Islamic Revolution and American Invasions

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Significance of the Arab Peninsula to the Middle East and the rest of the globe
Causes and results of intifada
American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
References

Introduction

The Islamic revolution that took place in Iran refers to the sequence of occurrences that resulted to a takeover of the Iran’s monarchy, which was under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, resulting to the rise of the Islamic republic.

The leader of the Islamic revolution was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoimeni. Rebellion against the Iran’s monarchy commenced during early 1978, due to civil resistance fuelled by secular and religious factors (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004). The Islamic revolution resulted into strikes and civil protests that resulted into unrest in the country.

Despite being successful, the revolution did not result into the common outcomes such as financial crises, rampant wars and a resentful military in Iran. This paper attempts to investigate the events in the Middle East that steered the Islamic revolution in Iran during 1979, the significance of the Arab Peninsula to the Middle East and other parts of the globe, the causes and outcomes of the intifada and the reasons and regional results of the Americans invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The main objective behind the Islamic revolution in Iran was to eliminate the secular government characterized by intense western influence, with an Islamic government (Kepel, 2002). The architects of the revolution argued that the Iran’s monarchy was subservient to the United States, and this significantly affected the Iranian culture in terms of Islamic principles.

In addition, they contested that the Shah regime had been brutal, had cases of extreme social injustices and oppression. Evidently, the Shah regime had failed in almost every government aspect ranging from the delivery of basic functional services, economic problems and insecurity. The Islamic revolutionists could not sustain this any longer, resulting to their decision to oust the Shah regime for a better Islamic government.

The Shah regime practiced a more centralized government structure, resulting to lack of democracy and its focus on secularization, thereby disregarding the Islamic values. Rebel groups, anti-secularists and nationalists attacked the Iran’s monarchy on the basis of its violation of the constitution of Iran, increasing corruption and oppression. This played a significant role in accelerating the Islamic revolution in Iran (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

Several events that occurred in the 1970s pioneered the rise of the Islamic revolution in the Middle East. One of the significant occurrences was the oil boom that took place during the 70s, resulting to increased inflation and increasing the gap amongst the rich and poor in Iran.

The fact that the royal family of Shah benefited the most from the income realized by increasing oil sales disappointed a significant number of Iranians; this implies that there was an unclear difference between what the state earned and what Shah family earned. By 1976, the Shah family had amassed most of the revenue from oil, with the Shah family foundation having control on most of the oil reserves in Iran.

The onset of 1977 saw Iran hit by a massive economic bottleneck and high rates of inflation resulting most of the Iranian population establishing core groups to pioneer for the revolution. In attempt to curb increasing inflation, the Shah banned all other parties with the aim of forcing Iranians to pay their dues to a single party through extreme fines and offering jail terms to oil merchants selling oil at high prices (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

During 1977, Shah’s response was to campaign on the benefits associated with political rights, which was initiative of the new US president Jimmy Carter. The political rights provided an avenue for the formation Islamic liberal opposition groups, who openly expressed their views in the denouncement of the regime during 1977.

During the same year, an Islamic leader, Ali Shariati died in the hands of the secret Police. This further accelerated the rebellion towards the government late in the year and resulted to demonstrations. This in turn increased Khomeini’s followers during the following year, and ultimately leading to the Islamic revolution in 1979. The Islamic revolution has worsened the relationship between the US and Iraq up to the present times (Roy, 1994).

Significance of the Arab Peninsula to the Middle East and the rest of the globe

Located in the South West Asia, the Arab Peninsular is the largest in the world and plays a significant role to the Middle East in terms of upholding their global geopolitical power due to its immense oil and natural gas reserves.

One most economic benefit to the Middle East is that the Arab Peninsular has brought wealth to every nation in the Middle East, resulting to the rise of financial hubs within the Middle East. Another significance of the Peninsular is that it facilitates transport within the Middle East region, thereby resulting into an economic integration of the countries in region (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

The geographical orientation of the peninsular serves to unite seven countries in the Middle East, resulting to a strengthened Islamic countries block that vast oil and natural gas, this implies that the countries in the Middle East can uphold their global political position using the Arab Peninsular and the vast resources found in it. On the global perspective, the Arab peninsular serves as a source oil and natural gas, which are the most important energy sources needed to run an economy smoothly (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

Causes and results of intifada

The intifada was a series of conflicts between the Palestine and Israel. The conflicts were because of Palestinian rebellion due to Israeli occupying some of the Palestinian territories. The intifada originated in a refugee camp in Jabalia, and later spread to other parts of Israel and Palestine.

The initial cause of the intifada was Israeli occupation into the Palestinian territories. The most evident cause of the first intifada was the incidence of an Israeli tanker exploding in Jabalya refugee camp resulting to the death of four Palestinians. Another significant cause of the intifada was the pulling out from the Gaza strip by Egypt (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

The intifada resulted into a large number of casualties, with approximately the death of at least 1000 Palestinians and scores sustaining serious injuries. The intifada also worsened the relationship between Israel and Palestine, resulting to an Arab-Israeli conflict.

American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan

One of the most significant reasons for America invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan was an effort to combat terrorism. In addition, the US claimed that Iraq was in procession of Weapons of Mass destruction (WMD); this threatened their national security and the allies of the US in the Middle East region.

The United States also contested that the Iraq president at the time, Saddam Hussein, supported terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, therefore it was only appropriate if it launched on the countries and further asserted that the governments of the countries were violating the human rights of their citizens (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

The war resulted to capture, trial and conviction of Saddam Hussein in an Iraqi court of law resulting into the governments of the countries entering into agreements with the US to foster peaceful agreements. Despite having positive motives towards the invasion, it resulted into mass casualties and a violation of human rights and civil liberties to the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan (Cleveland & Bunton, 2004).

References

Cleveland, W., & Bunton, M. (2004). A history of the modern Middle East. New York: Boulder, CO.

Kepel, G. (2002). Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam. London: Harvard University Press.

Roy, O. (1994). The Failure of Political Islam. London: Harvard University Press.

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