Westerners in the Middle East: Modern Infrastructure and Urban Development Projects - Research Paper Example

 Introduction With the rise of the Internet, instantaneous digital communications and modern travel, the world should have been a much smaller space today. These technological advances have done much to improve communications among people from different countries but despite all this, there seems to be a widening gap between some cultures and religions. These prejudices and biases arose out of a shallow understanding of foreign cultures and a refusal to understand other people’s feelings and cultural beliefs. Experts call this as cultural xenophobia where a person from another country is viewed with aversion at best and fear or horror at the worst. This paper looks at the distribution of Westerners who are living and working in the Middle East today in an attempt to bridge some cultural gaps that can help foster world peace. If we really dissect everything happening around us today, it is all just a matter of perception, from whose viewpoint we will consider (Moran, Harris & Moran 344). Considering that the Middle East has approximately 70% of the world’s proven oil reserves, it is no wonder that there continues to be a great influx of Westerners to the Middle East today. Not only are the Americans and Europeans going to the region in great numbers but also Asians (South Asians and East Asians) to work, conduct trade, do business and engage in development projects. There is also one important element that needs to be discussed briefly and that is the underlying suspicion among Middle Eastern peoples towards some Westerners. This region had spawned some ancient civilizations like Iraq, Persia, Egypt and Arabia (Turkey is not included) and people here view Western contacts as attempts to undermine traditional Arab cultural practices and their Islamic religion, considering that they were colonized before. Discussion In order to have a good view, the Middle East consists of fourteen countries in the area from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas up to India in the east. The north is up to the Caspian Sea and down south is the Gulf of Aden. These 14 are Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. The last six nations comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council (Persian Gulf states). Turkey is not included because its population is not Arab although it is a Muslim country and was once the seat of the Ottoman Empire that had ruled the entire region for six centuries. Its language is also not Arabic but rather predominantly Turkish (Shaw p. vii). On the other hand, Iranians who are also not Arabs are included because Iran is geographically contiguous to the Middle East region and its citizens share Islam as a common religion and as a way of life. The greatest impetus for the presence of Westerners in the Middle East today is oil. It is a strategic resource and the revenues derived from it have supported modern infrastructure and urban development projects in most of the Arabian Peninsula (Haggett 2128). Because of oil, the region has acquired political and military significance to most Western countries and this was exemplified by the historical fact that most of the Middle East was once colonized by the Western powers, mainly Great Britain, France and the United States. This xenophobia was clearly evident in violent election street protests in Iran’s recent presidential elections which the authorities portrayed as the handiwork of both the US and Britain. The US is feared as the only superpower capable of military intervention such as the two wars with Iraq and now, with the Islamic Taliban in the mountainous regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This military involvement has brought a significant number of American and European troops to the region to bolster Western geopolitical interests and protect its allies. A Western way of life is considered by the locals as incompatible with the tenets of Islam and is viewed as a threat to an Islam that is perceived in anomie (alienation) and decline (Pipes 168). Historically, the first major wave of Westerners going to the Middle East was during the Crusades in the eleventh century to retake Jerusalem. Religion therefore was the motive. The second wave was during the years of empire building by former colonial powers starting with the invasion of Algeria in 1830 by French forces (Bowen & Early 6). It was the era of imperialism and European colonization was started by Napoleon invading Egypt in 1798. It is quite notable that major Western powers colonized the Middle East (meaning Muslim) region the last. They had previously conquered South America, the Far East, Africa and vast areas in Russia but it was only during the last two previous centuries that they managed to have any semblance of control in the Middle East due to strong resistance from Muslim fighters. The third major wave came about with the discovery of oil and continues to present day with vast developmental private and public projects such as hotels, resorts, entertainment places, de-salinization plants and tourism-related developments. It is the vast amount of petro-dollars fueling an economic boom in the region that attracted most of the Westerners presently in the area. Western presence in the region was also to check possible Russian intrusions into the area during the Cold War and this jockeying for influence continues at present. The only question remaining is what happens when all the oil is gone after “peak oil” (Abdullah 14). Conclusion We must bear in mind that Islam is not only a religion but a powerful social, cultural and political force not only within the Middle East but also in the countries where it is official religion. Our view of Islam is formed mostly of the Middle East but it is only a small portion of the entire estimated one billion Muslims in the world (250 million in the Middle East and 750 million elsewhere). Foreigners, especially Westerners, are viewed as arrogant, impolite, aggressive and have a general know-it-all feeling of superiority from the locals' perspective. It is also necessary to recognize Islam's significant contributions to world culture, knowledge, jurisprudence, history, science and mathematics (after all, they gave us the Arabic numerals). Often, it is Western media outlets that gave us distorted views through slanted news reporting, stereotypes and cultural inaccuracies that fostered misunderstanding than cultural affinity. In much the same way globalization and technology are both seen as new forms of imperialism in the Middle East, most of our views of Arabs or Muslims in particular are racially biased. It is obviously necessary that Westerners in the Middle East need to exercise greater sensitivity. Works Cited Abdullah, Bilaal. Peak Oil Paradigm Shift: The Urgent Need for a Sustainable Energy Model. Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies: Medianet Limited, 2005. Bowen, D.L. & Early, E.A. Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. Haggett, Peter. Encyclopedia of World Geography. Volume 15. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2001. Moran, R.T., Harris, P.R. & Moran, S.V. Managing Cultural Differences: Global Leadership Strategies for the 21st Century. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Pipes, Daniel. In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power. Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002. Shaw, Ezel Kural. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 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