The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (123)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)

 

123 Before or after Hijri 1400 (Gregorian 1980) (5/5)

Years before and after Hijri 1400 were the era of paradigm shift in the Middle East. The driving force was the Islam. During the first decade of Hijri 15th century (From 1980 to 1990 AD), Muslims fought against apostates whom they thought enemy of true Islam. The first struggle was against atheism of communist Afghanistan government and USSR. The second one was the conflict between two sects of Islam; Shiites versus Sunnis. Iran and Iraq fought each other. The third one was the collision between the Islamic fundamentalists Al-Qaeda and secular powers of Middle East and Western countries. September 11 attacks in 2001 was the biggest tragedy. Until very recently, Islamic State (IS, ISIS or ISIL), the virtual caliphate nation, challenged the modern secular states in the world.

 

The religious riots used to become radicals gradually. The modern Islamic movement has the same aspect. When the movement reached at the peak, it was self-destructed and lost the support of the masses. Once there had been the similar movement in Japan in the 15^th and 16^th century. Ikko sect which was the one of the sects of Buddhism became extremely radical and were finally defeated by secular power, Samurai.

 

In Buddhism, it is said that prosperous must decay. Nobody knows when the struggle will end in the Middle East. It is true that "Only God (Allah) knows".

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)