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The Fall of the Ottoman Empire
The fall of the Ottoman empire resulted in large colonial possessions for the UK, France and Russia, under this occupation a resentment for imperialism and “the west” starts to emerge -
Discovery of Oil and US presence in Saudi Arabia
With the fall of the Ottomans, a power vacuum was created in Arabia, the Saud family promoted a puritanical form of Islam named Wahhabism and captured the territory of modern day Saudi Arabia. With the finding of oil, American workers moved en masse and brought their “haram” culture with them. The influx of Americans and oil money required lots of infrastructure, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, the father of Osama was up to the task and became the richest non-royal in Saudi Arabia -
Founding of Israel
During the founding of Israel and the subsequent Nakba, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are expelled from their historic homeland, this greatly angers the Arab countries of the middle east which see Israel as a colonial project of the west, and enter into war with Israel nearly 10 times -
Iranian Coup
Mohammed Mosaddegh, the Prime Minister of Iran seeks better relations with the Soviet Union and attempts to nationalize Iran’s oil, controlled at the time by BP and ensured by the UK. This causes the UK and US to enact a coup, removing the prime minister and giving full control to the western friendly Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi -
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Mass Independence Uprisings
With the post war fall of European empires, many arab states stage anti western revolutions, these states primarily sided themselves with socialist movements, namely in Iraq and Egypt -
Six Day War
With a new independent fervour, Jordan, Syria and Egypt attempt to invade Israel. This resulted in a huge loss for the Arabs and sprung about the idea of fundamental islamism -
Iranian Revolution
The “westernization” of Iran and a growing class divide left many Iranians deeply unhappy with the state of their country, riding off the back of anti-western sentiments the Shia clergy, led by Ruhollah Khomeini, toppled the monarchy of the Shah and turned Iran into a theocratic state led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. This causes the US to further cement it’s ties with Saudi Arabia -
Iranian Hostage Crisis
As the Iranian revolution went on, a number of students took over the American embassy in Tehran, taking American diplomats hostage and finding proof of American involvement in the coup, cementing the anti-western sentiment of the revolutionaries -
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Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Under the stalling economy of the USSR, and fears of Afghanistan allying itself with the US, Brezhnev orders an invasion into Afghanistan. This act of aggression caused many devout islamists to declare Jihad against the soviets, sparking a decade long guerilla war, led by many militia leaders, including Osama Bin Laden. Fearing Soviet influence, the US sent money, arms and trained these islamist fighters covertly through the help of Pakistan -
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Iran-Iraq War
Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, sees the fragile state of post revolution Iran and decides to attack. The war almost immediately comes to a stand-still, resulting in hundreds of thousands dead on both sides. The US under Reagan use this to give their ally Iraq tons of chemical weapons, the US also decides to illegally funnel arms to Iran in return for their hostages, the money used from these weapons sales later is used on the Contras in Nicaragua -
Gulf War
Saddam Hussein, an ally of the US informs them that he plans on invading the former Iraqi territory of Kuwait, receiving no objection from the US, Iraq invades. George H.W. Bush then declares war over the invasion of Kuwait, and the Iraqi supply of chemical weapons, supplied by the US. The following war resulted in the deaths of a hundred thousand Iraqis and the obliteration of infrastructure. This destruction and the subsequent sanctions on Iraq results in the deaths of over 500,000 children -
9/11
After a successful campaign against the Soviets and a number of attacks on US military outposts throughout the Middle East, Al-Qaeda, headed by Osama Bin Laden declared Jihad on the US and started to plan their attack to end the US occupation of the region. George Bush, ignoring the warnings of attacks on the world trade center by his national security team, watches the twin towers come down on September 11th 2001, prompting the “War on Terror” to begin -
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Afghanistan War
Despite the ruling Taliban offering to give Bin Laden to the US previously, the US decides to take their retributive anger out on the people of Afghanistan and declares war. The current 20 year conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead, and has only given the radical islamist Taliban more support among the people than before the invasion began -
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Iraq War
In 2003, after crafting an impressive lie about non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, and campaigning to get the UN on it’s side, the US invaded Iraq despite having absolutely no ties with Al-Qaeda or Bin Laden. This conflict has resulted directly in the deaths of nearly half a million Iraqis, and the deposing of Saddam led to a power vacuum, revealing something much more sinister -
Arab Spring
A Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in front of a government office, mass revolts started to pop up across the MENA region, with revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. While the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents stepped down after sustained protest and violence, civil war began in Libya, Syria and Yemen. These wars have caused mass destabilization and mass migration, creating a new strain of islamophobic hatred and fascism across Europe, radicalizing even more muslims to extremism -
Rise of ISIS
The Islamic State, a much more vengeful, violent, and fundamentalist offshoot of Al-Qaeda began to quickly grow. Through the destruction of normal life and many sacred practices by foreign armies, a desire for resistance began to grow, and ISIS was there to fill the gap. Indiscriminately murdering any westerner or Shia muslim, and obliterating cities and cultural sites of many minority groups -
Rise of ISIS Cont.
Despite losing their key territory to Syria's rebels, the US army and the anarchist Kurds of Rojava, ISIS has steeped their ideology and beliefs into every muslim nation, fueled by the bloodshed of the American army and the prosecution of Muslims around the world. Even so far as Malaysia has many extremists, primarily women, carrying out terror attacks in the name of the Caliphate