This Blog is intended for use by students in the Islamic Middle East course at Northfield Mount Hermon School and guest students and teachers from other participating schools.
The six Arab Gulf Cooperation States (GCC) have condemned Iran for setting up offices on three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil is shipped. The islands - Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb - are claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The GCC [...]
Story from the BBC
Lebanon, which has been without a president for the last five months and has been in deep political crisis for several years now, saw a one day national strike for higher wages.
Story at BBC
“Over the last 20 years, globalization has been gaining breadth and depth. More countries are making goods, communications technology has been leveling the playing field, capital has been free to move across the world – and the United States has benefited massively from these trends. Its economy has received hundreds of billions of dollars in [...]
Michael L. Ross, Associate Professor of Political Science at UCLA, notes the following correlation between oil and human conflict:
“The world is far more peaceful than it was 15 years ago. There were 17 major civil wars - with ‘major’ meaning the kind that kill more than a thousand people a year - going on at [...]
The World Bank predicts that water supplies in the Middle East will be cut in half by 2050. It has often been said that water is already the tacit motive behind many of the region’s conflicts.
Story from the BBC
More on water in the Middle East
The government of Turkey is planning to invest up to $12 billion in economic development projects for the Kurdish southeast of the country.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey’s interests include developing good relations with those Kurds who live in northern Iraq, too, and with Iraq and its people generally since Iraq is a neighboring [...]
Oil prices are at a new all time high. High prices may be here to stay, say economists, unless the world goes through a protracted recession.
Go to story from BBC
Islamic banking is doing well. Broadly speaking, Islamic banking strives to adhere to the Qur’an’s prohibition on earning interest (riba) by sharing risk between lenders and borrowers.
Story from Banking Times
For a Muslim commentary on riba, follow this link.
Sharply rising food prices are causing increasing alarm throughout the Middle East.
Story from BBC
See also
BBC Middle East