Arab countries, also known as the Arab world, refer to countries with Arabs as the main ethnic group, they have a unified language Arabic, but also have similar culture and customs, the vast majority of Arabs believe in Islam. The Arab States comprises a total of 22 countries, most of which are members of the Arab League, with a total area of 13.13 million square kilometers and a total population of 406.45 million (2016).
Arab states include: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Syria.
It is important to note that Iran is not an Arab country (its main ethnic group is Persian), but it belongs to the same Shiite Muslim power as Iraq. Turkey is also not an Arab country (the dominant ethnic group is Turks).
When people think of the Arab world now, the first thing that comes to mind is war, turmoil and division, because the long-standing wars in the Middle East have left a deep impression. But in the early days of Islamic civilization, the Arab nation established the Arab Empire across Eurasia.
In the more than 100 years of the arab empire rule, the conquests around the world have almost undefeated, the land area has been expanded, creating brilliant achievements, and has since risen to become the world's third largest nation after the Chinese nation and the Latin nation, at the same time, the rise of the Arab world has also made Islamic civilization among the three mainstream civilizations in the world.
Today's Arab world, however, is unlikely to continue the legend of its predecessors, although many Arab countries rely on abundant oil resources, are very rich in economy, and live well. However, on the whole, the entire Arab world is like a scattered sand, and it is difficult to unite together, which can be fully illustrated by the defeat of the five Middle East wars.
Israel, a small country that is caught up in the Arab world and is attacked on all sides, has been able to single-handedly defeat the Arab coalition army, which is absolutely dominant in strength, and has created war miracles in the Middle East again and again.
So, why did the once invincible Arab Empire become the current state of disarray? The author believes that the comprehensive analysis can be attributed to the following reasons:
First, there is a lack of a dominant dominant ethnic group
Although the Arab world is a country with arabs as a major ethnic group with similar religious beliefs and customs, in fact, the Arab nation is a community of language and religion, not a community of national blood. Thus, the entire Arab world lacks a dominant nation as the core of its unity and unity.
Historically, before the spread of Islam and the Arabic language, the Arabs mainly referred to the nomadic Semitic herders on the Arabian Peninsula. After the rise of the Arab Empire, with the expansion of the Empire, the people of the Middle East and North Africa gradually accepted Islam and Arabic, and through a long period of mixed blood, a linguistic and cultural group with Islam and Arabic as the link was formed.
In different Arab countries, in addition to Arabs, there are Kurds, Armenians, Turkmens, Circassians, etc., while Iraq also has Jews.
The Copts of Egypt are direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, whose ancestors converted to Christianity in the first century. The terrorist attacks that have taken place in Egypt in the past few years have targeted the Copts and their churches.
During Saddam Hussein's reign, he bloodily suppressed and slaughtered a large number of Kurds in the country, and the Kurds are still indignant and unforgettable about this blood debt.
However, it is clearly difficult to maintain the unity of the Entire Arab World by relying solely on religious beliefs. The perennial chaos in the Middle East proves this.
2. Disputes between different sects and tribes within Islam
On the surface, Arab peoples belonging to the same Islamic faith should live in harmony with each other without much contradiction, but the opposite is true, and the internal strife from Islam is complex and difficult to reconcile.
1. Tribal strife
Because the Arab nation is historically a nomadic people, so within the Islamic state, there are still tribal forms, such as Libyan President Gaddafi from the Khadafa tribe, after he assumed the presidency, he will inevitably give more benefits to his own tribe, which caused dissatisfaction among other tribes, and eventually the country broke out by different tribes and different factions of the struggle, the Qaddafi regime was overthrown.
2. Conflicts between different factions within religion
Islam is mainly divided into two major factions, Sunni and Shia, and the proportion of the two major factions in each Arab country is not the same. In Iraq, for example, Shiites make up 60 percent of the population, so it's very difficult for Saddam Hussein, a few Sunni presidents, to rule the country.
During Saddam Hussein's reign, in order to consolidate his rule, he used a series of violent means to suppress the Shiite resistance, which caused resentment among the majority of the people in the country. This is also the fundamental reason why after the US military invaded Iraq in the Gulf War, the country's regime collapsed in an instant.
After Saddam's death sentence was announced, iraq faced two very different reactions, with the Sunni populace strongly condemning the unfair trial and the Shiites rejoicing and celebrating victory. So much so that the new government that was formed had to call on Iraqis to "unite."
At present, there are two major camps in the Middle East, Sunni and Shiite, and the Sunni countries represented by Saudi Arabia have always been wary of Shiite countries such as Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain. The King of Jordan once proposed the concept of the "Shiite Crescent Belt", which mainly refers to the Allah parties in Iran, southern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Third, the Arab League is very different from the EU
The Arab League, abbreviated as the Arab League, is a regional international organization established to strengthen arab unity and cooperation, with a total of 22 member states, founded on March 22, 1945, which is the earliest regional organization established in the world today.
Compared with the more united European Union, the Arab League is characterized by both alliances and gangs, privately pulling gangs and factions, which is the characteristic of Arab countries, so for a long time the members of the Arab League have been in a state of in and out, constantly changing.
In September 1978, Egyptian President Sadat signed the Camp David Agreement with Israel, and the reconciliation between the two countries caused anger in the Arab camp, Egypt and The Arab League were expelled from the Arab League in March 1979, and the headquarters of the Arab League were moved from Cairo to Tunisia, and Egypt was invited back 10 years later, and the headquarters was only moved back to Cairo in March 1990.
On November 16, 2011, the Arab League officially suspended Syria's membership. Within the Arab League, there is not only the Gulf Cooperation Council composed of 6 Gulf oil producers, but also the Arab Maghreb Union, referred to as the Arab Maghreb Union, which is established by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and several other North African countries.
Fourth, Arab countries all have different cultural backgrounds
Although Arab countries have a common Islamic culture, due to the historical influence of Persian, Indian, Greek, Roman, Turkish and other foreign ethnic cultures, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, due to the colonial influence of that year, many local people speak French, and even some official documents also use French.
Because of this background, European countries are also willing to accept North African immigrants, and in recent decades, European countries have accepted a large number of north African immigrants, such as the famous French stars Zidane and Benzema, who are both of Algerian origin.
Royals in Arab countries have basically received higher education in Europe and the United States, such as the kings of Qatar and Jordan, both graduated from the Sampster Military Academy in the United Kingdom, because of this relationship, Qatar and Jordan have always been loyal allies of the United States.
Influenced by different cultures, there are pro-British, pro-French, and pro-American in the Arab countries. Although ideologies and state systems are different, Arab countries do not reject the West, and some goods in Western countries are very popular in the Middle East.
epilogue
To sum up, due to the complex conflicts of religious factions, tribes and ethnic groups within Arab countries, there are serious ethnic antagonisms, and each country has different interests and demands, playing its own small calculations, so it is difficult to reach agreement on some major issues, and these problems are historical precipitations that have been formed for a long time and cannot be resolved in a short period of time.