Borders and the Middle East

      With all the talk on borders in the past few days my thoughts keep going back to the Middle East and the effect borders have had on this area. This is appropriate because I am taking a Middle Eastern Geography class at the same time I am taking this Political Geography class. Most of the countries in the Middle East did not become independent nations until the twentieth century even though the region was the location of most of the world's most ancient human cultures. I believe that this goes to show that borders are primarily a Western construction. Most of the borders were laid out due to European colonization. This makes most of the borders either antecedent, subsequent, or superimposed with the actual inhabitants of the Middle East having little to do with their borders. To this day the Middle East exhibits characteristics of not being able to be controlled by borders. An obvious example of this would be the United States attempt to control Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. Looking through the eyes of a Middle Eastern person one can soon see why the region seems to be so opposed to borders and why they are not organized the way the West wants them to be. The effect of empires, tribes, and most importantly religion have made the region what it is today and opposed it to the western ideas of borders.
      The Middle East area has hosted just about every great empire throughout history. From the Hittites, to the Persians, to the Romans, to the Mongols, the Middle East has seen it all. The region is used to some empire coming in and ruling them. And many of these empires still have cultural influences on the region today. Of course every empire had different ideas about how to rule them: sometimes the ruling empire would make these people little more than slaves, other times the ruling empire altered their way of life very little. The point is that the region was ruled by others for thousands of years and was not used to the idea of independent states. The idea of turning them into states all started in the Netherlands with Hugo Grotius. The Dutch needed the construction of borders and countries in order to compete economically in the region with other nations. The Middle East was rich in resources from their silk road. Europe wanted in on this and they needed borders for this to happen. It was not until the twentieth century, mostly after WWI, that these nations started becoming independent. And so, all of a sudden, when this region had been told what to do by giant empires for thousands of years, they are told to govern themselves. I think this could explain some of the messes going on there now. The only thing I am surprised about is that one nation has not rose up and conquered the whole thing.
      Next we must discuss tribes. Tribes are another system which has been present in this area for thousands of years. You remain loyal to your tribe and the tribe will provide for you. They will give you a job, a wife, a house and everything you need simply by being born into it. The Western idea of moving out and starting on your own with nothing, the "self-made man", is not present in this region. One's loyalty to his tribe comes before his patriotism to his country. This is another reason that borders do not matter much in this country.
      One simply cannot truly discuss the Middle East unless one talks about religion and the influence of Islam on this area. Like one's loyalty to ones tribe, one's adherent to his religion comes before his patriotism to his country. Islam encompasses every aspect of their lives from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. I cannot help but respect them for this. I know that this sounds like a radical thing to say coming from an American but as a Christian I cannot help but admire them for being so devout in their faith and following the five pillars so zelously. I feel like there are not as many "luke-warm" Muslims as there are Christians, though I could be completely wrong on this.
      The one thing the entire Middle East is united in is hatred for Israel. This succeeds all borders. I believe this is an example of where religion is a bigger player than borders in the Middle East.
       Egypt recently had a revolution. After they overthrew the president they elected an extreme Islamic fundamentalist leader, Mohamed Morsi. I got a chance to do a video chat with Egyptian students in my Middle East class the other day. They spoke of how the political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was using religion to manipulate the people, telling them they would go to heaven if they elected this president and so on. The students were frustrated by this and they were in favor of a more liberal candidate. This last example greatly shows the influence of religion on the country. I do not know that a tactic like this would work in America. I believe it will take a long time in the Middle East for borders to not take a back seat to religion, tribes, and the influence of empires on the region.