Brandon Belna

Islam in the Modern World

Dr. Sam Houston
18 April 2019

“The Problem of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony” & “The
Sectarianization of Geopolitics in the Middle East”
Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East
Ussama Makdisi & Bassel Salloukh

Thesis One
Modern Middle Eastern sectarianism isn’t rooted in early Islamic Sunni-Shi’ite division, rather,
such is rooted in events which occurred in the 19th century, primarily in reformations passed by
the Ottoman Empire to create a more inclusive society to non-Muslims, which disestablished
core Ottoman cultural pillars such as symbolic and legal Muslim supremacy without any sort of
preparation on behalf of Ottoman elites, which compounded with the influence of Western
imperialism introduced a new form of governance that was heavily controversial (23 – 28).

Thesis Two
Western imperialism had a great effect on the development of a new sectarian terrain in the post-
Ottoman Middle East, as the West attempted to deconstruct the Ottoman Empire into various
sectarian parts, while at the same time attempting to build viable polities in a manner that
safeguarded imperial hegemony; such deconstruction, many Arab nationalists argue, was the
main cause of many events which are unfolding in the modern Middle East (31 – 34).

Thesis Three
The recent spread of sectarianism in the contemporary Middle East is rooted in how Saudi
Arabia and Iran have deployed sectarian identity, narratives, and symbols to neutralize both
domestic and external regime threats, and such battles were fueled by factors such as the 2003
US invasion and occupation of Iraq, where a great geopolitical battle was born between Saudi
Arabia and Iran for Iraq (35 – 39).

Thesis Four
Saudi Arabia and Iran’s geopolitical battles in attempt to contain each other’s influence spanned
across many countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen; and the Arab uprisings
presented a new landscape where these geopolitical battles could be fought, especially with the
international “struggle for Syria”, which has provided a grand geopolitical contest for Saudi
Arabia and Iran (37 – 49).

Discussion Questions
1) How was the West attempting to defend their own interests by influencing the Middle East
during the fall of the Ottoman Empire?
2) How did the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq serve as a catalyst to contemporary
Saudi Arabia-Iran geopolitical affairs?
3) To what extent did the Tanzimat reforms contribute towards the creation of Middle Eastern
sectarianism?