Israel is the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”?

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The_Face_of_Boo
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10 Apr 2018, 8:53 am

Daniel89 wrote:

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

Pakistan is hardly part of Middle-East, you're probably confusing with the "Greater Middle East" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East

Which is a recent political term. 'Europe' and 'Asia' are also political terms, both are the same land mass.

They are the same land mass but the tectonic plates determine what continent they are part of.

And they're mostly on the same tectonic plate:

Uri
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10 Apr 2018, 12:57 pm

I'm been homeless in Israel and I didn't have anything to eat and a place to take a shower and also I didn't have any place to sleep at night. So I slept on the street.

I don't think Israel is a democracy, more like a Capitalist dictatorship.

naturalplastic
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10 Apr 2018, 6:53 pm

Daniel89 wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Turkey is very much part of Asia, and not Europe. In fact the very word "Asia" originally meant onlythe landmass now called Turkey.

Turkey is in both Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the only city in the world that crosses two continents.

A tiny tiny piece of Turkey is Europe. The balance of the country is in Asia. The Bosporus strait is part of the natural boundary between the two regions. The Rhode Island sized part of Turkey that is west of the Bosporus is indeed in Europe. But since most of the bigger than Texas sized nation is east of the Bosporus, and for a host of other reasons, the nation as a whole is classified as part of Asia.

kraftiekortie
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11 Apr 2018, 8:48 am

Africa north of the Sahara is culturally “Middle Eastern" in many ways.

West of Egypt, and north of the Sahara, the area is called the "Maghreb." The intensity of the Islam is much less in Morocco and Tunisia. But the general culture is definitely not Sub-Saharan African.

You wouldn’t find a “souk” in Senegal, even though you would find quite a bit of Islam.

CockneyRebel
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11 Apr 2018, 11:17 am

I believe you.

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Lintar
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13 Apr 2018, 8:48 pm

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Cyprus is just politically/culturally European since it joined the EU.

Cyprus has always been culturally and politically European. Always. Prior to independence it was a part of the British Empire, the inhabitants were - and are - Greek, and even after it was invaded by Turkey in 1974 it was still seen as being such. Colonists from Greece were the first to found cities on the island, way, way back in the centuries prior to the Christian Era, so joining the EU was completely irrelevant so far as this well-established fact is concerned.

DarthMetaKnight
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13 Apr 2018, 9:11 pm

Uri wrote:

It's nice to finally hear the opinion of someone who has actually lived in Israel!

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DarthMetaKnight
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13 Apr 2018, 9:14 pm

Daniel89 wrote:

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Cyprus is considered European culturally

And Israel isn't??

Not really, I wouldn't say they were European they are quite backwards from my understanding.

Well ... a lot of European countries are quite backward. Belarus, for example.

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DarthMetaKnight
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13 Apr 2018, 9:24 pm

Daniel89 wrote:

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

Not really.

I will admit that "Middle East" is a vague term. Everyone can agree that Iraq is part of the Middle East, but, aside from that, the term "Middle East" is poorly defined.

That being said "Middle East" does not really mean "Muslim". Almost everyone in Mauritania is a Muslim and yet nobody considers this country to be part of the Middle East.

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DarthMetaKnight
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13 Apr 2018, 9:26 pm

Daniel89 wrote:

They are the same land mass but the tectonic plates determine what continent they are part of.

Tectonic plates are meaningless here.

A large part of eastern Siberia is on the North American plate, but we still consider this place to be part of Asia.

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naturalplastic
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13 Apr 2018, 9:56 pm

DarthMetaKnight wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

Exactly. Archeologists talk about the "ancient Middle East" by which they mean the thousands of years of Pagan civiiizations that predated Islam and Christianity, and includes the Christian Byzantine Empire the predated the expansion of Islam out of the Arabian peninusula the Seventh Century. There are still pockeds of Christianity in the middle east. And in today's world the most populous Muslim nations are Bangladesh and Indonesia which are both in Southeast Asia (hardly the Middle East). So there is no way that "Middle Eastern equals Muslim".

DarthMetaKnight
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13 Apr 2018, 10:24 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

DarthMetaKnight wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

The term "Middle East" is confusing today, but it gets even more confusing when you learn about the history of the Region.

Was Israel still Middle Eastern when it was under Roman control? Was the Byzantine Empire Middle Eastern? The Byzantine Empire was ruled by white Christians, though it controlled a large portion of what we would now call the Middle East, and it's capital stood where Istanbul stands today.

Were the Hittites Middle Eastern? They lived in what is now Turkey, but they spoke an Indo-European language, lending weight to the idea that they were white. The Turks were originally from central Asia.

Additionally, a large portion of the Middle East was under Mongol control at one point.

Another Thing: Was Greece Middle Eastern when it was under Ottoman control?

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