Contemporary Middle East & Africa

• Radical Islamic movements in the Middle East

  • Began to dominate the Middle East during the 1990s
  • Iran continued to be hostile toward Western powers, sponsoring terrorism and encouraging the production of nuclear weapons
• Benazir Bhutto


  Daughter of a former Pakistani president, became prime minister in 1988 - the first female head of state in a Muslim nation
• Persecution against Christians intensified throughout the 1990s, including attacks on Christian villages
• Attempts at peace between Israelis and Palestinians


  1. Representatives from Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) met in Washington, DC in 1994 to declare an end of forty-six years of fighting

  2. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho became part of a new Palestinian state led by President Yasser Arafat

  3. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians began to rise once more when Jewish and Arab extremists alike vowed to continue to fight until the other side vacated the land

  4. Both sides have held temporary ceasefires, but the violence always escalates and ends the armistices
• The fall of the Soviet Union reduced the amount of terrorist activity in some parts of the African continent during the 1990s, but the influence of Communist China replaced that of Russia in East Africa
• Communist strongholds in Africa

  • Angola
  • Mozambique
  • Zaire
  • Ethiopia
• In Nambia, the UN and the United States negotiated an agreement that provided the recognition of the South West Africa People's Organization or SWAPO, a Marxist terrorist group, as the official government of the nation
• Events in Somalia in the 1990s

  1. Civil war broke out in 1991 with rival Muslim and Marxist warlords battling each other

  2. Widespread famine prompted UN intervention, with American troops joining the peacekeeping forces

  3. Somali warlords resented the United States' presence, and UN mismanagement of the situation resulted in chaos

  4. US troops were withdrawn from Somalia in 1994 after eighteen Americans were killed during a mission to subdue one of the Somali warlords
• Between 1994 and 1995, at least 500,000 people died in Rwanda when the Hutu tribe attacked the mostly Christian Tutsi people
• UN peacekeeping forces in the region stood idly by while the Tutsis were murdered, and the UN actually helped Hutu murderers escape to refugee camps
• In 1995, the highly contagious Ebola virus killed an undetermined number of people in Zaire
• More than half of Liberia's population consisted of homeless refugees as a result of civil war
• On September 3, 1996, Ruth Perry became the leader of Liberia and the first female head of state in Africa
• Islamic aggression in North Africa


  • Accompanied a call for "pan-Arabic unity", an attempt to preserve traditional Arabic culture from Western influence
• The Islamic government of the north in Sudan waged a war of persecution against the Christians of the south, with atrocities such as the burning of churches, the enslavement of young women who were sold to wealthy Arab men, forced conversions to Islam, and literal crucifixions continuing into the 1990s and the 2000s
• Changes in South Africa

  1. UN continued to sponsor heavy trade sanctions against South Africa in protest of its racial policy of apartheid (racial segregation)

  2. When trade sanctions became too heavy for South Africa's economy to bear, the South African government released the head of the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela, from prison

  3. In 1990, the established government that had long been dominated by the South African Communist Party (SACP) agreed to share power with the ANC

  4. In 1994, the ANC gained control of South Africa as a result of elections, and Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa

  5. Mandela campaigned with communist leaders and even invited a communist dictator, Fidel Castro, to his presidential inauguration
• Nelson Mandela: 'Controversial figure - some charge him with being a blatant Marxist agitator while others consider him a humanitarian'