12.2: The Spread of Extremist Religious Movements in the Middle East

Secularism and Theocracy in Saudi Arabia and Egypt

This religious upheaval in Iran did not occur in a vacuum. Religious leaders throughout the Middle East sought to exert greater authority as they saw their societies becoming more secular and less patriarchic.  The two strongest monarchies —the Pahlavis of Iran and the Sauds of Saudi Arabia — both engaged in modernization and faced severe backlash.  During the 1970s, Saudi Arabia’s oil revenues skyrocketed and the government invested in infrastructure, bringing new technology, commerce, and Western culture to the kingdom. American hotels such as Hyatt, Intercontinental, Marriott, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, and Hilton were built, and 30,000 Americans moved to Saudi Arabia to provide technical assistance. The Saudi government brought in television and education for females. Increasingly in Saudi Arabian cities, foreign women were eating by themselves in public, Christians were wearing crosses, and pop music blared in the streets. Foreign movies promoting secular and western values were shown in the urban cinemas. Side by side with these changes, poverty remained rampant and the government appeared unresponsive to the needs of the poor.

Shortly after the Shah left Iran, Islamic radicals seized the holiest site in Saudi Arabia, the Masjid al-Haram Mosque of Mecca, in an attempt to overthrow the Saudi monarchy. They sought to cut ties with the West and deport all foreigners. While the rebellion was crushed by the Saudi military, the threat of Islamic revolution convinced the Saudi monarchy to give more power to the Ulema; religious scholars. The Ulema then formed the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice which closed the cinemas, restricted women’s rights, and censored the media.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Mohammad Reza Shah and Anwar Sadat, author unknown, in the Public Domain

As with Iran and Saudi Arabia, Egypt experienced economic growth in the 1970s accompanied by sharp inequalities and high levels of poverty.  Women were granted the right to divorce and were rising in the workforce with some even holding senior positions in government. The president, Anwar Sadat banned the niqab which is the face veil with a slit for the eyes.  However, he encountered rage from the religious in his efforts secularize society as well as his pro-Israel policies. To the world’s astonishment, Sadat embraced the prime minister of Israel and established diplomatic relations.  Sadat then reaffirmed that religious leaders did not have the authority to interfere in his government.  A religious fanatic assassinated Sadat in the hope of spurring an Iranian style revolution which never materialized. The Egyptian clerics did not call for a revolution. For the most part, the Egyptian government was not seen as a threat to religious leaders because it never sought to forcefully secularize society the way that Shah had in Iran. In figure 8.2.1, the Shah of Iran is meeting with Egyptian president Sadat. How are Mohammad Reza Shah and Anwar Sadat similar?  How are they different?

The Rise of the Likud Party in Israel

The more religious Orthodox Jews exerted more authority in Israel, a predominantly Jewish Middle Eastern country. The economic crisis of the 1970s had a major effect on Israel where a secular liberal Labor Party government that had been in power since the 1940s was replaced by the Likud Party which was supported by more religious Orthodox Jews.  The leaders of the Likud stood for an enlarged Israeli state. The Likud had no intention of any type of compromise or negotiation toward ceding land to the Palestinians. In fact, its leaders referred to the Palestinian occupied West Bank by its Biblical names Judea and Samaria and considered it part of Israel.  The Labor Party was divided on supporting Jewish settlement in the West Bank  but the Likud Party made settlement a policy. By 1981, the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank had quadrupled since Likud had come to power. The resettlement of the West Bank symbolized the desire of religious Zionists to settle in Biblical Judea and Samaria. It marked an escalation of the religious settler movement and the colonization of the West Bank and Gaza.  As a result of these policies, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians intensified. Palestinian radicals formed Hamas in 1988. This organization did not support a two-state solution and vowed a holy war against Israel.

Review Questions

• What factors brought about a resurgence in right-wing religious movements in the Arab Middle East and Israel?
• How was the Middle East different by 1980?