Jihad In The Middle East

“lesser Jihad means ‘have to use arms’ if someone attacks you, use jihad to protect themselves… when the attacker stops, then they stop” (class notes). There was often a misconception about the meaning of Jihad that it only meant violence, however this was the minor meaning. The major meaning of jihad is an internal struggle. This goes all the way back to Mohammed Abdullah; the creator of Islam. Before this the Middle East was very separate and chaotic; Mohammed created a place for unity at the Ka’ba. This allowed Muslims from all over the world to come together for this religious journey. Conquerors
People often do not understand the impact the Middle East has had on the world especially in math and science. Often greater powers would take …show more content…
Islam had an impeccable influence of science “the house of wisdom had scholars come from all over the world with different religions and cultural backgrounds to discuss math and science” (class notes, Islam: empire of faith documentary). The Middle East held one of the most prominent facilities for intellectuals that allowed people to trade ideas. This contradicts the idea that the Middle East in undeveloped and unchanged because in order to trade ideas you have to be open to difference in opinion and disregard difference in religion and culture. The house of wisdom led to the title of intellectual elites; this title began the race for ancient texts from around the world. One of the first countries to have paper this allowed knowledge to be written down libraries filled with books, compared to Europe monastery would be lucky to have 5-10 …show more content…
The French first began their relationship with Algeria by buying grain from them. However, this put France in debt to Algeria; as they were discussing their debt “the exasperated dey of Algeria hit the French consul with a flyswatter” (pg. 93, gelvin) this launched a naval campaign against Algeria resulting in France integrating Algeria into France into 3 provinces. Many European settlers came to Algeria for economic and political reasons; Algeria was a great place to invest. Algeria was “a convenient place to dump political dissidents, particularly those who had fought in the French Revolution of 1848 or who had participated in the Paris Commune of 1871” (gelvin, pg. 93). This allowed many Europeans to hold powerful positions in politics this is incredibly important because the government makes the laws and influences how people are