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Middle East Explained - The Religions, Languages, and Ethnic Groups - YouTube
Channel: VanDeGraph
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This video is going to summarize the
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main languages, religions, and ethnic
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groups of the Middle East, and briefly
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explain some of the minority ethnic
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groups. Where the Middle East exactly is
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and why it has that name could be its
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own video, but for the purposes of this
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video the Middle East is a region at the
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crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It
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has no strict definition, but usually
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includes Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq,
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Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi
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Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates,
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Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Afghanistan and
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Cyprus are sometimes included in the
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definition, but those countries could be
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their own videos. Technically every
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country could be its own video but since
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the ethnic groups often span multiple
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countries this video will put them in a
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broader context. Ethnicity is a
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complicated concept for when groups of
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people identify one another based on
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shared language, religion, and cultural
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traditions. The main religions of the
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Middle East are Islam, Christianity, and
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Judaism. Islam is by far the most common
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religion in the Middle East, but most
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Muslims live outside the Middle East.
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Some of the countries where the majority
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of the population is muslim are in North
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Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
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A significant number of Muslims live on
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the east coast of Africa, but they're
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only the majority in Somalia. Albania and
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Bosnia has slight Muslim majorities, with
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the Christian minorities and the
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irreligious making up just less than
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fifty percent of the population. Kosovo
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is a Muslim majority country which is
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not recognized by the United Nations, but
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it is recognized by many UN members.
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Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and
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Indonesia are also muslim-majority
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countries. Due to these countries high
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populations, Indonesia, Pakistan, and
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Bangladesh are first, second, and fourth
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in the world by total number of Muslims.
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The country with the third highest
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Muslim population is actually India
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despite only about fourteen percent of
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the population being Muslim. It's just
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that India's population of over 1.3
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billion is so high that fourteen percent
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is over 180 million. The country with the
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fifth highest number of Muslims is
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Nigeria with a total population of 190
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million, which is about four percent
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Muslim, mostly in the North, representing over 90
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million people. In the Middle East most
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of the countries are majority Muslim, but
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Israel is majority Jewish. As well there
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are significant Christian minorities all
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over the Middle East. Most notably is
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Lebanon where over forty percent of the
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population is christian. It gets even
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more complicated though. Islam is divided
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into two main groups Sunni and Shia. The
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majority of Muslims worldwide are Sunni,
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but Shia muslims are concentrated in the
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Middle East. It is common for Sunni and
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Shia Muslims to live in the same country,
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but in general Iran, Azerbaijanm and the
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south of Iraq are Shia, while the north of
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Iraq is Sunni. Shia Muslims are also
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concentrated in the interior of Turkey
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and Afghanistan and the coastal region
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of Syria and Lebanon. The people of the
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island of Bahrain and the nearby Saudi
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coast are Shia, but the royal family of the
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Bahrain, and therefore the politically
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powerful class, is Sunni. Northern Yemen
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and neighboring parts of Saudi Arabia
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are Shia, while the rest of Yemen is
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Sunni. This divided couple with the fact
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that the north and south have only been
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unified since 1990 contributes to the
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tensions in the Yemeni civil war. The
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country of Oman has its own sect of
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Islam called Ibadism which predates
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the sunni-shia split. Iran and Saudi
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Arabia used the sunni-shia divide to
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compete for influence in the Middle East,
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with Iran generally supporting Shias, and
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Saudi Arabia generally supporting
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Sunnis. The religious divide is
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accompanied by a language divide with
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Iran speaking Persian, and the rest of
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the middle east except Israel and Turkey speak
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Arabic. Overall the most common languages
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in the Middle East are Arabic, Turkish,
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Persian, Kurdish, and Hebrew, which can be
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split into three language families of
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related languages. Persian and Kurdish
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are both in the Iranian branch of the
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indo-european language family. This means
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they are closely related to each other
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and distantly related to some of
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languages of Europe and India. Persian is
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the official language of Iran, though
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many other languages are spoken such as
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Kurdish, which is also spoken in parts of
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Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, but is only an
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official language in Iraq along with
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Arabic. The official language of turkey
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is Turkish which is in
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the Turkic language family. Turkish is
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closely related to Azerbaijani and
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Turkmen and more distantly related to
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the other languages in Central Asia. In
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Israel the majority language is Hebrew,
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but both Hebrew in Arabic are official
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languages. Arabic and Hebrew are related
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Semitic languages which are part of the
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afro-asiatic language family. There are
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certainly minority languages all over
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but Arabic is the official language of
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the rest of the countries of the Middle
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East. Except Arabic isn't really a
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single language, it's a bunch of regional
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dialects that are often barely
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understandable to one another. Arabic
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speakers will often know their own local
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dialect as well as modern Standard
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Arabic that is used in writing and with
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speakers of other Arabic dialects. This
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is similar to the situation in China
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where there are many regional dialects
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all considered to be Chinese, but the
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Mandarin dialect is used in formal
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contexts. The difference being that
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Standard Arabic is not any regions local
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dialect, while Mandarin is local to some
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parts of China. Most Arabic speakers are
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Arab, but there are plenty of non arab
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ethnic groups which speak Arabic. Arabic
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originated in the Arabian Peninsula and
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many minority ethnic groups exist in the
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rest of the arabic-speaking world. In
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some cases, such as in the North African
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Maghreb, the local Berbers mixed with the
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Arabs, though the Berber language and
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identity still exists in some regions. In
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other areas the local groups remain
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distinct and they live alongside Arabs
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and have adopted the Arabic language for
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convenience. For example the copts are
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predominantly Christian ethnic group
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living in Egypt that represent about ten
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percent of the population. In Lebanon
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most of the Christians are in a group
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called the Maronites though other
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Christian groups exist. The current
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President of Syria is an Alawite
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which is a Muslim group that speaks
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Arabic and lives near the coast of Syria,
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but they are Shia and a country that is
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majority Sunni. This contributed to the
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tensions which led to the Syrian Civil
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War. The main cause being that the
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President refused to step down following
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mass protests for democratic reform. The
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Druze are an ethno-religious group that
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lives in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel
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and speak arabic. They had their own
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distinct religion which is similar to
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but does not fit in with any of the
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main three religions of the region. Some
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minority languages also exist. The
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Assyrians are predominantly Christian
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ethnic group in Iraq and Syria that
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speak a Semitic language called Aramaic.
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The Kurdish language is a minority in
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all the countries the Kurds inhabit,
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but Iraqi Kurdistan and has recently
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gained high levels of autonomy due to
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the Iraq War (2003). The Iraqi Civil War (2014) was
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caused by the Syrian civil war spilling
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over into Iraq and stressing
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pre-existing tensions between the Sunni
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north and the Shia majority. The Kurds
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are linguistic group and can belong to
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any religion, although the majority are
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Sunni Muslims. Some Kurdish speakers
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called Yazidis of their own religion,
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which is similar to, but distinct from,
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the main religions of the region. They
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live primarily in Iraqi Kurdistan. The
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Kurds, Assyrians, and Yazidis are often
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the victims of mass killings and
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genocides, most recently carried out by
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DAESH in the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars.
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DAESH is also killing Shia Muslims. The
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third largest group in Iraq are the
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Iraqi Turkmen who represent less than
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ten percent of the population and speak
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a dialect of Turkish. In the Gulf states
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there are many migrant workers from
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foreign countries like India, Pakistan,
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Bangladesh, and the Philippines who are
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not citizens and thus have limited
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rights, but can sometimes be the majority
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of the population. There are many more
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ethnic minorities in the Middle East
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notably in Turkey, Israel, Palestine, and
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Iran, which again would require their own
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videos to explain, but to summarize what
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has been covered in this video: most of
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the countries of the Middle East are
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majority Muslim, with the exception of
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Israel, but most Muslims live outside the
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Middle East. The Arab League is an
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organization composed of arabic-speaking
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countries and includes all the countries
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of the Middle East except for Israel,
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Turkey, and Iran, but also includes the
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arabic-speaking countries outside the
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Middle East in North Africa and the
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Comoros Islands. Additionally many
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minority ethnic groups exist all over
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the Middle East.
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If any of the videos hinted at in this video are ever made
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they will be down below but until then
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you can watch one of the other videos I've made.
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