Has someone ever asked you where are from? What culture do you belong to? They always ask
me these questions. When I tell them I'm from the middle east, they will start to act in a strange
way I know what they will think about because when you belong to a particular group, you are
part of the group, tradition, and behaviors. Throughout the history, people thought of the middle
east as an war zone, and religious conflict between Shia and Sunni, oil wealth that’s true, but
there's much more life in this area.
The middle east is a war zone what made it a war zone are the people part of belonging to the
Arab culture is to keep quiet not to have the right to speak up people stayed quiet for a long time
until 17 December 2010 it's all started in Tunisia with the Tunisian revolution. Tunisian
revolution effect spread vigorously to other five countries. Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria.
Where people began to protest for changes like dictatorship leaders, human rights violations,
unemployment, and poverty. Some leaders were Isolated, and many got killed. Yes, they got
what they wanted, but it didn't improve anything, it got worst then before. It has been six years
since Syria crisis started. Many people got killed during these six years. People still fighting to
isolate the president but nothing is happening and more people dying. After all these revolutions
the middle east had changed a lot. There was no peace anymore until this day. All the things that
happened are because of the cultural beliefs where they were thought to keep quiet.
Religion conflict between Shia and Sunni is an essential part of the middle eastern culture. The
division goes back to a schism following the death of the prophet Mohammed. Not all middle
east countries have Shia and Sunni, some of them are just Sunni. The reason behind the division
because, some believed a new leader should be chosen by consensus, and some thought that only
the prophet descendants should become caliph. The title passed to Abu Bakr while some thought
it should have gone to the prophet cosine. That's how this conflict began. Many things happened
because of this conflict many Sunni were killed because they were Sunni. Being a part of the
middle east means that you are either on the Sunni side or Shia side. When you ask a middle
eastern person what the difference between the two, they will say there's no different, but they
know there's a big difference. What had happened in Iraq was because of the difference between
the two. The Islamic State of Iraq wanted to kill all Shia and to control the country under Sunni
rules. The conflict is getting more serious to the point where they divided the cities.
The middle east is an oil wealth. When anyone says middle east the first thing that comes to
mind would be oil. It does define the culture at some point. The problem with oil wealth is
people think all the middle east countries have it, but that's not true. Some do, and some don't.
Having oil doesn't mean the people are rich. The middle eastern culture had been stereotyped for
a long time by saying they have oil. Yes, they do, but the oil reservoir is hard sandstone. People
will not be rich they can't get any of it. Some country can't get it out because they don't have the
tool and money.
There's much more life other than the war zone, religious conflict. Most people have a good life,
and they are happy. Most Arab are educated and go to college. They work, and most of them
even go to study in Europe and America as well. A lot of people think Arab can't or don't speak
English. They take English classes from first grade throughout the senior year at high school.
Many people think Arab women are forced to wear what called hijab, but they are not forced to
wear it if they want to wear it or not it's up to them. Women have their freedom to do what they
want, but there's a limit and what put these limits is the religion. Many think all Arabs are
Muslims and all Muslims are Arab. Islam makes up 90 percent. There's different ethnicity living
together in the middle eastern culture. Kurds, Iranians, and Arab. middle east value generosity
and they usually show it by being courteous to each other.
Honor and loyalty are very important to Arab. After exploring what does it mean to belong to a
particular culture and discussing what does middle eastern culture mean. It's clear that Arab
culture is not just about oil wealth, religious conflict, and war. It's more than that. A lot of the
things that happened in the culture would be because of their beliefs. People need to understand
what it means to belong. Also, we have to stop judging a book by its cover and to read about
other cultures.
