South East Queensland

intro When I was a young child in elementary school I had a friend, Basheer, who was part of a family who were recent immigrants from the middle east. They left their native home to escape prosecution against their sufi minority status in a sunni-dominant area. One of my fondest memories I had while visiting Basheer 's home involved some of the religious practices his family engaged in, which was entirely new to me at the time. I found their customs, fresh from their homeland as they were…

symbol of the United States and the capitalist-democratic west and the Soviet Union and its allies with the Communist bloc of nations. The Berlin Wall was and is a powerful representation of the Cold War (1945-1961). Between 1949 and 1961, millions of East Germans fled to West Berlin in order to escape the Communist occupation. Fearing the mass emigration of its population to the west, the government built the Berlin Wall in 1961 cutting off Berliners from employment and family. Over the 20-year…

been any foreign attacks on US soil for a few decades (Riegler). The terrorist attacks occurring in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s were a source of morbid curiosity among Americans. These, along with rising tensions with oil suppliers in the Middle East, fueled the American imagination. In Black Sunday, Dahlia Iyad, an Arabian female terrorist associated with the PLO, plots to commit a terrorist attack during the Super Bowl (Riegler). Dahlia shares several of Leila’s physical traits but is…

one. These different ethnicities are often grouped into one large group. People from the Middle East are known as terrorists, and bombers. If someone is wearing any sort of of head wrap, turban, or gown, most people think him or her is a terrorist. Especially in the United States, citizens are uneasy or nervous around Middle Eastern people. Most Americans associate 9/11 with people from the Middle East. When in an airport, if an American sees a Middle Eastern person in security, they turn their…

A fortified border which spans 155 kilometers separates east and west, communism and democracy, and repression from freedom (Walled In: Germany’s Inner Border). This barrier is known to many as The Berlin Wall. It became a significant symbol that represented all of those things depending on which side of the wall you were on. The events leading up to the building and destruction of the wall were very important to not only the Germans, but also to the whole world. The wall itself was a very…

The West has separated itself from the Middle East for centuries. This division is known as Orientalism which refers to the Western or Occidental views that the Middle East or Orient is inferior or different in some way. Edward Said was a scholar who studied the Western perception of the Middle East, specifically the word “Islam” through the lens of Orientalism. Said argues that this distinction between the West and the “other” is primarily reflected in Western media which generally promotes…

Since the completion of the First World War and the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles there has been much discussion on whether the Second World War and the following major events of the twentieth century were born from the events of the 1919 Paris peace conference and conclusions of the peace settlement. David Andelman in his ‘A Shattered Peace’1 puts forth the opinion that the actions and decisions of the main players, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Wilson, and the final conclusions of the…

power in the world. There is no power in the world that can stand the military might of this nation. With this military strength, any conflict could be solved quickly and cleanly… or could it? AS of current, there is a conflict going on the Middle East involving the Syrian Civil War, which is a war currently between syrian nationalists, the current corrupt government, and the terrorist group ISIS, along with the whole crisis being used as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran (“Syria”).…

stretching from Afghanistan to parts southern Spain. Trade, ideas, and culture thrived in this Islamic empire. Islam brought a sense of unity and purpose to the traders and people of the Arabian Peninsula. Arab armies spread Islam through the Middle East and beyond. Muslim traders also spread Islam. Between 1000 and 1500, C. E. the Islamic empire had many setbacks from the Christian Crusades, spanning roughly 200 years, to the Mongolian invasions from 1258 to 1300 C. E. but one thing that…

Involvement in the Middle East “Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.” Jimmy Carter, state of the union address, January 23rd, 1980. (Jones) Any major world news today is likely to cover the tumultuous affairs of the Middle East. The United States has…