The Middle East is a place where religion plays a significant role all the way from Casablanca to Tehran. The vast majority of the people who live there adhere to one of the three monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, or Christianity. Islam has by far the largest number of adherents, with all nations in the Middle East but Israel having Moslem majorities. Lebanon is the only other nation with even a significant non-Muslim population; around 30 percent are Christians. Even in Israel, the site of the origins of Christianity, only 3 percent of the present population are Christians today.

A religion shape values and defines political parameters. There are, to be sure, considerable differences between leaders in the Middle East on the degree to which religion influences their political decisions. They range from the King of Saudi Arabia, where religion is closely intertwined with politics, to the president of Syria, where the ruling Ba’athist Party is secular, and religion plays a comparatively minor role in Syrian politics. Still, despite the differences, religion plays an important role in Middle Eastern politics, and it is important to understand something about at least the major religion in the region in order to understand its imprint on politics there.

Religion is often portrayed as a source of war and internal conflict in the Middle East, more so there than in other parts of the world. That, though, raises the question as to what causes wars in the first place. This question has produced a vast body of literature, far to large to summarize here. Suffice it to say here that none of these theories of war causation mentions religion as a reason why war may occur. Religion may contribute to the passions that ignite war, and it may inspire warriors to fight, as evidenced by such things as Egyptian soldiers crying "God is Great" as they crossed the Suez Canal to fight the Israelis on the other side in 1973. But wars are not fought over theology, they are fought for power, or in response to fear, or from greed – greed for land, for wealth, for size. These factors have all contributed to war in the Middle East. That the participants may be of different religious belief may give the appearance that war is fought over those beliefs, but that is no more the case than was the U.S. – Japanese war between 1941 and 1945 was a war between Christianity and Shinto.

It is true that Islam and Judaism, two of the significant religions of the Middle East, have co-existed since the beginning of Islam in the 7^th Century. It is also true that Jews living in predominately Islamic areas were subject to certain restrictions, such as paying a tax, or jizya, to the Muslim community, or in their dress or in the buildings they constructed. It is also true that some Islamic dynasties, such as the Almohads in Morocco, or the Safavids in Persia were particularly harsh in their treatment of Jews. But it is also true that Jews were often integrated into Islamic communities, and served as court physicians and advisors to Islamic courts. It is also true that Jews suffered much less under Islamic rule than they generally did under Christian rule.

Islam. Islam is the recognized title of the religion whose adherents believe that God revealed testimony to the Prophet Muhammad during his lifetime. That testimony, recorded in the Holy Qur’an, along with lessons from the life of the Prophet, make up the core beliefs of Islam. The term Islam in Arabic translates as "to submit," meaning that devotees of Islam submit to the will of God, in Arabic, Allah. A Muslim is one who believes in and adheres to the basic tenants of Islam.

A large majority of the world’s Muslims believe that identity with the religion comes from practice. They specify five fundamental practices that all Muslims should observe. These are:

1. The shahadah, or testament of faith (literally, "there is no God but God, and Muhammad is His Messenger.")

2. Prayer, or salat, usually five times a day at prescribed times.

3. Observance, or siyam, of the holy month of Ramadan, during which time Muslims must not eat, drink, or engage in sex during daylight hours.

4. Performance of the Ha’aj, the religious journey to the city of Mecca at least once during one’s lifetime.

5. Zakat, or alms giving, or sharing ones wealth with those less fortunate.

The vast majority of the world’s Muslims, though, hold to the five pillars as accepted practices and beliefs. But the five pillars are not the only tenants of Islam; there are others, though not all are universally accepted by Muslims. They include:

A taboo against eating pork, which is widely followed by Muslims (and Jews as well).

A taboo against the consumption of alcohol, which is followed selectively. In some Muslim countries, the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol are forbidden, and violators are punished. This is the case in some of the Gulf nations, like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, although alcohol is allowed in neighboring Bahrain. Wine and beer are produced widely in most Islamic nations outside the Gulf, though in many of those nations there is Islamist pressure to curtail the practice.

A prohibition on charging interest on money loaned, considered exploitation in Islam. In some Islamic nations banks must find other ways to be profitable, including imposing service charges or to pay returns from profit/loss returns. In other Islamic nations interest charging is allowed.

A belief that the Qur’an is the last word from Allah revealed to Muhammad in Arabia because the community of Arabs there had become ignorant of God’s earlier messages to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. They view these earlier figures as messengers, though, and, in the case of Jesus, that view provokes a controversy. Muslims hold that if one accepts the phrase "there is no God but God…" then by definition God cannot have progeny. They hold that Jesus was human, and chosen by God to reveal earlier messages to humankind. They also believe that God would not let a messenger die by crucifixion.

Muslims believe that the life of the Prophet hold lessons for them, since it was Muhammad whom Allah chose to reveal the messages recorded in the Qur’an. These lessons are referred to as the Sunnah, or "way" of the Prophet. Muhammad himself was born in the trading city of Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia in 570 CE. Orphaned at an early age, he was adopted by an uncle who introduced him to the world of the merchant and the caravan. When he reached adulthood he became a merchant himself, and a notable citizen in Mecca. He married early, to a widow, Kadisha, and had two daughters, one of whom, Fatima would marry his cousin ‘Ali. Muhammad was a contemplative man who sometimes left the bustle of the city to meditate in a cave south of Mecca. There, according to tradition, around 610 CE the Angel Gabriel visited him there, and told that he had been chosen to receive God’s word. Initially convinced that he was going mad, he began to realize that he had been chosen to be God’s messenger, and for the next twenty years he continued to receive messages that he would reveal only to a small group of followers at first. They would be recorded by these followers as the Qur’an. Part of the message was to disseminate the messages to the community and to bring them into the flock. But many citizens in Mecca resisted Mohammed’s teaching, and he had to fight to preserve his small flock. His ultimate triumph over them was indicative of the need to fight to protect and advance the cause of Islam, and became the tradition of holy war, or jihad. In his later years it is said that Muhammad journeyed by night on a mythical animal to Jerusalem, where he ascended from the site of Abraham’s offer of sacrifice into the heavens, and there received the final revelations. The Dome of the Rock now marks the site where he is believed to have ascended.

The holy book for Muslims is the Qur’an, the written collection of the revelation given to Muhammad. The Qur’an has never been revised, for to do so would be to alter the unalterable word of Allah. It contains 114 chapters, or "surahs," and is arranged in order of the length of each surah, with the longer chapters coming first. Muslims believe that the true Qur’an exists only in the Arabic language. They claim that God sought an Arabic speaker to reveal messages that were then written into Arabic script. Thus many non-Arabs learn written Arabic to enable them to read the Qur’an. Some Muslims regard Arabic itself as sacred script, and to insure that human feet cannot trample upon a piece of Arab writing, carefully discard old newspapers in Arabic so that they do not wind up on the street.

There is discussion about the authenticity of the Qur’an, as there is about other holy texts. Some argue that parts of it appear to have been written before Muhammad, and, more importantly, that its interpretation should be literary rather than literal. The Qur’an, in other words, is a document that can be interpreted to have different meanings, as opposed to absolute law, a single meaning in its surahs. These questions can be deeply disturbing to orthodox Muslims, who regard the Qur’an as the unambiguous word of Allah.

Sunna and Shi’ia Branches of Islam. Sunni Islam has no formal priesthood or other structure of leadership. But at the time of the Prophet’s death in 632 CE, there was no human successor who could lead the small band of Muslim followers. The community decided to select the Prophet’s closest companion and father-in-law Abu Bakr (the father of A’isha, whom Muhammad married after the death of his first wife, Kadisha) as his successor, or Caliph. Abu Bakr only lived for two more years, and upon his death the second Caliph was chosen by the same method. He was ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, who lived for ten years, and participated in the conquest of Jerusalem. When he died in 644 CE the third Caliph, ‘Uthman ibn Awwam served until 656, when he was murdered by a deranged Christian. Only then was the first relative of the Prophet, ‘Ali ibn abu Talib, the husband of Mohammed’s daughter Fatima by Kadisha, and Mohammed’s cousin, chosen as the successor. This selection was challenged, though, by a rival from the Umayyad clan, Mu’awiya, a cousin of Caliph ‘Uthman, who had moved to Damascus with another group of Muslims, including A’isha, who had a dispute with ‘Ali. Mu’awiya also disagreed with the succession of ‘Ali, believing it to have been supported by those who murdered ‘Uthman. ‘Ali agreed to discuss the succession decision after his forces and those of Mu’awiya met at the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE. ‘Ali’s soldiers showed little will to fight, and thus negotiations began between the parties that would last a year. This enraged one of ‘Ali’s followers, who murdered him in 661 CE. His son, Husayn ‘Ali took up his father’s cause, and moved to the city of Karbala, now in southern Iraq. Mu’awiya decided to eliminate this rival, and sent an army under Yasid to Karbala, and in 680 CE Yasid’s forces crushed the small group under Husayn ‘Ali, and beheaded its leader. The survivors, now calling themselves the "Partisans of ‘Ali," or Shi’ia ‘Ali, fled into Persia, where they would never be able to challenge again the dominant role of the Sunna.

This may seem like a small incident in the total scope of human history to define a religious sect and its separateness from the Sunna. But, as Ajami notes, "Kerbala cast a long shadow; for the faithful it annulled time and distance. Succeeding generations had told and embellished the tale, giving it their sense of separateness and political dispossession." It also contributes to a sense among the Shi’ia that their role is to continue the tradition of suffering and martyrdom epitomized by Ali and his son.

Today the Shi’ia make up around 10 percent of the world’s total Islamic population. However they are a majority in Iran, Bahrain, and Iraq, and make up significant minorities in Lebanon and Egypt. They are often included in the lower income categories, and sometimes live in dilapidated neighborhoods bereft of even the most fundamental services.

The Sunna. Both Sunni and Shi’ia practice the fundamentals of Islam. For both the Qur’an is their holy book. Yet there are differences that date back to the question of succession after the death of the Prophet in 632 CE. They remain divided on the selection of the early caliphs. The Sunni followed the first three caliphs, and ultimately rejected the selection of ‘Ali. They take their name from the phrase "ahl al–sunnah wa-l-jamma’ah," which in Arabic means "peoples of custom and community." They believe in the election of the caliph by members of that community, while the Shi’ia believe that the caliph, whom they refer to as the "imamship" is nonelective and should remain within the family of the Prophet. That distinction has blurred over the centuries, but it has also led to another distinction between Sunna and Shi'ia. The Shi'ia have a formal leadership structure while the Sunna do not. In Sunna practice imam, or "prayer leader" leads the prayers in the mosque, but that person can be chosen from among the community. In Shi'ia tradition the Imam, (coming from the term "righteous individuals," or al-imama) is more than a prayer leader; he (for the role can only be male) is also considered as a jurist, particularly for members of the Twelver Shi'ia community. But all members of the Shi'ia hold that the role of Imam as a jurist, and thus a political leader, is important. The jurist must understand the Qur’an in all its manifestations (including the "five pairings" of verses), and the various forms of hadith.

Is there still a schism between the followers of Shi’ia and Sunni Islam? Despite efforts to cement ties between the two interpretations (like the 1959 fatwa, or religious instruction, by Al Azar University in Cairo declaring Shi’ia as the fifth school of Islamic jurisprudence (see below), problems continue. They occur mostly in Islamic nations where the Shi’ia are a significant minority or majority of the population. In Saudi Arabia, for example, where the Shi’ia may be eight percent of the total population, intolerance from the majority Wahabi regime remains a problem. The problem is much more serious in Iraq, where the minority Sunni regime of Saddam Husayn has waged open warfare on the Shi’ia in the South.

Schools of Sunna Jurisprudence. Islamic law, designed to regulate the behavior of both individual Muslims and the Muslim community, has many sources. The first and most basic is the Qur’an itself, and the second is the sunna, or way of the Prophet. The third way of knowing Islamic law is through a study of the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet in order to establish consistent meanings of those sources. However, confusion arose in the Umayyad period when qadis, or religious judges, had considerable leeway to interpret the law. By the eighth century, legal scholars attempted to provide legal guidance, and those efforts resulted in four Sunni schools of law.

The first school was the Hanifi, named after its founder, Abu Hanifah (d. 767 CE). The Hanifi school has spread throughout the Middle East, except the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, and is considered the most liberal of the schools. It emphasizes the role of reason and independent judgment, or ijtihad. The Maliki school came from the teachings of Malik ibn Abnas (d. 796 CE) who emphasized the importance of public welfare and the public interest. The Maliki school is most commonly found in the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. The Shafi’i school of Muhammad al Shafi’I (d. 819 CE) emphasized the importance of legal doctrine, and is most commonly found in Egypt, Yemen, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Most Kurds (a linguistic group discussed later in this chapter) are followers of the Shafi'i school. The Hanbali school is the most conservative of the four, originating in the teachings of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855 CE). It is most influential in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The teachings of ibn Hanbal emphasize the oneness of God (tawhid) and particularly the banning of unacceptable innovations (bida).

Islamic Minorities. Not all sects claiming to be Muslim abide by the practices noted above; the Sufi, Druze and Ala’wi are exceptions.

The Sufi. Most religions have within their corpus the concept of mysticism, and Islam is no exception. The most notable mystics in Islam are the Sufi, who date back to the teachings of Hasan al-Basri (643-728) and Rabia al-Adawiyya (d. 801), who attracted a circle followers attracted to her asceticism. The Sufi work to achieve a spiritual sense of the meaning of God, often resorting to repeated prayer, music, dance (including the dance of the so-called "whirling dervishes" whose dance symbolizes the order of the universe), and the teachings of Sufi masters. These masters often head Sufi orders, where disciples learn Sufi practices, including how to sweep aside worldly concerns and practices so as to truly know the meaning of God’s will. Some masters (or pir) became missionaries, and were responsible for the spread of Islam into Africa and Southeast Asia, far more so than were the Arab merchants who traded there.

The Sufi may be either Sunni or Shi’ia, but it has mostly thrived in Sunni areas. However, whatever the preference, some Sufi practices go beyond the normal practice of both streams of Islam. A fairly common Sufi practice involves the construction of shrines at the tombs of "saints," a custom heterodox Muslims eschew. Some Sufi believe that a pilgrimage to such a shrine can substitute for the pilgrimage to Mecca, a view very much at odds with Muslim practice.

The Druze, The Druze are a small group living mostly in Lebanon and Syria. They do not practice the Ha’aj nor siyam, and thus many Muslims do not regard them as fellow Muslims. They refer to themselves as Al-Mowahideen; the name "Druze" came from the Westernized name of a Druze preacher named Nashtakin al-Darazi (whose teachings are now considered blasphemous by contemporary Druze). The Druze date back to the 9^th Century CE, when Darazi and Hamza ibn ‘Ali ibn Ahmad proclaimed that God had become human and taken the form of man, al-Hakim bi-amr Allah between 996 and 1021 CE in Fatimid Cairo. They further believe that Hamza ibn ‘Ali was a reincarnation of many prophets, including Christ, Plato, Aristotle, and Adam, and revealed the truth to all those Mowahideen who took an oath to accept and advance these truths. After the death of Druze leader Baha al-Din in 1031, the Druze made a decision not to accept converts, and thus Druze may marry only other Druze. Their beliefs include a single god (thus no Holy Trinity), the truth in a book known as Kitab al-Hikma, which contains not only Quronic verses but other beliefs as well, and reincarnation (the concept of heaven and hell are believed to be spiritual and not virtual).

The Ala’wi. In a similar way the Ala’wi (‘Ala’wiyun, anglicized to Ala’wi Nusayriyah, or Ala’wite) group, mostly found in Syria, hold secret religious observances that cause other Muslims to regard them largely as pagan. The problem was especially keen for Syria’s President Hafiz al-Asad, himself an Ala’wi ruling over a largely Sunni Muslim nation. Asad asked a Shi'ia cleric in Lebanon, Musa al-Sadr for a religious ruling (fatwa) declaring that the Ala’wi were actually Shi’ia Muslims. The very word ‘Ala’wi roughly means a follower of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of the Prophet, so the Shi'ia tie is clearly implied, if not evident to other Shi'ia. The Ala’wi belong to a Shi'ia group known as the Ghulat, or exaggerators, who consider ‘Ali beyond veneration as the son-in-law of the Prophet, but as a manifestation of the deity. They did not consider themselves descendents of the family of ‘Ali, but rather "gatekeepers," and the office of bab, or "gate" is still significant in the Ala’wi faith. The ‘Ala’wi were active throughout northern Syria until the region was subjugated by the Sunni Seljuk Turks, forcing the ‘Ala’wi to move to the Syrian coastal city of Latakia. After that area came under the Crusaders in the 11^th Century, certain Christian ideas seem to have permeated the ‘Ala’wi. They adopted the concept of a Trinity (not a part of Islam), with ‘Ali as the meaning and essence (ma’na), Muhammad as the outward exoteric name (ism), and Salman al-Farsi as the gate to ‘Ali’s esoteric essence (bab). They also celebrate Christian feast days such as Christmas, Epiphany, and Pentecost. ‘Ala’wi hold mass-type ceremonies during which the congregation chants hymns, also not an Islamic practice. Finally there is a belief among ‘Ala’wi’s in reincarnation, although it is more restricted than in Hindu belief; Muslims are reincarnated as donkeys, Jews as monkeys, and Christians as pigs.

The attacks on the ‘Ala’wi began with Ahmad ibn Taymiyah (d. 1328), who claimed that the ‘Ala’wi drank wine, believed in reincarnation, and considered ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib as a god. The Hanbali school, from which Ibn Taymiyah originated, banned the Sunni from marriage with the ‘Ala’wi. In the 19^th Century, the Ottoman governor of Syria created a separate administration for the ‘Ala’wi, and the French created a special military force from ‘Ala’wi soldiers, giving them the special military status that carried over into modern Syria. Today an ‘Ala’wi elite rules Syria, though this elite also contains members of other branches of Islam as well as some Christians (see Chapter 9).

The Baha’i. The Baha’i are a more recent sect, dating to the 1860s in Persia. It is based on the teachings of Mirza Husayn Ali, who took the name Bahá’ulláh, and taught that God has manifested himself in the forms of Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, and in Bahá’ulláh himself. These teachings include the unity of God across all religions, equality of the world’s people (including the equality of men and women), eradication of poverty, avoidance of politics, and abstinence from drugs and alcohol. The Baha’i claim to be Muslim because they recognize the Quran as the word of God as revealed to Muhammad. They do, however recognize others as Messengers, and they do not perform the five pillars of Islam. The faith attracted Iranian Jews, Zoroastrians, and Shi’ites who sought what they saw as a more modern faith. But Baha’i beliefs and practices came under attack in Iran after the 1979 revolution, and followers there faced widespread persecution.

Political Islam. Like all religions, some adherents to Islam practice extremist views in the name of faith. They are sometimes referred to as Islamic Fundamentalists, though that term contradicts a belief among most Muslims that all Islam is fundamental, so that all who practice the five pillars are thus fundamentalists. Some prefer the term "political Islam" when referring to those who demand that the political system of a nation reflect strict Islamic values.

The history of political Islam goes back to the early caliphs ‘Uthman and ‘Ali. A group calling itself the Kharijites or Khariji revolted against ‘Ali when he agreed to mediate a challenge to the legitimacy of his succession, and they continued to revolt against the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. They emphasized a strict literal interpretation of the Qur’an and an egalitarian society. Kharijite doctrine also emphasized Jihad, or holy war, as the Sixth Pillar of Islam. It also stated that the commission of a serious sin means death unless the sinner repented. The Khariji later split into factions (divided over, among other issues, the legitimacy of violence against sinners), and one faction under the guidance of ‘Abd Allah ibn-Ibad of Basra became the Ibadi around 680. These Ibadis (taking the name of ibn-Ibad) eschewed violence, believed in redemption, and agreed to live with other Muslims who differed from their own strict moral code. Some Ibadis left Iraq and settled in Oman, where they remain today as a significant political force.

The Ism’ailis were another revolutionary Islamic group that sprung from Shi’ia roots. Their early leader Ubayd Allah attempted unsuccessfully to conquer Syria, and then fled to Tunisia, which he did conquer in 909, and declared himself the Madhi. He named his dynasty the Fatimids (after the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, to whom he claimed kinship). The Fatimids conquered Egypt in 969 and ruled there until Salah al-Din defeated them in 1171.

Political Islamists have varying objectives, but generally common to them is that the supreme leader of a nation be an Islamic figure (in Iran, an Ayatollah, for example), that the shari’a, or religious law, be the law of the state, and that a literal interpretation of the Qur’an be enforced as law. Thus political Islamists demand that state laws forbid the consumption or possession of alcohol, that women be required to dress modestly (often with head covered and veiled), and that Islam needs to be a "purifying" force to drive out corrupt ideas and practices. Political Islamists also hold to traditional practices and interpretations from the Qur’an on such issues as the stature of women in Islamic society. As emphasized later in this chapter, political Islam favors men over women in traditional relationships, granting, for example, the right to seek divorce in marriage solely to men, exempting men from payment of alimony after divorce, and granting custody of children exclusively to the father after a divorce.

There is another construct in Islam that has received less attention than has political Islam, but may grow to challenge it. For the lack of a better name, it has been referred to as "Islamic Reformation," and it emphasizes moderation, toleration, and adaptation to modernity. One writer who has inspired this movement with his book, The Book and the Qur’an: A Contemporary Interpretation, is Syrian engineer Muhammad Shahrur. The argument he makes is that for too long the development of Islam was shackled by conservative religious jurists, and that Islam must grow beyond adherence to the old ways and practices. There is a reasonable chance that this "reformation" may grow as more Muslims move up the education ladder, and as the ability of local Islamic leaders to control information wanes in the face of the information age.

A distinction can also be made between militant Islam and civic Islam. Civic Islam emphasizes the extension of Islamic principles to the daily lives of its adherents instead of an effort to transfer their lives back to some more pure state. Civic Islamists emphasize the development of religious schools, health care clinics, charity, and Islamic study groups, often in cooperation with the government. Towards the end of the 1990s, it appeared in several nations that civic Islam was replacing militant Islam as a popular response to civic problems.

Islam is the majority religion in the Middle East and North Africa, but it is not the only one. Israel is around 80 percent Jewish, and Lebanon has a large number of Christians. Around 12 percent of Syria’s population are also Christian. Iran has a small population of Zoroastrianians, whose beliefs predate Islam, and an even smaller number of Baha’i faith. It is also the case that a majority of the world’s Muslims are not Arabs, since considerable numbers of them live in Pakistan, Southeast Asia (Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation), Turkey, China, and the former republics of the Soviet Union. Altogether there are around 1 billion Muslims in the world. But no matter where they are, they acknowledge the importance of the Arab roots of the religion by facing Mecca when they pray, and most of them will travel to that city sometime in their lifetime.

Islam and Politics in the Middle East. The reaction to the Islamic revolution in Iran surprised observers in the West (and elsewhere), and particularly in the academic world. Academic models of revolution stressed leadership by the "modernizers" like Nasir or Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who offered their own vision of a post-colonial society. But, as Benard and Khalilzad note, such models were too simplistic, failing to understand the political attractiveness of a religion that emphasized opposition to illegitimate authority. Islam emphasizes a purity of rule as well as spirit, and Islamic reformers find a powerful message in its humility and its calls upon not only Islamic leaders but the Islamic faithful in general to take responsibility for combating evil.

The jihad aspect of Islam connects the history of the Middle East with its series of invasions to curb Islam with a theological call to fight "…Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you…and fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression." It is often suggested that this passage sanctifies an aggressive holy war to spread Islam, and that the Prophet and his followers started the wars to spread Islam to much of the known world by the early 8^th Century. Others point to the fact that the Arab militaries who swept into the Byzantine world in the 7^th century did not force conversions of Christians and Jews in that world once they came under Islamic rule.

Judaism in the Middle East. Of the world’s three monotheistic religions, Judaism is the oldest. It dates to the time when tradition holds that Abraham left the city of Ur in modern Iraq at God’s command for the Promised Land, which was to be the home of the Jewish people. But famine would drive them to Egypt, where they multiplied until driven out. Led by Moses, the Jews received the Ten Commandments on their journey of return to the Promised Land, and entered after the death of Moses. Under Joshua they would drive out the Canaanites, in retaliation for Canaanite attacks against the Jews as they tried earlier to enter Israel. Israel thus became a theocracy as well as a home for the Jews, and the tradition of political Judaism grew from that time.

As in Islam, the Jewish religion has a few core beliefs, and numerous differing interpretations of faith. Some argue that the essence of Jewish belief is captured by the "Thirteen Articles of Faith,’ which include:

The belief that there is only one God;

God has no physical shape or form;

There have been no other Gods before God;

Human kind must worship God directly, and to worship "representatives" of God;

The prophets have been sent by God;

The Law of Moses was given to the Jewish people by God;

There is reward for good and punishment for evil;

God is supreme ruler of the world;

There will be a Messiah and one must never cease to believe in his eventual coming;

The coming of the Messiah will bring about a resurrection of the dead.

As in Islam, a large majority of Jews follow ritualistic practices, including observation of the Sabbath (which starts on Friday at sundown, and continues to sundown on Saturday), and other religious holy days (including Passover and Rosh Hashanah, the most important). Other practices include male circumcision, a prohibition against eating certain foods (pork, for one, as in Islam), and taboos regarding certain impurities associated with such things as death, menstruation, sex, and childbirth. It must be noted that in modern times Jews differ considerably on the actual practice of these things.

Before around 1700 CE there were few differences in the beliefs and practices of Judaism, and often such practices were shaped largely by local customs and cultures where Jews had settled after the Diaspora. But when exposed to the currents of change in 18^th Century Europe, Jews there began to separate into divisions. There are three such divisions, or sects, common to Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.

Orthodox: Orthodox is distinguished by its emphasis on "orthopraxy", or faithful adherence to the belief that both the Torah and the haskalah, or oral law are divinely inspired and fully authoritative. Orthodoxy also requires adherence to the code of Shulhan Aruka, demanding daily observances of religion. Those who hold Orthodox views see themselves as the only true followers of the Jewish faith and traditions.

Within the Orthodox tradition, there are several sub-sects. The so-called "Modern Orthodox" largely adopts the position that they can co-exist with others who are not like-minded while at the same time maintaining observance of Jewish law in their daily lives. In Israel they are often referred to as "observant" Jews, to distinguish them from the "ultra-Orthodox." The ultra-Orthodox hold to the belief that the orthodox community must live separately from those not of their faith. They consequently have built settlements in the Occupied Territories, and live in separate neighborhoods in Israel proper, such as Mea Sharim in Jerusalem. The ultra-Orthodox themselves can be subdivided into several groups, with most identifying with the Hasidic, or Hasidism sect.

The Hasidic draw from the teachings of the Ukrainian folk preacher Israel ben Eliezer Ba’al Shem Tov, known often by his acronym Besht, who gathered a flock of followers there around 1735 CE. The ideal of Hasid, for who follow it, was panenthesism; God is the ultimate and only reality—the world is only illusory. Fundamental to Hasidic practice is the doctrine of tsaddik, a channel through all godly grace flows, leading to a permanent and uninterrupted thought of God in all that one does. Such an accomplishment is approachable by the close study of a Rebbe, or communal leader. Some of these leaders came close to associating Hasidism with mysticism and miracles, though such teachings were denounced by both other Hasidic leaders and the non-Hasidic Jews. This, for Hasidic Jews, requires much time to be set aside for religious study, and consequently the Hasidic have gained an exemption from working and from the military draft.

In Hasidic practice Yiddish is widely spoken, and even the dress is distinctive. Hasidic men wear the wide-brimmed fur hat (with 13 sable tails representing the 13 qualities of Divine Mercy), while letting their hair drop into sidelocks in the old Polish style. The Hasidic believe in the importance of living only in one’s own community, and thus reserve neighborhoods in towns and cities are exclusive to them. Signs posted at the entrance to such neighborhoods warn immodestly dressed visitors not to enter, and caution against driving vehicles there on the sabbath.

Reform. The roots of Reform Judaism are in Europe during the early 19^th Century, when some Jewish scholars came under the influence of the Enlightenment. It spread to the United States and its tenets were captured in the "Pittsburgh Platform" stemming from a 1869 rabbinical conference held there. Central to Reform Judaism is the belief that the Torah was not directly authored by God, but instead is a compilation of stories reflecting religious values authored by Jewish elders. Reform prayer services are in the vernacular (as opposed to Hebrew or Yiddish) and Jewish law is relaxed. In Reform communities women may become ordained as rabbis, and pray in the company of males. Reform Judaism initially objected to Jewish nationalism, or Zionism, and in 1885 the American Reform movement specifically rejected the idea of a Jewish return to Palestine.

Conservative. Conservative Judaism grew largely in the 19^th Century in reaction to both Orthodox and Reform Judaism, seeking a middle ground between the strict teachings of Orthodox and the radical departure from both Orthodox teachings and practices of the Reform community. Inspired by the teachings of Zacharias Frankel of the Jewish Theological Seminar in Breslau, Germany, Conservative Judaism holds that Judaism is evolving and must take into account national as well as religious influences upon it. Jewish law must be interpreted by Rabbis, but at the same time must remain flexible to meet changing conditions. Conservatives accept scientific inquiry into the foundations of Judaism as necessary, in contrast to the Orthodox, who oppose it. They also believe in the importance of using the Hebrew language in religious services. Conservatives have a long-standing commitment to Zionism, even though the movement has not gained much ground in Israel. As with Reform Jews, Conservatives accept the presence of women in services with men.

Politics and Judaism. As in all other religions, Judaism both provides political lessons from its holy writs, and inspires people to act in its name. But, as noted above, Judaism was the early basis for Israeli statehood, and an early model for a theocracy. Other lessons may also flow from Judaism and particularly from its early history.

The first limits to the Promised Land are from the Bible, and the later kingdoms of David and Solomon encompassed the general area described in Numbers 34.2-13. As Sicherman notes, Judaism is the covenant between God and the peoples of Israel, where in exchange for fidelity to the commandments of God, the Israelis are promised security and prosperity. However God not only bestows titles to land, but can also take them away for immoral behavior, as in the case of the Canaanites, who lost title to Israel when they polluted it with idolatry. Moreover, pacifism is eschewed in the Torah (the first Five Books of Moses), and instead the Torah commands preemption and death for those who kill a member of the Jewish faith. For those Jews who believe in a literal interpretation of the Torah, any compromise with anyone outside the community of Chosen People about Israel is very difficult to accept. However relations with neighbors are to be respectful, and treaties with them must not be violated, since to do so is tantamount to profaning God’s name.

Prime Minister Ben Gurion understood that Israel might be weakened by inter-religious strife, and thus in June 1947 he wrote a letter to the Agudat Israel outlining an agreement to gain their support for a united Israel. The letter formed the policy that Israel follows today with respect to Jewish religious observance, and includes the following provisions:

The Jewish Shabbat, Saturday, will be the official day of rest.

No national public transportation will run on the Shabbat,

The religious school system would get funding from the state.

Rabbinical courts would apply the halakah (religious law) to personal matters, such as marriage and divorce.

That law was supplemented by the Law of Return, passed by the Knesset in 1950. The law allowed any person claiming to be a Jew to immigrate to Israel and be considered a citizen on the basis or his or her Jewishness. So while Israeli nationality could be granted to non-Jews (as a result of the Nationality Law of 1952 which granted Israeli citizenship to those living in Israel in 1948, including Muslims and Christians), only Jews could become new citizens of Israel. But that in itself opened up what would become a sharp debate within Israel over Jewish identity, particularly over particular sects that did not accept rabbinical law, or groups like the Ethiopian and Somalian Falasha Jews, whose practice of Judaism differed from mainstream customs. It continues to be an issue for the Orthodox in particular, who seek to hold as invalid any conversion to Judaism by Reform or Conservative congregations because these congregations do not use Jewish law as the sole means of conversion.

Christianity in the Middle East. The events in the life of Christ took place by tradition in the Middle East, but much of the development of the religion that followed did not. Christian thinkers and leaders shaped Christian thought, practice, and authority largely in Europe. This is one of the reasons why Christians who live in the present Middle East remain largely outside of "mainstream" Christianity. The two main branches of Christianity throughout the world, Catholicism and Protestantism have relatively few adherents in the Middle East, and Christianity itself is a minority religion (though worldwide Christianity is the religion of almost one-third of the world’s population, by far the largest).

In 451 the Council of Chalcedon proclaimed the dual nature of the Trinity as both divine and human. That understanding has now largely permeated Christian thinking about Christ, but in the Middle East early Christians accepted a different view, that of the Monophysite doctrine (see below). Today they include the Syrian Orthodox, the Coptic Church of Egypt, and the Nestorians.

The Coptic Faith. The Coptic Church dates back to the teachings of St. Mark in the first century CE. St Mark arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, where he preached and wrote until 68 CE, when the Romans crucified him for his beliefs. As a part of the Christian faith, the Copts have contributed much to Christianity, including the Nicene Creed (authored by Coptic Pope Athanasius), the oldest Catechetical School in the world (in Alexandria), and the practice of monasticism (first practiced by Copts). But Copts were accused, wrongfully, it turned out, of believing in monophysitism. This view, in contrast to the belief in the dual nature of Christ (equally human and equally divine) was the focus of discussion at the Council of Chalcedon, held in 451 in Chalcedon, near Constantinople. At Chalcedon the Copts were accused of believing in monophysitism, engendering a break with both the Catholic and Orthodox churches that exists to this day. The Copts disdain the charge of monophysitism, claiming that either their Pope Dioscurus failed to convince the Council, or that the Council wanted to punish the Copts for their belief in the separation of church and state. Perhaps confusion arose from their claim that while the perfection of Christ’s humanity and the perfection of his divinity were separate, both are united in what Copts refer to as "the nature of the incarnate word," as preached by St. Cyril of Alexandria.

The Copts suffered persecution in Egypt after Chalcedon by Christians until the arrival of the Islamic conquerors in 641 CE. After that they found themselves co-existing with the Islamic rulers, sometimes under an uneasy but peaceful truce, and sometimes under attack. Their history there is covered in more detail in the section on Egypt in Chapter 15.

The Maronite Faith. Around 410 CE a group of religious men in Syria formed a Christian religious order consecrating the memory of St. Maron (or Maro), a hermit monk known for his life of prayer. Like the Copts, they participated in the Council of Chalcedon, defending its findings against monophysitism. Forced, though, to accept monophysitism under Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in an effort to unite all Middle Eastern Christians against the Islamic invaders, they would claim that their doctrine actually rejected monophysitism. After the coming of Islam to the Eastern Mediterranean in 636, the Maronites began to leave Syria for the mountainous area of Lebanon, and the first Maronite Church began there in 749. The mountains of Lebanon provided sanctuary for the Maronites until the coming of the Crusaders, whom the Maronites eagerly welcomed. That contact with the Catholic Crusaders began to link the Maronites to that Church, and in 1215 the Maronite Patriarch visited Rome and participated in an Ecumenical Council, and in 1584 Pope Gregory XIII founded the Maronite College in Rome, further strengthening ties to Catholicism. While the Ottomans restricted contact between the Maronites in Lebanon and Rome, the end of that Empire brought the French into Lebanon, who made it a protectorate under the guise of protecting fellow Catholics. Despite such ties, Maronites do have some independent traditions, such as selecting their own Patriarch, allowing some clergy to marry, and conducting the liturgy in the Syriac language.

The Nestorians. Nestorius, once the Patriarch of Constantinople, initiated another debate within Christianity by not recognizing the divinity of the Virgin Mary, which he claimed would compromise the divinity of Christ. Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, condemned this view at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and Nestorius was banished to a monastery in the Libyan desert. His followers, though, spread the faith into Syria, Persia, and Palestine. Nestorian sects appeared in Bahrain sometime in the early Fifth Century, and survived there until 835 CE. Today small pockets of Nestorian Christians may be found in the Arab world and in Iran.

Politics and Christianity in the Middle East. Some Charismatic Christians have attempted to gain converts from Israel’s Jewish population, and the Israeli government has deported several Christian ministers found to be engaged in active conversions. Other Evangelical Christians outside of Israel have become strong supporters of Israel, particularly since the 1967 conquest of the holy sites in Jerusalem. Some believe that the Old Temple must be rebuilt on its purported original site on the Temple Mount - Haram as-Sharif in order to initiate a final battle of Armageddon and the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. Should such beliefs inspire the effort to rebuilt the Temple, the reaction in the Islamic world would be fierce, since the old Temple stood on ground now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, both marking the third-holiest place in Islam.

Religious Extremism. Religious extremism exists when individuals and groups use the mantle of religious belief to guide their political actions to measures not commonly accepted, to include illegal political behavior, to include demonstrations, confrontation, suicide, or physical violence. The phenomenon is hardly new, and hardly restricted to the Middle East and North Africa. Yet it is true that the area has suffered more from the experience of religious extremism than have other areas, and that the problem persists. There may be a number of reasons for this.

First, a majority of nations in the Middle East and North Africa have significant pockets of poverty. People suffering both from conditions of poverty and a sense of hopelessness in escaping its clutches may either accept their fate, or fight against it. In democracies alternative parties can serve as an outlet for a protest vote, or as a vehicle for genuine change. But in cases where democracy is either limited or non-existent, religious extremism serves as an alternative outlet for both frustration and for meaningful change. Desperate people turn to religious teachings, religious text and religious leaders for answers not provided by secular society. In some cases those answers may be spiritual; in others they are temporal. For example, in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Cairo in 1989, governmental assistance to survivors arrived two weeks after the event. When public officials finally did get there they found the mosques busily feeding and sheltering the victims.

Second, Islam is basically a conservative religion that emphasizes resistance to material and spiritual temptation. In this regard, the influence of the so-called "West" has also fueled religious extremism in the Middle East. At its most violent it manifested itself in violence allegedly directed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden against American embassies in 1998. However the non-violent reaction is much more pervasive in response to such things as westerners drinking alcohol and sunning themselves in revealing swimwear on Middle Eastern beaches. More than that, however, is the influx of "decadent" western influence into Middle Eastern culture, again to include alcohol, narcotics, casual sex, and other corrupting activities. It must be added, though, that Middle Easterners are quite capable of generating their own corrupting influences, as the lurid sexuality portrayed in building-sized movie ads in Cairo and elsewhere indicate.