Do you think there would be so much trouble in the Middle East if it wasn't so full of poverty?

Question

I'm beginning to think that, while religion may seem like the reason for the strife there, the real reason has deeper, social/economic roots. Anyone else agree, or have anything to back up my hunch?

Wow, for someone with "sense" in your name, you have very little of it.

Here's a link for you, brahden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa#Effects_of_widespread_poverty

Answer 1

I went to college with a brilliant Iranian. A close friend of mine is a brilliant Doctor and Psychiatrist. She is a Muslim and an American. She is the daughter of a man who was the democratically elected President of Syria for 4 years before Assad overthrew him. She skipped grades and had her medical degree by the age of 20, from the University of Baghdad.

I state this since we spoke about the mideast often, and I respected the opinions I was given.

Poverty always causes unsettled people, and the mideast is not the only area with poverty.

Militant religionism is a factor. For example, the revolutionary war might not have happened if Thomas Paine did not rabble-rouse the early americans to prepare to fight for freedom against England. There is a lot of militant rabble-rousing going on in the mideast. That is a problem, and we are supplying the ammunition.

Next, Americans are so self-focused that they cannot understand somehow how they impact other people. For example, if the French, during the revolutionary war, killled 100,000 Americans, because they suspected them of being tories and British sympathizers, well all Americans would have been fighting the French. What are we doing to the Iraqi's? We have killed over 100,000 civilians, and who knows how many so called terrorists (so called tories). It is a stupid war and Muslims will hate us for it.

Last, I like this quote:

“It is excellent to have a giant’s strength! But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” – William Shakespeare

We are mandating to other countries, publically, what they can and cannot do. We are acting like a tyrannt in the world. And like most people with some pride, they are angry about it. They do not want to be bullied.

Sorry, but we need to be the shining light on the hill, the beacon of freedom and of wealth in the world. We need to withdraw from foreign affairs and regain our reputation. We need to send people to all parts of the world and not arms and not money that is mis-used.

Just a thought!

Answer 2

Gosh, I'm not sure it's possible just to say that there's poverty in the Middle East. The rich in the Middle East are among the richest in the world - all that oil isn't being given away, you know. Possibly more the case that there is massive economic inequality - the rich are super-rich, and if the poor aren't super-poor (which is a category of poverty reserved for Africa), then by golly they're a lot further away from the rich than the poor are from the rich in, say, Nigeria.

I hate to roll out an old cliche, but the likelihood, as I see it, is that the strife in the Middle East arises from the ambition for riches, and this plays into territorial politics - and it's to do with oil. Everyone wants what the oil there will bring in terms of riches, both the populations living there and the consumers of oil (which is us). One of Bin Laden's grievances against the west was the territorial dominance of America in Saudi Arabia, a country whose oil wealth he believed should be exclusively in the hands of Arabs. He hates America not because they have elections and don't have Sharia law, but because Exxon and Texaco get a great chunk of Saudi's oil revenues, feeding into the US economy, with the bulk going into the pockets of the insanely rich Saudi royal family. (It is also an Arab view that Israel exists in the region in order to impose Western control over weaker Arab states using American funding to minimize instability that might disrupt the oil supply to the West - I really don't want to get into that one though.)

So without wishing to contradict you, it's not in my view that the Middle East is so full of poverty that's the problem - it's that it's so full of (oil) wealth.

Answer 3

Poverty is a byproduct of greed and desire for power and control....the more you have people with this desire the more there is going to be a universal counterbalance......poverty

The problem is that traditional Eastern religions preach a certain oneness and understanding of spirit ...a higher knowing attainable by anyone that believes they can attain it...but many people become poor trying to attain it.....something such as this is completely foreign to western religions because modern western religions (Christianity) have integrated in it a way to keep control and order by limiting the way people think with stuff called Dogma.....Now this also exists in Islam but only certain sects...
.thats the problem with western comprehension of eastern traditions......we like to group together stuff we really don't understand nor have the desire to try and learn about it......when in reality there are lots of good sects of the Muslim faith just like there are good sects of the christian faith......its the old saying " a few bad apples spoil the bunch" approach both sides have chosen to take as a result.

Answer 4

I think you've got an intelligent argument there. But I'd have to disagree. That area of the world is so overzealous that they would do the most horrible things to those that disobeyed THEIR religion. It's so messed up. They think it's "evil" for women to dress the way they do in the United States because that's what their religion teaches. I don't think they should care how the women here dress, since they don't own this country or its people. That's just one of the examples of how much a hold religion has on those poor people. I feel so bad for them.

Answer 5

Where is all the money going that is coming from the sale of oil from the middle east ? We are talking about trillions of dollars every year, and it's all going Into the hands of a few people who don't want to share it with their own muslim brothers and sisters. Who's fault is that?

Answer 6

Poverty has alot to do with it but who is going to get the people out of poverty? It is the responsibility of their governments, most of whom are quite rich. If their governments do not care... then who does the task fall on? I'm sure the liberal answer is that middle America should donate all they have for the cause. I prefer the simpler solution of eradicating all life in the region.

Answer 7

If the Middle East had more riches, there wouldn't be so much un-happiness.. Yes, you are so accurate. The poor children that go without and then the parents start to blame. It is a blame game and so sad. Wish I could think of a way to make it better.

Answer 8

No thats irrelevant, there are places with greater poverty then the middle east The Palatines would see more wealth if it weren't for the Israelis, You are trying too hard to be tolerant of religion and it is blinding you to the facts.

Answer 9

not only poverty dear!! there's illiteracy which is a HUGE problem, people who can't read or write especially those who live in the country side are more vulnerable to become extreme, they absorb what leaders say like a sponge so, if they meet a radical religious leader they more likely to become radical themselves.


the problem in the middle east isn't religious, Israel is driving people crazy, they see their brothers and sisters of Palestine slaughtered every day and no one can do any thing to help them.
governments like Egypt, Jordan and Saudis are dictatorships and dont allow any freedom of speech people are being pressured every day.
the crooked governments are FULLY responsible for all this.
do you think any of the American aid reaches the every day people of the middle east? think again!! the politicians steal them and the people still suffer and die of hunger.

people in the middle east are very simple people. very friendly and very naive. the slightest thing gets them angry and the slightest thing brings a smile to their faces.

all the wars and death and destruction in their region have turned them off. they feel persecuted by their governments and the entire world. they feel like every one is against them and they dont even know what they did wrong.

my heart bleeds when i think of them, i lived in Egypt for many years and i know how these people feel first hand.

peace.

Answer 10

Poverty in the Middle east?

They have Rich and poor. No middle class.
They do bring it onto themselves.
If they had the freedom of choice, I am sure life would be great.

JT has to go back farther than recent history.
War has been in the Middle east longer than the US and Britian.

History has shown the Islam culture to be poor and they keep themselves that way.
JT has got to go back farther than yesterday.
Do you remember who controlled the land of Isreal prior to the Jewish state?
Muslims.
The have been fighting far more than G. Bush could have seen.