CH 7 Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia

• Steppe Climate


  Conditions in which evaporation rates exceed precipitation during periods of the year
• Desert climate


  Area where evaporation rates greatly exceed precipitation through most of the year
• Salinization


  The process by which soils become unproductive because of an accumulation of alkaline salts near the surface
• Monotheism


  A religion based on belief in a single god
• Judaism


  The religion of the Jewish people who worship Yahweh as the creater and lawgiver
• Diaspora


  The scattering of a people, such as the Jews and Chinese, to other countries
• Christianity


  A religion that developed out of Judaism, based on the belief that God came to Earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth
• Islam

  A religion of nothern Africa and Southwestern Asia, and parts of South and East Asia, based on the teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Qu'ran
• Muslims


  "Those who submit to Allah" followers of Islam
• Qu'ran


  The holy book of Islam
• Sunni Muslims


  Also known as Sunnites. Traditional, conservative followers Islam forming the majority in most Muslim countries
• Shia Muslims


  Also known as Shiites. Muslims who are partisans of the imam Ali (not acceptable to Sunni Muslims) and look to his return
• Medina


  The crowded streets of older sections of Arab towns in Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia
• Arab League


  Organization created in 1945 to encourage the united action of Arab countries for their mutual benefit
• Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)


  An organization that promotes the reestablishment of a country of Palestine
• Pan-Arab country


  The idea of Arab countries joining to form a single country, Egypt and Syria were joined for a short while in the 1960s
• Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)


  Originally named the Organization of the Islamic Conference, it was est in 1970 by foreign ministers of Muslim countries throughout the world
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)


  Established in 1960 to further the interests of oil and gas producers throughout the world, often in materially poorer countries and often to resist the overriding power of multinational oil corporations
• Cartel

  An organization that coordinates the interests of producers such as OPEC
• Nile Waters Agreement


  Agreement between Egypt and Sudan in 1959 to share Nile river waters, with 70% allocated to Egypt
• Desalination Plant


  A mechanism that extracts fresh water from seawater by evaporation and condensation
• Diversified economy


  An economy in which manufacturing is more important than primary products and where there is a variety of manufactured products and a growing service sector
• Kibbutz (pl. kibbutzlm)


  A communal farming village in Israel, the social and spiritual basis of the new Israeli nation after 1948, but now the home of fewer than 5% of the Israeli population
• Hamas


  Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, it is an Islamic resistance movement whose goal is to establish a Palestinian state on the current site of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip
• Hezbollah


  Inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, it was founded in 1982 by Shia Muslims as a resistance movement to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
• What would a night time satellite image of Egypt reveal?

  A snake of light along the nile river, surrounded by deep darkness
• The Aswan High Dam was built as a result of the Nile water agreement, concluded between


  Egypt and Sudan
• Which of the two following countries produce the greatest amount of freshwater from desalination plants in the world or relies the most heavily freshwater from desalination plants?

  Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates
• Devils on horseback with guns have been accused of genocide against non-Arabs in what region

  Darfur, Sudan
• Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization is located

  between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• For what reason did Saudi Arabia boycott the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing?

  Saudi Arabia claimed the conference was anti-Islamic
• If the 1967 Arab-Israeli war had not taken place, then


  there would have been no need for an Oslo Accord.
• The spatial term "Middle East"

  is considered Eurocentric and insensitive.
• In the center of historical medinas, surrounded by the souk,


  the mosque
• Within Northern Africa is a region that in Arabic means "place of sunset," suitably titled at the far west side of this region.


  the Maghreb