Exam 2 Review Sheet -- INCOMPLETE

Spring 2007

 Islam in Practice: Turkey, Iran & Egypt (Ch 7 & films)

  1. Explain the following: Sharia, Fatwa, Caliph, Umma and Millet system
  2. What did the film "Muslims" mean when it stated that, in Nigeria, the Muslim north adopted Sharia after the failure of Western law?
  3. Contrast the role of Islam in politics in Turkey, Egypt and Iran.
  4. What is so controversial about Turkey's goal of educating all young women (consider  language & religious issues)?   Would you adopt that approach?
  5. What is the headscarf debate in Turkey?  Contrast freedom of religion in Turkey to the United States.
  6. Discuss the role of the Turkish military in maintaining a secular state.  Can a country where the military has veto power over policies be considered a democracy?
  7. In what way is Turkey a part of the Middle East? Of Europe?
•Iran, chapters 9 & 12
  1. Why were the Western powers so interested in Iran?  How does “Operation Ajax” illustrate western interests and tactics?
  2. Explain the “people-power” in the Tobacco Rebellion.  Give another example of Iranian “people-power.”
  3. Explain Khomeini’s political theory as well as the concept of a theocracy.  How did Iran’s religious leaders undermine Iran’s democratically elected reformers in the 1990s?
  4. Discuss Crane Brinton’s Theory of Revolution.  How did it fit with the Iranian revolution of 1979?
  5. Explain America’s involvement in the Iran-Iraq conflict in the 1980s.
  6. By the end of the 1990s, US Iranian relations had improved.  Give an example of that improved relationship.  According to Roesler, how did Bush’s labeling Iran as part of “the axis of evil” and the US invasion of Iraq affect the election of Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad in 2005?
  7. What approach should the US take towards Iran?   Should Iran be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon?  Should we try to isolate Iran? 

 
Kurds (ch. 8)

  1. Discuss the results of the Versailles/Sevres treaties on Kurdish independence.
  2. Discuss how the Kurds manipulated the Iraq-Iran war to their advantage and how Iraq and Iran manipulated the Kurds to theirs.
  3. What is the primary goal of the Kurds?  Is that compatible with the goal of the Sunnis and Shiites?

 

Iraq (11 & 13 & 14): Daily Show Clip on Mosque Bombing & Iraqi Solutions

  1. Which group was favored by the British under their occupation?  Which group dominated Iraq up until the 2003 invasion?
  2. What were the goals of the Baath party?
  3. Briefly discuss the history behind the First Gulf War.  Did the US give Saddam Hussein a 'green light' for aggression?
  4. Read this quote from President G.H.W. Bush.  Do you agree with his decision to not to invade and occupy Iraq in 1990? (http://hnn.us/articles/631.html#bush1998)
  5. The authors argue that "it did not seem possible to deal with Saddam in any humane, rational way" because Saddam tried to thwart inspectors.  However, Roesler argues that Saddam was "rational" when he let the inspectors back in in 2002 (note that the text is wrong in saying that Saddam did not let the inspectors in -- he did, but Bush ordered them out in March 2003 in order for the invasion to begin -- see http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/iraq/main537096.shtml ).  Make a case for whether Saddam was or was not rational in thwarting the inspectors in the 1990s.
  6. What were the two biggest problems of the management of the invasion (based on the "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" clip)?
  7. What is "blowback?"  How does it fit with Afghanistan?  
  8. What would you recommend to the next president regarding US policy in Iraq?
  9. What do Iraqis want (regarding US troops)?  

 

Terrorism

  1. Some argue that the roots of terrorism are to be found in Islam itself.  What did Roesler mean when he stated that terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology?
  2. What did Roesler mean when he referred to the US as the “cultural borg?”
  3. According to Roskin (284), how did Qutb’s teachings differ from the “Christian error” that the West had inflicted on the world?
  4. Roesler argued that some US policies incite resentment.   Give two examples and explain how they caused anti-American resentment. 
  5. What strategy does Robert Pape argue we should take to lessen resentment and minimize the threat of terrorism?
  6. Whose offer of defense did the Saudi Royal family turn down in 1990?  Whose did they accept?
  7. Why does Roskin argue that Bin Laden’s opposition to American was “merely a necessary step to his real goal: the removal of the house of Saud?”