The order of the Middle East has been constantly warped in history. What is the relationship between religion and the Middle East

 

The Middle East is the birthplace of the world's three major religions.

The abundance of prophetic absolute views has always characterized the region. The Middle East is steeped in dreams of its former glory while incapable of reaching a consensus on shared principles of national order or international legitimacy.

 

By the end of the 6th century AD, the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires controlled most of the Middle East. There has been an ongoing conflict between the two empires for hundreds of years.

In AD 602, Persia invaded Byzantine territory, sparking a 25-year war. The victory of Byzantium achieved a peace that statesmen had failed to achieve.

 

Meanwhile, Muhammad and his followers formed a community that unified the Arabian peninsula and then proceeded to replace the prevailing faith in the region with a religion based on the revelations he received.

The subsequent expansion of the Arabs brought Islam to many other areas, and the Islam that came with merchants or conquerors established its religious dominance.

 

Islam is unlike any other society in history in that it is expansive and in some ways extremely egalitarian. It prescribes frequent daily prayers and turns faith into a way of life. It emphasized the unity of religious and political power, thereby turning the expansion of Islam from an imperial enterprise into a sacred obligation.

Driven by the belief that expansion will unify and bring peace to all mankind, Islam is both a religion, a multi-ethnic superstate, and a new world order.

Islam defines two concepts: the place that will be governed by Islam or the area that is controlled by Islam and pays tribute to non-Muslims, is considered a single political unit and is called the "House of Islam" ("Place of Peace") ; The area outside the "House of Islam" is the "land of conquest". Islam's mission is to bring these "lands of conquest" into its own world order.

The resulting war is called "jihad", but the meaning of "jihad" is not only a military strategy but also the use of other means to save others and spread the teachings of Islam.

 

 

The evolution within the Islamic world is more complex.

After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the major Islamic powers split into two factions: one faction seeks to join a new worldwide international order based on the state as an important member, which not only confirms its own religious beliefs but also separates religious beliefs from foreign policy issues; The other, based on a strict interpretation of the traditional Islamic concept of world order, sees itself in the midst of a struggle for the succession of world power.

 

The early Islamic empire was gradually broken down into multiple power centers during its expansion.

The succession crisis that followed Muhammad's death split Islam into Sunni and Shia sects. This is a fundamental divide in the contemporary Islamic world.

Sunni, the successor is Abu; Shia, the successor is Ali. Since Ali was later killed by mobs in a rebellion, Sunnis supported the faction that calmed down the situation in order to restore order in the Islamic world.

 

After Europe repelled the first wave of Muslim expansion, it curbed the momentum of Islam's conquest of the world. With the temporary return of the Byzantines to the Middle East, Western concepts were brought into areas under Islamic rule.

The "Crusades" pushed back the western frontiers of Islam into North Africa. In the 13th century, the Ottoman Empire expanded. Subsequently, the Ottoman Empire gradually became ossified, and it joined the European balance of power as a temporary member of the Westphalian international order at the end of the 19th century.

 

In 1924, the secular leaders of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic who pursued nationalism abolished the Caliphate, the main system of pan-Islamic unity, and announced the establishment of a secular state. Since then, the Islamic world has been caught in a dilemma between the winning Westphalian system and the unrealized concept of the "Islamic House".

The Arabs took the concept of sovereignty and state and made it their own. At this time, two opposing trends emerged: "Pan-Arabism" and "politicized Islam".

 

From today's perspective, the Middle East has little room for development under such a background, but even so, the Middle East has gradually formed a temporary reconciliation relationship with the contemporary international order under the background of authoritarian nationalism.

The "Arab Spring" initially appeared as a new generation's uprising for freedom and democracy, but it was quickly suppressed. The "Arab Spring" actually exposed rather than eliminated the internal contradictions in the Arab-Islamic world and the contradictions contained in the policies aimed at resolving them.

In the name of peace, democracy, and maintenance of security, the United States took the initiative to participate in the "jihad" in the Islamic world in the Middle East and played an important role in it. A new order needs to be established in the region to maintain long-term security and peace in the region, instead of being under the control of extremism for a long time.

 

Iran holds a different concept of order than the United States.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has declared that the so-called "Arab Spring" in other parts of the world is actually an "Islamic awakening" with a global impact. This reawakening of Islamic consciousness is triggering a global religious revolution that will eventually defeat the domineering US and its allies.

Khamenei once elaborated: The popular protests in the West show that the world yearns for the spirit and legitimacy represented by Iran's theocracy. Iran's supreme leader has declared that universal religious principles, not national interests or liberal internationalism, will predominate in the new world he predicts will come.

 

Among all countries in the Middle East, Iran's national consciousness should be the longest and most coherent, and its tradition of governing the country based on national interests is also the most complete and complex. The country of Iran was established on the basis of the Persian Empire. In terms of culture, religion, and geopolitical concepts, Iran has retained the particularity of its historical traditions and the characteristics of being a member of the region.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran as the "supreme leader" of the revolution. Khomeini declared that the Westphalian principles on which modern international relations depend cannot be established, because "relations between states should be based on religious beliefs" and should not be based on the principle of national interests.

 

Khomeini's principles of the Islamic Republic were put into practice. At the beginning of its establishment, a series of trials were held, a group of blasphemers was executed, and the comprehensive suppression of various religious minorities far exceeded the authoritarian regime of the Pahlavi Shah. Amidst the turmoil, a new contradiction emerged, manifested as a double challenge to the international order.

In the Iranian revolution, an Islamic movement dedicated to overthrowing the Westphalian system seized control of a modern state while at the same time exercising its "Westphalian" rights and privileges.

 

On the issue of overthrowing the existing world order, Sunnis and Shia Muslims basically agree. The conviction that Islam will reorder and ultimately rule the world resonates with those who recast Iran as the birthplace of the religious revolution.

Future relations between Iran and the United States depend, at least in the short term, on the resolution of what appears to be a technical military issue. The traditional balance of power emphasizes military and industrial power. The proliferation of deliverable nuclear weapons will inevitably greatly affect the regional balance of power and the international order and trigger a series of escalating countermeasures.

The United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council have been negotiating with Iran for more than a decade to prevent Iran from acquiring such capabilities. But the facts show that Iran's nuclear capabilities are growing steadily. At the same time, the position of Western countries is gradually softening.

 

In Iran, the nuclear issue is seen as one aspect of a broader struggle over regional order and ideology. Iran's goal is to break the state system in the Middle East and drive out Western influence.

Iran and the United States ally with the same interests, only because the Iranian government adopted the concept and rhetoric of "jihadists" and directly attacked the interests of the United States and its concept of international order.

The U.S. needs to act as an orderly figure based on changes in international relations and deal with Iran's tough attitude.