Middle East Violence - Part I

I was asked the question if Islam is such a peaceful religion, then why all the wars and terrorism in the middle east. Although I am not a historian or a professional politician, I have lived in the region long enough to understand some of the dynamics that can be linked to its problems. Nothing I would write here could be novel for this issue has been over covered, but I will try to lay it down from the perspective of a regular Egyptian American.

It is hard to know where to start as it started a long time ago when the Egyptian empire that was the envy of the world at that time was getting weak enough for all the greedy neighbors to forcefully snatch part of the Egyptian treasures. Egypt fill victim to numerous invaders that ruled for thousands of years. The latest of these were the British who stayed in Egypt from 1882 until 1954. The same fate was that of most the countries in the middle east, but I will keep the Egyptian perspective as much as I can. Egypt during the period of the occupation was a very secular society. There was always the religious class, but adhering to the religious beliefs did not seem to be that wide spread among the middle class. Although I am not that old to have witnessed this era myself, books, stories and movies do reflect these previous observations. The modern era of wars in the middle east had already started before the British army left Egypt with the 1948 war. This was the first war with Israel. Israel was a newly established country sanctioned by the British on the Palestinian land that was controlled by the British at the time. This war cemented Israel in the area. The second war was in 1956 and it was a reaction to the nationalization of the Suez Canal by the young nationalistic president Nasser. There was no religious roots to that war in which Israel, France and Britian attacked Egypt to regain control of the canal. The war failed to achieve its objectives and established Nasser as an Arabic nationalistic hero. Nasser's second war with Israel was the 6 days war in 1967. A war that was and still is a disaster to the Arabic countries. Israel took control of the west bank, Gaza, Sinai desert and Parts of Syria during this war. Apart from Sinai, Israel still controls this seized land until today. This again was not a religious war, but rather a political war. This is when it starts getting more interesting as religion is mixed with politics. Israel now seized control of the holy city of Jerusalem. A city that is claimed holy by all the 3 religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. From the perspective of Egypt, it was a big insult to lose this miserably and have the Sinai desert under occupation. There still was no large religious movements in Egypt during this period 1967 - 1973. Nasser died and Sadat became the president. He continued the efforts of building the Egyptian military to avenge the disaster of 1967. In October 6th, 1973 the fourth major war erupted as Egypt tried to win back the lost land and the Egyptians were on the move. They were winning the war against Israel, but with the help of the US and mistakes from the Egyptians, the tide was turning and the Egyptians had to agree to a call to halt the war. Sadat realizing that militarily it does not seem possible to win back the land, he started negotiating with Israel. A step that eventually returned Sinai to Egypt, but was also a move that isolated Egypt from the Arab world. Sadat was a hero in the western world, but was a very controversial figure within Egypt. It may not be known to many that Sadat may have been the main mentor for religious radicalism in Egypt which led to his eventual demise in 1981. This will be discussed in part II, but to sum this part, it can be seen that the major wars in the middle east were driven mostly by nationalistic drives, self-defense and self-preservation rather than religious beliefs.