Explore the nature of two opposing ideologies in the Middle East: Islamic religiousness and secularism

The Dialectical Conflict of Religious and Secular Ideologies in the Middle East explores the nature of the ideological conflict in the Middle East, which began in the 19th century and fully erupted after WWI. Since the collapse of the Islamic theocratic regime of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, two types of diametrically opposed ideologies have been competing to overtake the region of the Middle East: secular and religious.

Both types of ideologies stem from the same source: awareness of social ills—rampant poverty and illiteracy, oppression of women, racial hostility, nomadism, religious fanaticism, and lack of education—along with frustration with the West imperial power. Leaders who adhere to Islamic religion as an ideology, as well as those who choose secularism, are genuinely convinced that they are providing the best means to serve their people in overcoming social backwardness and confronting the imperialist menace of the great powers.

Dr. Mamoon Zaki’s historical analysis typifies Georg W. Hegel’s perception of the nature of events—that history can be understood in terms of the movement of the dialectic, or a conflict of opposites.

About the Author: Mamoon Amin Zaki, PhD, is a former professor for the Department of Political Science and Sociology at LeMoyne-Owen College; a graduate and undergraduate adjunct professor for the Department of Political Science at the University of Memphis; and adjunct professor of Political Science, Sociology, and Middle Eastern Civilization at the New York Institute of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dr. Zaki and his wife, Hanan Aboud Jayid, have three children and two granddaughters.