Update on Rashad Hussain (2.22.10)
Megyn Kelly continues her coverage of the controversy surrounding Rashad Hussain, the U.S. Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the contemporary equivalent to the historic Caliphate.
Current U.S. Envoy to the OIC, Rashad Hussain, recorded stating his support for imprisoned Sami al-Aryan since it was a "politically motivated persecution" at a Muslim Students Association Conference.
In 2004, Hussain was on a panel discussion on civil rights at a Muslim Students Association conference in Chicago. Sami Al-Arian, who on March 2, 2006, entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization, and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered deported following his prison term. During the panel discussion, Hussain made critical statements about the U.S. terror prosecution of Al-Arian, as well as other Muslim terrorism suspects, characterizing them as "politically motivated persecutions."
Hussain later acknowledged that he was accurately quoted in 2004 as calling the treatment of Sami al-Arian as an example of “politically motivated persecutions.” Hussain made the admission after Politico acquired an audio recording of the Muslim Students Association event, and his comments.
Ch. 17 Sec. 2 Quiz is on Monday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
Chapter 18: Nationalism Around the World, 1919–1939
Gandhi's March to the Sea
Section 1 Nationalism in the Middle East
Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
Impact of World War I
Massacre of the Armenians
Emergence of the Turkish Republic
Biography
Atatürk (1881–1938)
President Kennedy - Speech about Ataturk, 1:56
“Atatürk” is the name that Mustafa Kemal gave himself when he ordered all Turkish people to take on surnames, or last names. It means “Father of the Turks.” In 1920, he led Turkish nationalists in the fight against Greek forces trying to enforce the Treaty of Sèvres, establishing the borders of the modern Republic of Turkey. Once in power, he passed many reforms to modernize, Westernize, and secularize Turkey. Atatürk is still honored throughout Turkey today—his portrait appears on postage and all currency. Why is Atatürk considered the “Father of the Turks”?
Reading Check
Evaluating
How did the Ottoman Empire finally end?
The Modernization of Turkey
Atatürk’s Reforms in Turkey
*Replaced Islamic law with European model
*Replaced Muslim calendar with Western (Christian) calendar
*Moved day of rest from Friday to Sunday
*Closed religious schools and opened state schools
*Forced people to wear Western-style clothes
*Replaced Arabic alphabet with Latin alphabet
*Gave women the right to vote and to work outside the home.
Westernization Transforms Turkey
Atatürk’s government encouraged industrial expansion. The government built railroads, set up factories, and hired westerners to advise on how to make Turkey economically independent.
To achieve his reforms, Atatürk ruled with an iron hand. To many Turks, he was a hero who was transforming Turkey into a strong, modern power. Others questioned Atatürk’s dictatorial powers and complete rejection of religion in laws and government. They believed that Islam could play a constructive role in a modern, civil state.
In 1924, Atatürk, as part of his reforms, constitutionally abolished the institution of the Caliphate. The title was then taken up by King Hussein bin Ali of Hejaz, leader of the Arab Revolt, but his kingdom was defeated and annexed by Ibn Saud in 1925. The title has since been inactive.
A summit was convened at Cairo in 1926 to discuss the revival of the Caliphate, but most Muslim countries did not participate and no action was taken to implement the summit's resolutions.
Though the title was adopted by the King of Morocco and by Mullah Mohammed Omar, former head of the now-defunct Taliban regime of Afghanistan, neither claimed any legal standing or authority over Muslims outside the borders of their respective countries.
As we have seen, with onset of the contemporary world:
In the nineteenth century, distinctively Islamic government began to falter. The Ottoman Empire, whose ruler claimed to lead the Islamic world as caliph, adopted a series of new governing arrangements championed by internal reformers and pressed by Western debt-holders. Though the empire remained formally Islamic, epochal changes like a legislature and a legislative code shook the foundations of the traditional, unwritten constitution that had prevailed under traditional Islamic rule. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the wake of its defeat in World War I, its lands were divided into Western spheres of influence, guided, if not governed, by France and England. The new Turkish government that eventually established itself on the Ottoman Empire’s Anatolian rump declared itself secular and abolished the caliphate. In both symbolic and practical terms, the Islamic state died in 1924.
Yet today the Islamic state rides again. Its reach is not limited to fascinating anomalies like Saudi Arabia, which claims to adhere to the ancient Islamic constitution in its purest form. By revolution, as in Iran, or by constitutional referendum, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, governments in majority-Muslim countries are increasingly declaring themselves Islamic. Their new constitutional regimes replace secular arrangements adopted over the last century with government based in some way on the shari‘a. The trend is with them. In Muslim countries running the geographical span from Morocco to Indonesia, substantial majorities say that the shari‘a should be a source of law for their states; and in important and populous countries like Egypt and Pakistan, large majorities say that Islamic law should be the only source of legislation. Wherever democratic elections are held in Muslim countries, large numbers of citizens vote for shari‘a-oriented political parties that are best characterized as Islamist. The programs of these parties differ little from place to place. They embrace democratic elections and basic rights. They promise economic reform, an end to corruption, and above all, the adoption of the shari‘a as a source or the source of law. (Noah Feldman, The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Princeton University Press, pp. 2-3, http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8598.pdf, accessed 21 July 2010).
The closest institution to a Western Caliphate in existence today is the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization with influence founded in 1969 consisting of the governments of most Muslim-majority countries.
Rashad Hussain is the current American representative to the OIC, the nominal Caliphate in the world today.
Reading Check
Identifying
What radical step did Ataturk Take to modernize Turkey?
The Beginnings of Modern Iran
The success of Atatürk’s reforms inspired nationalists in neighboring Persia (present-day Iran). Persian nationalists greatly resented the British and Russians, who had won spheres of influence over Persia in 1907. In 1925, an ambitious army officer, Reza Khan, overthrew the shah. He set up his own dynasty, with himself as shah.
Like Atatürk, Reza Khan rushed to modernize Persia and make it fully independent. He built factories, roads, and railroads and strengthened the army. He forced Persians to wear Western clothing and set up modern, secular schools. In addition, he moved to replace Islamic law with secular law and encouraged women to take part in public life. Muslim religious leaders fiercely condemned Reza Khan’s efforts to introduce Western ways to the nation.
Reza Khan also persuaded the British company that controlled Persia’s oil industry to give Persia a larger share of the profits and insisted that Persian workers be hired at all levels of the company. In the decades ahead, oil would become a major factor in Persia’s economy and foreign policy.
Reading Check
Comparing
How was Reza Shah Pahlavi's modernization of Persia different from Ataturk's transformation of Turkey?
Arab Nationalism
Oil became a major factor throughout the Middle East during this period. The use of gasoline-powered engines in various vehicles during World War I showed that oil was the fuel of the future. Foreign companies began to move into the Middle East to exploit its large oil reserves.
Partly in response to foreign influence, Arab nationalism grew after World War I and gave rise to Pan-Arabism. This nationalist movement was built on the shared heritage of Arabs who lived in lands from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa. Today, this area includes Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. Pan-Arabism emphasized the common history and language of Arabs and recalled the golden age of Arab civilization. The movement sought to free Arabs from foreign domination and unite them in their own state.
The Middle East, 1920s, Cf. http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=nap&wcsuffix=2721
Map Skills
Population movements and foreign influences changed the Middle East after World War I.
1. Locate
(a) Turkey (b) Persia (c) Palestine (d) the Persian Gulf
2. Human-Environment Interaction
What natural resource was discovered in the Middle East around this time? What effect did its discovery have on the region?
3. Make Inferences
List the ways foreign influence affected the Middle East in the 1920s.
Arabs were outraged by the European-controlled mandates set up at the Paris Peace Conference. During World War I, Arabs had helped the Allies against the Central Powers, especially the Ottoman empire. In return for their help, the Allies led the Arabs to believe that they would gain independence after the war. Instead, the Allies carved up the Ottoman lands, giving France mandates in Syria and Lebanon and Britain mandates in Palestine and Iraq. Later, Britain gave a large part of the Palestinian mandate, Trans-Jordan to Abdullah for a kingdom.
A typical dictator of the area was King Abdul Aziz Al Saud, King (Malik) of Saudi Arabia, the first monarch of The Third Saudi State known as Saudi Arabia: of his full name Abdul Aziz bin Abdur Rahman Al Saud, he was commonly referred to as ibn Saud. Charles Crane, "the entrepreneur and philanthropist who became the Arabs' outstanding champion in America (Oren, p. 373)," the anti-Semitic (Oren, p. 374) Crane laid the foundation for American-Saudi cooperation during the 1930s.
Crane described Adolf Hitler as "the real bulwark of Christian culture" and he assured President Franklin Roosevelt that ibn Saud was the most important man in Arabia since Mohammed (Oren, pp. 416-417).
The glowing assessments of ibn Saud sold to President FDR were largely mythical. There was no democracy in Saudi Arabia and only nominal tolerance for non-Muslims. "We Muslims have the one, true faith," ibn Saud matter-of-factly informed one American diplomat." We will use your iron, but leave our faith alone (Oren, p. 417)." The Saudi policy largely remains the same in regards to the U.S. since the '30s through the Persian Gulf Wars and up to the present (Cf. Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties).
Award of the Saudi Order of Merit, 3 June 2009
Arabs felt betrayed by the West—a feeling that has endured to this day. During the 1920s and 1930s, their anger erupted in frequent protests and revolts against Western imperialism. A major center of turmoil was the British mandate of Palestine. There, Arab nationalists and Jewish nationalists, known as Zionists, increasingly clashed.
Reading Check
Examining
How were many Middle Eastern states created after World War I?
The Problem of Palestine
Two Views of One Place
Posters encouraged visitors and settlers to go to Palestine. At the same time, Palestinian Arabs tried to limit Jewish settlement in the area.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief History
Since Roman times, Jews had dreamed of returning to the land of Judea, or Israel. In 1897, Theodor Herzl (hurt sul) responded to growing anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jewish people,in Europe by founding the modern Zionist movement. His goal was to rebuild a Jewish state in Palestine. Among other things, violent pogroms against Jews in Russia prompted thousands of them to migrate to Palestine. They joined the small Jewish community that had lived there since biblical times.
Vocabulary Builder
advocated—(ad vuh kayt id) v. supported or favored
From 1919 to 1940, tens of thousands of Jews immigrated to Palestine due to the Zionist movement and the effects of anti-Semitism in Europe. Despite great hardships, Jewish settlers set up factories, built new towns, and established farming communities. At the same time, the Arab population almost doubled. Many were immigrants from nearby lands. As a result, Palestine's population included a changing mix of newcomers. The Jewish population, which was less than 60,000 in 1919, grew to about 400,000 in 1936, while the Muslim population increased from about 568,000 in 1919 to about 1 million in 1940.
At first, some Arabs welcomed the money and modern technical skills that the newcomers brought with them. But as more Jews moved to Palestine, tensions between the two groups developed. Jewish organizations tried to purchase as much land as they could, while Arabs sought to slow down or stop Jewish immigration. Religious differences between Jews and Arabs heightened tensions. Arabs attacked Jewish settlements, hoping to discourage settlers. The Jewish settlers established their own military defense force. For the rest of the century, Arab and Jews fought over the land that Arabs called Palestine and Jews called Israel.
Reading Check
Explaining
Why did the Balfour Declaration produce problems in Palestine?
Chapter 18 References
The End of the British Empire, Cf. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g3/default.htm
Video clips of Gandhi and other Indian leaders
The life of Gandhi
Find out more about African independence
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief History
Middle East
Oil
Section 2 Preview
Movements toward Independence in Africa
African nationalism brought little political change, except to Egypt. Egyptians had suffered during World War I. After the war, protests, strikes, and riots forced Britain to grant Egypt independence in 1922. However, Britain still controlled Egypt’s monarchy.
Displeased with this state of affairs, during the 1930s many young Egyptians joined an organization called the Muslim Brotherhood. This group fostered a broad Islamic nationalism that rejected Western culture and denounced corruption in the Egyptian government.
African Protests
New Leaders
African American scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois (doo boys) organized the first Pan-African Congress in 1919. It met in Paris, where the Allies were holding their peace conference. Delegates from African colonies, the West Indies, and the United States called on the Paris peacemakers to approve a charter of rights for Africans. Although the Western powers ignored their demands, the Pan-African Congress established cooperation among African and African American leaders.
In the 1920s, a movement known as Pan-Africanism began to nourish the nationalist spirit and strengthen resistance. Pan-Africanism emphasized the unity of Africans and people of African descent worldwide. Among its most inspiring leaders was Jamaica-born Marcus Garvey. He preached a forceful, appealing message of “Africa for Africans” and demanded an end to colonial rule. Garvey’s ideas influenced a new generation of African leaders.
Jomo Kenyatta was a leader in Kenya’s struggle for independence from British rule. During the 1920s and 1930s, a new generation of leaders, proud of their unique heritage, struggled to stop imperialism and restore Africa for Africans.
Reading Check
Analyzing
Why did many Africans become more politically active after World War I?
The Movement for Indian Independence
Protest and Reform
Gandhi’s philosophy reflected Western as well as Indian influences. He admired Christian teachings about love. He believed in the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s ideas about civil disobedience, the refusal to obey unjust laws. Gandhi was also influenced by Western ideas of democracy and nationalism. He urged equal rights for all Indians, women as well as men. He fought hard to end the harsh treatment of untouchables, who were members of the lowest caste, or class.
A Push for Independence
Since 1885, the Indian National Congress party, called the Congress party, had pressed for self-rule within the British empire. After Amritsar, it began to call for full independence. But party members were mostly middle-class, Western-educated elite who had little in common with the masses of Indian peasants. In the 1920s, a new leader named Mohandas Gandhi emerged and united Indians across class lines.
New Leaders and New Problems
In 1939, a new world war exploded. Britain outraged Indian leaders by postponing independence and bringing Indians into the war without consulting them. Angry nationalists launched a campaign of noncooperation and were jailed. Millions of Indians, however, did help Britain during World War II.
When the war ended in 1945, India’s independence could no longer be delayed. As it neared, Muslim fears of the Hindu majority increased. Conflict between Hindus and Muslims would trouble the new nation in the years to come.
Reading Check
Identifying
What three non-British conflicts affected the Indian independence movements in the 1930s?
The Rise of a Militarist Japan
A Zaibatsu Economy
Japan and the West
The Rise of Militarism
In 1931, a group of Japanese army officers provoked an incident that provided an excuse to seize Manchuria. They set explosives and blew up tracks on a Japanese-owned railroad line. Then, they claimed that the Chinese had committed the act. Claiming self-defense, the army attacked Chinese forces. Without consulting their own government, the Japanese military forces conquered all of Manchuria and set up a puppet state there that they called Manzhouguo (man choo kwoo). They brought in Puyi, the last Chinese emperor, to head the puppet state. When politicians in Tokyo objected to the army’s highhanded actions, public opinion sided with the military.
When the League of Nations condemned Japanese aggression against China, Japan simply withdrew itself from the League. Soon, the Japanese government nullified the agreements limiting naval armament that it had signed with the Western democracies in the 1920s. The League’s member states failed to take military action against Japanese aggression.
Japan's Expanding Empire to 1934
Cf. http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=nap&wcsuffix=2651
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: nap-2651
Map Skills
Japan expanded its territory in Asia between 1918 and 1934. From their conquered lands, the Japanese acquired natural resources to fuel their industries.
1. Locate:
(a) Japan (b) Korea (c) Manchuria (d) Taiwan
2. Region
Where were Japan’s main manufacturing areas located?
3. Draw Conclusions
What natural resource does Korea lack but Manchuria have?
In the early 1930s, ultranationalists were winning support from the people for foreign conquests and a tough stand against the Western powers. Members of extreme nationalist societies assassinated a number of politicians and business leaders who opposed expansion. Military leaders plotted to overthrow the government and, in 1936, briefly occupied the center of Tokyo.
Civilian government survived, but the unrest forced the government to accept military domination in 1937. To please the ultranationalists, the government cracked down on socialists and suppressed most democratic freedoms. It revived ancient warrior values and built a cult around Emperor Hirohito, whom many believed was descended from the sun goddess. To spread its nationalist message, the government used schools to teach students absolute obedience to the emperor and service to the state.
Reading Check
Examining
How did the Japanese government change from the 1920s to the 1930s?
Nationalism and Revolution in Asia
The Spread of Communism
Some Chinese turned to the revolutionary ideas of Marx and Lenin. The Soviet Union was more than willing to train Chinese students and military officers to become the vanguard, or elite leaders, of a communist revolution. By the 1920s, a small group of Chinese Communists had formed their own political party.
Communist Parties in Asia
Reading Check
Evaluating
What was the relationship between communism and imperialism?
Preview
Section 3 Revolutionary Chaos in China
Nationalists and Communists
Reading Check
Explaining
How did Chiang Kai-shek change the Communist-Nationalist alliance?
The Communists in Hiding
Reading Check
Identifying
Which group did Mao believe would start the Communist Revolution in China?
The Long March
Reading Check
Explaining
Why did it seem that communism was no longer a threat to China after the Long March?
The New China of Chiang Kai-shek
Reading Check
Identifying
What was the intended final stage of Chiang Kai-shek's reform program?
Ch. 17 Sec. 2 Quiz is on Monday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
