemned within the Quaran”

    Oh really. Please provide us with the specific verse. You can’t because there isn’t one.

    Although Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all spring from the same religious cloth, they are ideologically worlds apart. To say they all share the same God is absurd, although Judaism and Christianity have a lot more in common by virtue of the fact the Christians are converted Jews.

    Islam has no concept of a loving god.

    Comment by Barbary — 4/1/2008 @ 4:07 am

50. I thought this was to be facts concerning the middle east as a region…?

    I think you should rename your little article: “What Every Muslim Won’t Shut The Hell Up About”.

    Comment by Chris — 4/1/2008 @ 4:52 am

51. [...] Link [...]

    Pingback by DailyDigital » Blog Archive » What Every American Should Know About the Middle East — 4/1/2008 @ 5:43 am

52. I moved to Qatar 3 months ago, and completely agree with you that the ignorance westerners have for this area is inexcusable. Oh, and it isn’t just Americans… I am Canadian.

    Comment by Ryan Schellenberg — 4/1/2008 @ 6:18 am

53. 1. Ara b = Sand Nigger.

    Comment by Fred Phelps — 4/1/2008 @ 6:34 am

54. Hi, please correct this in the article. there are no arab jews (obviously), thanks for the intresting article, i may circle it to my email group.

    Comment by jack rand — 4/1/2008 @ 7:16 am

55. [...] primer on the Middle East Just came across this, thought it might at least be helpful to [...]

    Pingback by A primer on the Middle East « MV and beyond! — 4/1/2008 @ 7:18 am

56. jack, on the contrary, there are arab jews. I understand it’s a controversial term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Jews

    Comment by john — 4/1/2008 @ 7:29 am

57. Why was this article needed in the first place, the rest of the world gets it why don’t Americans, CUZ they are the dumbest nation on earth!

    A bunch of blind sheep, ignorant and arrogant, being fed propogada by their government who have their hidden agenda’s and motives.

    If you want to learn something about your country, look up the movie/doumentary “WHY WE FIGHT”…

    Comment by Tash — 4/1/2008 @ 7:36 am

58. Your writing is simply great work and very informative. Meanwhile that you have not mentioned anything about Turkey could be interpreted as you don’t consider it is a middle-eastern country but European?

    As a Turk myself, I’m curious about the Americans’ popular opinion on this one.

    Comment by Skyhan — 4/1/2008 @ 7:38 am

59. This bears repeating: ‘anti-Semitism’ was a term coined in the 19th century by a Jew-hater because he wanted a term that sounded more intellectual than “Jew-hater.” It has since been co-opted by some Arabs to include themselves so that they can artificially refute accusations that they hate Jews. It’s sort of like how some people redefined “racism” to mean “institutionalized oppression of race A by race B” so they could claim that members of race A cannot be racist, or how misogynists co-opted the term “feminism” to mean “misandrist lesbian separatists” in order to diminish the feminist movement.

    According to random DNA samples, Jews and Arabs are related. Linguistically Hebrew and Arabic are also related. If you go back far enough though, we all are. This is something a lot of people seem to forget, in spite of the fact that not only does DNA show it, but it’s emphasized in the Biblical creation story. In theory we should all be in agreement about this, but we certainly don’t act like it.

    Comment by No — 4/1/2008 @ 7:41 am

60. [...] Read more: [...]

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61. [...] GREAT post by Daniel Miessler who is trying to shed some light on the middle east in terms of the [...]

    Pingback by Blabbercamel » What Every non Arab Should Know About the Middle East — 4/1/2008 @ 8:22 am

62. I like number six the best!

    Comment by Abu Zaynab — 4/1/2008 @ 9:43 am

63. Good post.

    Just one thing to all those who seem to think that Muslims are naturally more inclined to violence, terrorism and hurting innocents than Christians: I.R.A. That was not even that long ago. They weren’t stranger to torture either. And the British are not that innocent in that conflict either. And if we go earlier in time and/or wider in location, you’ll find that people everywhere in the world have used the Bible to justify anything from torture, conquest, war and genocide. Does that mean that we should treat all Christians as violent fanatics? No. Nobody does. So why the double standard when it comes to Muslims?

    And by the way, the “if they are violent, then they aren’t Christians” isn’t an excuse. If they go to Church, believe in the God of the Bible and the New Testament, and believe in Jesus-Christ, then they are Christians. It’s not even as if the Bible isn’t full of violence anyway.

    In any case, Christians should be ashamed of their intolerance towards Muslims. What did Jesus say? “Stop judging that you may not be judged; for with what judgement you are judging, you will be judged; and with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you. Why, then, do you look at the straw in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the rafter in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Allow me to extract the straw from your eye’; when, look! a rafter is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother’s eye”. (Matthew 7;1-5) Check what measure you use to judge Muslims and Islam. Now apply that measure to Christians and Christianity, honestly and objectively (and apply the measure to everyone claiming to be Christians, not only those you accept to be Christians. After all, that’s what you do with Muslims, putting everyone who claims to be Muslim under the same umbrella). Is Christianity coming out so well? If you do this really honestly, it won’t. Straw, meet rafter.

    Comment by Tsela — 4/1/2008 @ 10:02 am

64. @ Anti-Semitism

    Well, as we all know the meaning of words can change in time. I study german philology and i can give you an example in german:

    for example in the years (-)1100-1500(+) [wîp] (pronounced /wi:p/) was the word for “woman”

    In our days, the word that developed itself out of that word is “Weib”, which has a bad conotation as you say it. (i dont know the english term for this word, but it has a pejorative touch - you wouldnt want to say “old hag” or something similar to every older woman in english either)

    So you see, a word can change its meaning over time and it doesnt matter what the meaning of the word was before it got changed in every day talk.

    Take some other examples: weapons of mass destrucion, terrorism, freedom

    Comment by SomeDude — 4/1/2008 @ 11:19 am

65. regarding: “If they go to Church, believe in the God of the Bible and the New Testament, and believe in Jesus-Christ, then they are Christians”

    Well, no. Merely attending church services is no guarantee of Christianity.

    Arguably, if you truly believe in the God of the New Testament and Jesus Christ, you will not behave violently. After all, Jesus was the lamb that was slain, and specifically declined to be even a political king let alone a warring king many times. He hung out with the people who were considered the lowest of the low during his time. He died instead of fighting. I really don’t see how you can be an honest Christian and be a hater. Therefore, I disown those who terrorize and who claim to be Christians. It’s not that I’m saying that people don’t do bad things in the name of Christ, it’s rather that I disown them completely.

    “Christians should be ashamed of their intolerance towards Muslims.”

    Except that the Christians I deal with on a regular basis are not, so a blanket accusation of “Christians” here is as absurd as calling every muslim a terrorist. You directly contradict your own first paragraph!

    “After all, that’s what you do with Muslims, putting everyone who claims to be Muslim under the same umbrella”

    Actually, it’s not. Your underlying assumption is faulty.

    Comment by Joseph — 4/1/2008 @ 12:11 pm

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67. For completeness, I semi-agree. A great many bad things have been done, allegedly in the name of Christ. They were either using it as a cover for political maneuvering (e.g. the “Catholics” vs the “Protestants” in Northern Ireland) or they were blinded by their own hatred (e.g. the one that shot the doctor who was providing abortions). I still disown them and believe that they either have (if they’ve died) or will (if they don’t renounce their stupidity) pay for it in the afterlife (and hopefully before too).

    Just claiming to be an adherent of a group does not make you an adherent of that group. Or are the police that are alleged to have started violence at various protests actually members of that protest? No, they remain police agitators, not protestors.

    Comment by Joseph — 4/1/2008 @ 12:21 pm

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70. Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know even “Arabs” is a broad classification of seperate tribes. Only with the foundation of Nation States like Saudi, Iraq etc. these peoples get grouped together as either “Saudi’s” or “Iraqi’s” or simply “Arabs”.

    Despite being very loosely based on actual writings, the movie Lawrence of Arabia even has some interesting thoughts, like an “Arab” asking “The Arabs? The Howeitat, Ageyil, Ruala, Beni Sahkr, these I know. I have even heard of the Harith. But the Arabs? What tribe is that?”

    It was really bizar to see some rendering of “better” borders for the Arabian peninsula some time ago, by, I think, an American General that represent those old tribal “borders” as Lawrence did as well.

    Comment by ThE_ED — 4/1/2008 @ 1:18 pm

71. Good summary. Thanks for making a contribution to address our ignorance of such matters in the US.

    Comment by Preston — 4/1/2008 @ 1:51 pm

72. [...] What every American should know about the Middle East [...]

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73. You have one mistake:

    There are no arab jews, only christians & Muslims arabs. (Judaism is an ethnic group and a religion)

    Comment by Noam — 4/1/2008 @ 3:18 pm

74. Sadly I am sure this post is only being read by those who care. I have been living in an Arab country for the past 8 years (pre and post 9/11) and proudly have many Arab Muslim and non-muslim friends. Most of the Americans I meet out here know there is a world outside of the Fox Channel “middle american” crap that is fed to the average american. If only the rest would wake up it would be such a better world.

    Comment by Dubai Aussie — 4/1/2008 @ 4:03 pm

75. But, if you inform people, we cannot be afraid, and then we might try to understand each other…. (OBS! Irony)

    GREAT POST!

    If we just can understand more, we don’t have to be afraid and kill each other. For those of you who believe in GOD, he said (in all three religions (Thou SHALL not kill).

    Political religiosity is the main reason for me to fight against all forms of organized religion. Faith is personal, and should stay so.

    During the last presidency America has destroyed virtually all human-rights work done after WW2, and has made it almost impossible to critizise anythin any other nation does.

    Have anyone but me started to recognize the frightening similarities between Germany in 1930 and USA/Israel right now… Be afraid, very afraid…

    Thanks again.

    Comment by Jens/Sweden — 4/1/2008 @ 5:03 pm

76. You can add, there are minorities in the Middle East (or increasingly known as Southwest Asia) that are neither Muslim or Arab, such as Armenians, Assyrians, Nestorians, Yezidis, Kurds (which can be Muslim, but some are other religions), Zoroastrian, Maronites (though some people consider them Arab), Circassians (though most are Muslim), and others.

    Comment by Hrag — 4/1/2008 @ 5:40 pm

77. @jimmy james:

    Persian is the ethnic designation, Iranian the political one.

    One of my good friends here like to describe himself as Persian, and it’s not just because many Americans are leery of the term “Iranian.”

    Comment by Technical Writing Geek — 4/1/2008 @ 5:47 pm

78. Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term antisemitism being used — often to describe Arabs. This doesn’t make sense given the fact that the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and refers to anyone who speaks one of the Semitic Languages. That includes both Jews and Arabs.

    It is widely accepted that the term “antisemitism” applies to hatred towards jews. It is not ignorance. Go look in a dictionary.

    Antisemites - specially arab antisemites are trying to take control of that word by saying “how can I be an antisemite? I am a semite myself”. And you fell into the trap.

    Comment by Bernardo Carvalho — 4/1/2008 @ 5:48 pm

79. funny, in the orig. post you made a blunder…

    6 - “Arabs are Semites. … That includes both Jews and Arabs. ” then, 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.”

    you just used Arabs to describe Muslims!!!…duh!

    Also, you are wrong…the Bible does not say Jews and Muslums were related…Mohommad made up the story (got a revelation from Allah) to tell him that his new religion decended from the “right” branch from Abraham..and the rest is as they say, history…the killing of non-believers and the cursing of Jews. It is a complete error to state, “According to the Bible…”

    please correct.

    Comment by swanton — 4/1/2008 @ 5:50 pm

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81. Just to clarify regarding a comment above:

    Afghanistan is actually a part of South Asia, Central Asia AND the Middle East. South Asia officially comprises 7 countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia):

    – Pakistan – India – Nepal – Bangladesh – Sri Lanka – Maldives – Bhutan

    However since Afghanistan is a member of SAARC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SouthAsianAssociationforRegional_Cooperation) it apparently falls under South Asia categorization occasionally.

    Comment by Saira — 4/1/2008 @ 5:58 pm

82. Ahhhhh….. Thank you. This is the best definition of sunni/shia I have ever found. Great post!

    Comment by ashabot — 4/1/2008 @ 6:13 pm

83. “According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25]…So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.”

    Yes, because the Bible is a work of great historical accuracy.

    Comment by Timosha — 4/1/2008 @ 6:22 pm

84. Syria in a way is the opposite of Saddam’s Iraq. A country with a majority sunni population and a minority shia leadership. That explains the close ties between Syria and Iran.

    Comment by Arab Stallion — 4/1/2008 @ 6:25 pm

85. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 30 minutes to write, and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the United States, including those [who should know] lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region. (tags: religion politics culture islam guide interesting useful) [...]

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86. “Here’s how the various Middle Eastern countries break down in terms of Sunni vs. Shia…”

    “Palestine Sunni. Arab.”

    Can you point out the country of Palestine on that map? I’m having problems finding it.

    Comment by Ohokay — 4/1/2008 @ 6:48 pm

87. Not that this will be read or it really matters - I doubt most Muslims will take the time to learn the differences that make up Americans.

    Comment by Jayson — 4/1/2008 @ 7:10 pm

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89. So much hate in so many of these responses… wow… so sad.

    Thank you for the insightful post. Well done.

    Comment by A non-mouse cowherd — 4/1/2008 @ 7:24 pm

90. Isn’t an unfortunate lack of understanding, on all sides, the root of the problem - not the minor difference in belief systems? If everyone, in every religion and nation, were literate and had access to all books of faith and the internet and weren’t limited to learning a faith through a HUMAN BEING - who is flawed by nature - than perhaps their wouldn’t be so much violence. It’s a shame there isn’t an internationally agreed upon universal education to teach the foundations of all cultures and religions, and spark conversations like this blog and comments.

    Comment by Deborah — 4/1/2008 @ 7:35 pm

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92. While I think that it is wonderful that you present this information for others to obtain I don’t believe it is because this information is hard to come at that causes people to be uneducated. There are many sources for this information and any single individual could look up these facts and many more.

    The real story here is not that people in our country do not know this information, it is the fact that they are not interested in knowing it even as we are involved in conflict in the region.

    While you efforts are appreciated you would be far more effective trying to show the uneducated why they should care about the middle east, as it is now you are just preaching to the choir, so to speak.

    Comment by Eric — 4/1/2008 @ 8:20 pm

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94. [...] Hey America, read this: 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. [...]

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95. Most of the people don’t know because today it seems knowledge has become a liability - particular with those in charge in Western Countries.

    Be stupid - Be successful

    Lets hope this trend reverses soon.

    Comment by duvet-dayz — 4/1/2008 @ 8:28 pm

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100. Thanks for the information. BTW, I believe the correct term is “Persian Gulf” and not “Gulf”. Please see below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_gulf

     Thanks,

     Comment by mehrdad — 4/1/2008 @ 10:44 pm

101. The only thing anyone really needs to learn is that there is no God, never was, never will be. Once we all realize this, the ridiculously abhorrent atrocities done in its name will end, and we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for our misfortunes. Religion is a tool that allows millions to hate millions.

     By the way, my captcha reads “Christine only”

     Irony?

     Comment by absurd — 4/1/2008 @ 11:17 pm

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103. Good article.

     I love how the meatsacks think the other meatsacks are crazy because their own version of their concept of the divine (and their own recorded insights) are right and therefore everyone else is wrong.

     You run the same software. You’re built on the same hardware.

     You just have different viruses.

     Comment by RoPiNi — 4/1/2008 @ 11:40 pm

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105. You can’t really expect people to find your information credible when your main sources are wikipedia. Though I, as an Arab, confirm all the supplied information as true.

     Comment by John A — 4/1/2008 @ 11:54 pm

106. I don’t like the comparison of the Sunni with the Protestants. You write that “under Saddam the Shia were oppressed and the Sunni were in power”. I don’t see how the Protestants here ‘opress’ the Roman Catholics.

     Comment by jan — 4/2/2008 @ 12:00 am

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108. @Mat: From what source did you source your statement? I’ve always thought that Buddhism had the largest number of followers — being a dumb American and all — but according to multiple sources I found that Christianity is the largest faith with just over 2 billion. Varying sources list Islam second at 1.2 - 1.5 billion.

     Comment by Carl — 4/2/2008 @ 1:26 am

109. Thanks for a nice, straightforward post with relevant information. Why cant The Morning Edition ever take a minute to review these basic facts now and then?

     Comment by John Romero — 4/2/2008 @ 2:44 am

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111. Why should Every American have to know any of this crap? Why should Americans have to learn about Islam ? What a bunch of suckers you are.

     Comment by Sean — 4/2/2008 @ 3:02 am

112. I wonder how many Muslims know this?

     Comment by Andy Dabydeen — 4/2/2008 @ 3:42 am

113. Okay readers which US states make-up the Midwest? (it’s all opinion or perspective isn’t it?) Most Americans can’t even identify Indiana on a map. What’s the largest denomination in Nebraska? Who cares? Does it tell us whether any terrorist are lurking there?

     How many errors have been identified in this 17 paragraph post? We’re getting our “education” on the “Mideast” and Islam from an atheist who cites wikipedia. Doesn’t that explain the problem?

     Dear #100 “Absurd”, which religion blames God for humans ridiculously abhorrent atrocities? Which religion was Caesar, Lenin, Castro, Mao, etc. acting in the name of? “People of faith” are responsible for every major relief organization, educational institution, successful self-help group, political advancement and charity.

     Why can’t we all agree to leave the judging to God? If it is good it is from God, if it is not good, it is not from God - look it up on wikipedia!

     Daniel’s real problem is that he doesn’t trust democracy. Being 35 years of age and a natural born citizen isn’t enough of a qualification to be President of the US for him. You must be “educated” (or mis-educated) like he is. Democracy is a scary thing. Trust the people! With God’s help they’ll create (and keep creating) a MORE perfect union (world).

     Humble people of faith are not the problem - totalitarianism (a self appointed elite few who think they know more than everyone else) is!

     Comment by john tenten — 4/2/2008 @ 4:09 am

114. Wasn’t conflict in Northern Ireland about the protestants oppressing the catholics (ie. the English oppressing the Irish)????????

     Comment by jow bloe — 4/2/2008 @ 4:44 am

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116. I find it strange when people suggest that there is anything in common between Christian and Jew. Christ actually said he was not of this world, therefore, neither Jew nor Gentile. Besides, most self-styled Jews in our world today are Talmudic Jews whose scriptures are the most offensive to Christians. Whether one likes it or lumps it, the simple fact is that the nearest faith to Christianity is Islam. The Muslims acknowledge Christ as someone born of the Spirit of God and revere the Virgin Mary. In fact the earliest followere of the Prophet were Christians who thought he was preaching Christianity.

     Comment by Emmanuel St John — 4/2/2008 @ 5:42 am

117. Where do you get off thinking any of us care??? We are over there to take their oil, untarnish our image through rebuilding, then get the F out of there. We don’t need some psuedoreligious lesson, you once again assumed we all care about religion and made this nothing about religion. That is exactly why the middle east and any other religion torn part of the world, should live in their own personal hell. They are fighting/killing each other over beleifs that they don’t even know are true.

     Comment by A Rab — 4/2/2008 @ 6:20 am

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121. Hi your totaly right, im a Kuwaiti in the middle east, origanly from Iran, a third generation Kuwaiti, muslim and shia. The breakdown is complex and yes we do know that jews are our cousins in a way, but politics and media player a larger role in painting other pictures. Please feel free to contact me if you need a more unbaised view of the region. Plz know that our religion does not infuse hate, but our clerics spread what people wana listen to so they wont loose there jobs, wish we had clericswithoutborders.com. atleast we know they are not influenced with money.

     Comment by Qaiss — 4/2/2008 @ 8:55 am

122. [...] der Klarstellung: „Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion.„ in: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

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123. @108 don’t believe every statistic you read on the internet, buddhists are very underreported, the government of china estimate there are 600 million in China alone, and that fdoesn’t count all the other countries in Asia like india. The recent Vatican study had the worldwide number of buddhists at 320+ million.

     This native Texan thanks the author x1000 for this. I can’t recall the last time I saw it broken down in such elegant way. When you consider the political consequences of the teaching of even the most basic religious subject in American schools, I’m not surprised at all they never taught us any of this in my supposed honors world history classes or even basic geography or social studies back in High School. (i’m 25 now) it’s sad

     Comment by The Humble Texan — 4/2/2008 @ 9:38 am

124. Thanks for sharing.Before this i was knowing this wide range of classification in people of middle east.Classifying arabs & muslims,sunni & shia is all new to us . Great Post

     Comment by Leo F. Swiontek — 4/2/2008 @ 9:48 am

125. [...] His post continues to list quick bullets of info. One analogy I like is the Shia/Sunni is similar to Catholic/Protestant. While it may be an oversimplification, it is one that does provide for a quick ballpark understanding of the religious divide. [...]

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127. I thinks all this stuff is stupid and cannot believe that 70-80% of the world’s adults still believe in Santa Claus. I don’t so much care about the technicalities of any of them, because they make their moronic books say whatever they wish them to.

     ALL religions break down when confronted with science. Every single one.

     We, as world citizens, should be trying to educate people and improve ourselves. We should not be carping constantly about whose mythical being is better. It is embarrassing for mankind. We have real things to conquer like space travel and colonization, feeding the masses, and living cleaner on an obviously crowded planet.

     I don’t let any of them off the hook for their absurd thoughts in the face of facts. I don’t admire people that believe the unbelievable based on ‘faith’. Faith is just another way of saying ‘I have no reason to believe this but…’

     Comment by Doug — 4/2/2008 @ 12:05 pm

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129. “The term “Anti-Semite” was actually coined by the Nazi’s in specific reference to Jews, and therefore Anti-Semitism is clearly defined as anti-jewish hatred or policy.”

     The Nazis spoke German, not English.

     Comment by toneii — 4/2/2008 @ 12:44 pm

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132. I personally believe that the reason why most US Americans don’t know this is some people don’t have maps like The Iraq such as and every where such as

     Comment by S Carolina — 4/2/2008 @ 2:03 pm

133. It’s worth pointing out that antisemitism and anti-Semitism are now distinct terms. The term you use — antisemitism, minus hyphen and capitalization — refers specifically to hatred of Jews and Judaism and is divorced from the Semitic linguistic specification.

     Comment by Sam — 4/2/2008 @ 2:18 pm

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136. You’re absolutely wrong about the term “anti-semitism”. You are correct in stating that Jews and Arabs are both semitic ethnic groups. However, “anti-semitism” does not refer to prejudice against or hostility towards all people of semitic background. “Anti-semitism” is anti-Jewish prejudice/hostility. Language is funny sometimes, and words can mean different things than what they etymological background suggests they ought to mean. This term is by no means alone in being like that. However, it is what it is.

     Furthermore, since there’s no major phenomenon of prejudice against people of semitic background in general and specifically (that is, prejudice that is against all semites but not against any other groups), there’s not really a role for a term that would have that meaning. So there just isn’t a word for it.

     Comment by Cos — 4/2/2008 @ 6:46 pm

137. Another correction: Bahrain is majority Shia, and Kuwait is about 1/3 Shia, so it is incorrect to lump all the gulf emirates together as predominantly Sunni. Also, Yemen is probably close to half Shia, though I don’t know if there are accurate current numbers.

     Also, Syria, though predominantly Sunni, is dominated and ruled by a Shia splinter sect, the Alawites. Druze, numerous in both Syria and Lebanon, are also probably a Shia splinter sect. Neither of these are the same as the mainstream (”Imami”) Shia, but they’re certainly not Sunni either.

     Comment by Cos — 4/2/2008 @ 6:49 pm

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140. I think you all need some perspective. I find this sort of information interesting. As far as what every American should know…you might as well point out that every Iraqi should really understand the difference between the fundamentalist right and reformation (protestant) churches. People are busy leading their lives in every country, and have little time for even coarse distinctions like understanding Shia/Sunni (or Iranians understanding Lutheran/Catholic)Sorry folks, I’d like to be smug also, but I don’t have a 5 yr-old with 102 degree fever, while the baby is teething, and just lost my job, and the balloon mortgage is coming due, and there’s something wrong with the transmission, etc. I can read about the opium economy, and the relationship to Taliban (and this blog) because I have the luxury of time, a luxury you also share. With this luxury comes obligation that we should make better use of OUR time, not the right to criticize what others should know. Sorry. No righteous indignation.

     Comment by dave — 4/2/2008 @ 10:37 pm

141. “No matter what the Quaran might or might not condemn, one need only look at how radical Islam behaves in the world today to conclude they do not worship the same God as the peaceful Muslims, or Christians, or Jews.”

     So by following this logic, we could look at the acts of Hitler, Timothy McVeigh, and David Koresh as embodiments of Christianity, right?

     Comment by eilis — 4/2/2008 @ 11:13 pm

142. “This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand world events and, consequently, our ability to hold intelligent opinions about those events.”

     Exactly what world events are clarified by the knowledge provided in DMiessler’s post?

     I’m not going to defend ignorance here, but it is simply too easy to dismiss America’s problematic foreign policy by saying that Americans who support it are ignorant. As frightening and difficult as it may be for the author of that post to acknowledge, many Americans actively believe in spreading democracy through use of military power, and that America is the most important/powerful country in the world, and simply don’t agree with a morally and culturally relativistic point of view. Instead, maybe we need to have a more complex conversation about how U.S. presidential administrations since World War II have used fear and the media to leverage support for dangerous foreign policy and flawed patriotic ideology.

     But sure, let’s go ahead and promote the minimum, as you say, of knowledge, so that when a person is making an argument in support of continuing the war in Iraq, he’s sure not to be dismissed for wrongly using “Muslim” when he should have said “Islam.”

     Comment by stephanie — 4/2/2008 @ 11:42 pm

143. ‘Most people’ are not the ones watching Democracy Now! (unfortunately) and keeping up with national vs religious vs ethnic designations, ‘Most people’ ARE in fact lumpers together of these things especially when referring to the middle east. Yes, it DOES help to become familiar with these details, it helps to learn ANYTHING AT ALL more about the people around the world, Familiarity breeds understanding and compassion. To say any one of these groups stands for the rest of any of the others is like saying white people invaded Iraq, Catholics lead America or that Quebec is an average Canadian province.

     Thank you Mr. Miessler

     Comment by Morgan Mghee — 4/3/2008 @ 2:07 am

144. [...] - What Every American Should Know About the Middle East “… frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and most think [...]

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145. Islam does not worship the God of the Jews and Christians, as is obvious by the way we are taught. Taught, not the way we act, sadly. If Christians obeyed Jesus Christ in how we live, this would be more obvious, but we do not. As G.K. Chesterson said, “Chrisitanity is not a religion that has been tried and failed, it is a religion that has failed to be tried.”

     You cannot say that about Islam. Whether by peaceful means or war, Mohammad’s final hadith to them was to rule the world for Islam. He was a bloody man himself; read a bio of him — interesting. Get one by a Fr. J.L. Menezes (or Menzes; I have it both ways). He lived in the Mid East; spoke the language and knew the religion. Violence was never forbidden; Mohammad watched as all the men and older boys were slaughtered, over 700 of them. He watched it all with approval and took one of the woman as his wife. Having just killed her husband, at that!

     The sect of Islam we are fighting — and it’s THE jihad as friends of mine told me — is Wahhabi Islam, a branch of the Sunni sect. Wahhabi was the definer of this type of life, the very strict life we see in Saudi today. That’s the home of Islam, and it’s the home of Wahhabism. They mean to conquer the world; they were told to do so by Mohammad and they are obedient; they are a fiercely religious people. The terrorists are doing what they perceive to be exactly what Mohammad told them to do.

     Peaceful Muslims are those we know; they say little about the type of warfare we see because they do know it is part of their religion and that if they fight it, they and their families will be killed.

     As stated several times above, Islam does not worship the God of Israel, the God of the Jews and Christians. The things they do in the name of Allah are all the proof one should need.

     The difference between Islam and Christianity is easily defined by knowing the lives of Mohammad on the one hand, and of Jesus on the other. Their lives are exactly opposite one from the other. Mohammad preached death to all non-believers. Jesus told us to kill nobody; He did not change the Ten Commandments; He made them more strict. He is revered in Islam as a Prophet - a failed prophet.

     Oh, get “The Sword of the Prophet” by Serge Trifokovic. I know a good bit about Islam. Both from those I know and from studying it. Most want peace, but those others mean to conquer the world.

     Comment by Marianne — 4/3/2008 @ 11:12 pm

146. Their is two sides to each coin. All countries need to learn the differences of each and respect that difference. We are all brothers, it’s just how we were brought up that makes us truly different. I have found being a stumbleupon, that people themselves have a lot more in common. It’s our governments and religious leaders that create our prejudices. Strip those away and you will find most of us can communicate and get along very easily.

     Just like in every part other of the world, the voice one hears the loudest is usually the crazy ones, most of the good ones are silent or silenced by the crazy factions in each country.

     Comment by Neal — 4/4/2008 @ 1:27 am

147. “As stated several times above, Islam does not worship the God of Israel, the God of the Jews and Christians. The things they do in the name of Allah are all the proof one should need.”

     I’ve seen Christians bomb abortion clinics. What does what some people do mean in terms of the religion as a whole?

     “The difference between Islam and Christianity is easily defined by knowing the lives of Mohammad on the one hand, and of Jesus on the other. Their lives are exactly opposite one from the other. Mohammad preached death to all non-believers.”

     That’s just not true.

     Comment by Mark Chandler — 4/4/2008 @ 4:43 am

148. [...] Miessler wrote an interesting piece entitled “What every American should know about the Middle East“. The response was… shocking. High Five Daniel for trying to educate on a difficult [...]

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149. You are right. I thought that I knew a lot but it looks like I had a number of wrong ideas. I knew that Indonesians used to be Buddhists and then became Muslims.

     Comment by Amazon Herbs — 4/4/2008 @ 9:28 am

150. When in doubt, ask a Shia :). The Shias do not believe in the Imammate/Caliphate as being the property of the family of Muhammad, rather they believe that it should go to the right person for the job just like the Sunnis. The difference at that time was who the right person is. For Shias it happened to be Ali, the second cousin of Muhammad, for Sunnis it was Abu Bakr.

     Saying that it was a political difference that some how morphed into a religious difference is again wrong. In Islam, politics is part of religion. It is a social religion and therefore who you choose to follow as your leader is a religious decision. Sunnis chose to follow Abu Bakr and ended up spreading Islam through aggression. Shias chose to follow Ali and ended up spreading Islam through personal examples of piety and good will. All the wars fought by Muhammad were defensive and aggressive wars fought by Muslims (mostly for land grabbing under the pretext of religion) were fought under Abu Bakr and his predecessor.

     If the US can end up with a leader who lost the popular vote and who would lead us into an unpopular war that nobody wanted in this day and age, then so can the young nation of Islam over 14 hundred years ago.

     Comment by Abbas — 4/4/2008 @ 11:29 am

151. Justin –good job. Stating basically and simply distinctions that are unknown to the vast majority of people.

     Comment by Anthony Lallo — 4/4/2008 @ 3:56 pm

152. Marianne says Islam does not worship the God of Jews and Christians!!! Wow, I didn’t know that Christians and Jews share a God!!! Who is this God? Can you divulge His indentity?

     There is only one Almighty God. The Jews do not recognize His Son. The Muslims on the other hand, recognize Jesus as a prophet who was conceived, by the Virgin Mary, of the Spirit of God. So the Muslims have more in common with the Christians than the Jews who consider the Virging Mary a harlot and Jesus her illegitimate child who is rotting in hell in a cauldron of semen. Wake up sheeple, know your facts before peddling, unwittingly, distorted information.

     Comment by Emmanuel — 4/4/2008 @ 9:01 pm

153. sadfgsdfgasdfg

     Comment by dcbsdb — 4/4/2008 @ 9:13 pm

154. all terrorists…stay out of the US

     Comment by dcbsdb — 4/4/2008 @ 9:13 pm

155. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East (tags: Reference Travel) [...]

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156. [...] What Every American Should Know About The Middle East April 5, 2008 at 1:22 am | In History, Reference | Tags: culture, geography, History, middle east, Politics, Reference A 2-minute primer of the absolute minimum you should know about the Middle East. [...]

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157. Remarkable, well-thought out article. Thank you so much for the service you are doing.

     It is heartening to see that the comments are overwhelmingly positive and thoughtful. It gives me hope.

     If I may suggest, you might like to test yourself at a humorous, yet mildly educational poll I’ve made about “What you Know (or don’t Know) about Middle East Geography.” You can find it near the bottom of the home page of Math Mojo .

     All the best to you. Keep up the good work!

     Brian

     Comment by Brian — 4/5/2008 @ 3:59 am

158. [...] I was only aware of the beginnings of the Shia/Sunni rift in the most cursory way. Very interesting. [...]

     Pingback by 10 things every American should know about the Middle East at Like Spinning Plates — 4/5/2008 @ 4:12 am

159. Article Review: What Every American Should Know About The Middle East…

     I recently stumbled upon an amazing simple summary of a lot of facts that Americans don’t know about the Middle East…take 5 minutes and read up…it’s worth your time:

     What Every American Should Know About the Middle East…

     Trackback by The Journeyman Project: Blog Homepage — 4/5/2008 @ 7:13 pm

160. This is a great primer on the middle east, but there is far more to be learned about Islam and the Muslim faith that shouls scare the pants off of westeners. I refer anyone who is really interested in learning about this vile, sham of a religion to read the books by Robert Spencer…it will scare and enlighten you.

     Know this…Islam can NEVER live in peace with other religions, not has it ever done so. It’s Kuran and Hadith both define what can happen to ‘unbelievers”. Convert, become taxed slaves to Islam, or die! Pretty simple. Islam, which was founded by a Con man, pedophile, polymagy, murderer (Mohammed), was only spread by conflict, violence, and murder. It’s message did not convert, only the threat of death did.

     We as westeners and believers in Judism/Christianity, and those who folow the teachings of Isalam have a 21st century to decide what to do. Islam must refute it’s basic teachings of the “prophet” and learn to live in peaceful co-existance with other (non-believers), and westerners must come to the realization that if Muslims do not change…the only path is one ot total anihilation for one or the other.

     Scary, you bet. But those are the facts and the realizations that we of the west must face. There is nothing is the history of Islam that indicates that they “peacefully co-exist” with others. If they do it is only to buy time until they are strong enough to dominate through force. We have to stop giving in to them and demand that they change.

     Comment by Redrhino — 4/5/2008 @ 10:51 pm

161. [...] and probably even the Pentagon, lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region. What Every American Should Know About the Middle East __________________ Your memory is our keepsake, With which we’ll never part. God has you in his [...]

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162. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East 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. [...]

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163. [...] Miessler, On the Middle East April 7, 2008, 10:50 am Filed under: International Affairs 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 [...]

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164. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East 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. [...]

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165. great post, i did not read all 164 comments but i did notice the mention of womans rights/repression within the comments, i would like to say that women who cover their faces historically were the wives of the prophet and that is how they were distinguished from the rest of society, so in fact originally it was not a mode of oppression but rather of power and respect, that has been perverted by men to suit their own needs.

     Comment by Alex — 4/8/2008 @ 3:34 am

166. 1.Great post. 2.To Redrhino: All civilizations extended their borders in the same way but had different reasons, although you’re right about Islam (I know because its my religion) now you are scared of extremists because greedy western countries gave a lot of reasons to a lot of people to become terrorists.

     Comment by hussam — 4/8/2008 @ 10:42 am

167. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East Some of this information I already knew, some I did not. Everyone really should know this stuff. via Yewknee [...]

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168. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East Topics: Religion | Comments RSS [...]

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169. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East [...]

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170. [...] What every American should know about the Middle East. You could have looked it up on CIA World Fact Book and Wikipedia, but this makes it easy. [...]

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171. Hello, Nice list but I think #3 is a bit being a GrammerNazi :P

     By the way, although Turkey is grouped with Europe in many situations (football leagues 1st comes to mind :), many western people not only Americans still thinks us (Turks) as Arabs… imagining us acting, talking, dressing like Arabs.

     But Turks came from middle Asia!

     Take care & cheers…

     Comment by Ozhan — 4/13/2008 @ 5:28 pm

172. [...] http://dmiessler.com/blog/what-every-american-should-know-about-the-middle-east [...]

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173. [...] This blog post has a succinct writeup of important things you should know about the Middle East. Even if you’re reasonably well-informed, odds are there’s something new there. A couple of things that I had forgotten: [...]

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174. Re: Comment by jimmy james: Haven’t you heard of the Persian Gulf? Interestingly, some predominently Arab Nations (and specifically the GCC states) refer to it as the Arabian Gulf. The Iranians (and the remainder of the world, it seems) vehemently stick to Persian Gulf. The distinction is academic, but interesting nonetheless…

     Comment by Russell — 4/16/2008 @ 1:46 pm

175. [...] Miessler wrote a short, easy to read, one page article on his blog yesterday that impressed me. He gives a very quick and extremely basic introduction to the Middle [...]

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176. [...] hoping that most readers of my blog would be aware of the facts pointed out in this article, but just in case I thought I’d mention it anyway. It gives some clear and concise advice on [...]

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177. [...] What Every American Should Know About the Middle East [...]

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178. I stumbled across this right after reading “What every Muslim should know about the American infidels…” Now that I have my “Facts” straight, my fellow Americans and I can surely blog our way out of this 2000 year old arguement….really…really?

     Comment by Matthew South — 4/21/2008 @ 11:29 pm

179. All of the countries you talk about are dictatorships that oppress their people in one way or another and blame America and the west’s influence for all their hardships. The Arab nations have all the oil, the greatest natural resource in the history of mankind and are squandering it to build golden palaces for their kings. As far as I can see, they create nothing. However they pump plenty of oil and extremism into the world.

     When was the last time you saw two democracies go to war? NEVER. It doesnt happen. Before everyone jumps on me about how these Arab nations are democratic, do you know how you can easily tell if a country is truly democratic? Simply count the number of ex-leaders. In the USA we have quite a few ex-presidents living their lives. Name a single Arab nation that has even one ex-leader (ruler, king, “supreme-whatever”, etc) living their life in peace. There aren’t any because they either die naturally (while in power) or are overthrown by the next group of “revolutionists” and are killed.

     Seriously, please show me a single Arab country that can claim they have past presidents or prime ministers living in the land. Combine these facts with the entire culture’s romance with violence and it highlights the differences in Arab culture and western culture. The US sends bombing fighter jets to kill innocents and the US liberal population throws anti-war rallies. When innocent American’s are killed, you dont see Arabs upset and challenging their leaders, quite the contrary, you see Arabs cheering in the streets. Call it Sunni or Shia or Persian or whatever you want, I know of no other people that embrace the cult of violence and death the way that part of the world does. Public stonings? Honor killings? Beheadings? Barbaric.

     Comment by John Smith — 4/26/2008 @ 4:44 pm

180. [...] Check the link for more on that. A Short List of What Every American Should Know About the Middle East [...]

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181. “funny, in the orig. post you made a blunder…

     6 - “Arabs are Semites. … That includes both Jews and Arabs. ” then, 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.”

     you just used Arabs to describe Muslims!!!…duh!”

     The Old Testament was written before there where any Muslims or Christians, for that matter!!! duh!

     Comment by Zanj — 5/2/2008 @ 11:39 pm

182. Interesting post, but incredibly over-simplified. People have already pointed out that Syria may have a Sunni majority, but it is dominated by Alawites, which, while they split off from Shi’a, might not even be considered Muslim–similar to Druze who do not consider themselves Muslim. I am also somewhat cynical of the comparison between Sunni and Protestant, which implies that Sunni is more “reform-minded” and “moderate” than clerical Shi’a. In fact, Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia is far more extreme than Shi’a in Iran. Finally, Semite is a language grouping–there is no “racial” background to it, so saying that all Semites are related is nonsense. In fact, Hebrew and Arabic are closely related to Amharic and various other African languages as well, but they are not considered “Semites.”

     You are right though. People in America should learn more about the Muslim and the Arab world, especially with its prominence today. Ibn Warraq is a good place to start.

     Comment by Danny — 5/5/2008 @ 2:28 am

183. Excellent Work. Every American should should have a

     map showing the geographical distribution of, and the distinction between, Towelheads and Sandniggers.

     Cheers:

     ratsarsed

     Use a rotary telephone and never need to Press # 1 to Speak English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEJfS1v-fU0

     Comment by ratsarsed — 5/17/2008 @ 12:58 am

184. This is all good and well thought out. Mind you, from one person who knows and respects not just the muslim culture but all cultures, it is nearly impossible to educate an entire American society when most of them dont even know that they are HATED across the world statistically. Why not promote a campaign explaining to the world that most americans simply accept others way of life and PERHAPS just MAYBE they should try it on for size. Everyone is so wrapped up in their own realities, its pathetic. We humans fighting each other when given another scenario (like donating blood for example) actually have the ability to save eachothers lives. Its sad. I know the point of this but it does not get across the point we American must all promote. Acceptance and willingness to help when asked. Just love. We still love in America. People outside of America dont know this.

     Comment by Stina of the beautiful Illiniose — 6/25/2008 @ 7:47 pm

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186. [...] 2, 2008 Daniel Miessler: Most in the United States don’t know much about the Middle East or the people that live there. [...]

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