Very good opinion piece about Middle East

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=112406&d=4&m=8&y=2008


Coexistence of spirit and matter in the Middle EastHassan Bin Youssef Yassin Arab News

The Middle East has played a central role in world affairs since the dawn of human history. Scholars have declared it both the spiritual and the material birthplace of humanity. It was in Mesopotamia that modern civilization was born, with the first organized societies and economies emerging from the agricultural revolution. Some centuries later, the region was to give rise to the world's three monotheistic religions, in the hills of the Holy Land and the deserts of Arabia.

Today it is the spiritual aspect that gets most attention, in both positive and negative ways. The monotheistic order that emerged in the Middle East transformed the world through its unique message, and gave the world its most important connection to the Almighty, in whose guidance and spirit we have lived ever since. Unfortunately the three religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism have also been used to justify many wars and conflicts in God's name.

The spiritual heritage of the Middle East has brought out the best and the worst in humankind. Generations of human beings have lived better lives through God's guidance and His message.

But too often men have also fought over the belief that they were the true interpreters and servants of God. The call by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in Madrid to bring people of different faiths together should be viewed as an attempt to defuse such struggles and to allow us to practice unity, respect and tolerance in our interpretations of our common God.

What we tend to forget today is that the Middle East very much remains also a material center of the world, and this aspect is often more entwined with the spiritual aspect than we realize. The region's oil wealth has turned the Middle East into the keystone of world economic stability. This has attracted a great deal of attention to the region, as it has come to symbolize the essential link in the stability and survival of our current economic order.

As the nexus of spiritual and material significance, ignoring one or the other aspects of the Middle East can be extremely damaging to the rest of the world. Should oil be disrupted through further conflicts in the region, the collapse of the world economy is not just a possibility, but a certainty. We must begin looking at the Middle East in its universality, its spiritual and material components, and watch for any factor that can disrupt that balance.

Most importantly, we must give the Middle East the attention it deserves. In the lands where the three monotheistic religions have often been at odds, it is important that we promote stability and understanding, and work at resolving the many conflicts that threaten the region and its vital economic role. The spiritual and the material are nowhere as linked as in the Middle East, and we must all recognize this in order to avert a greater crisis than any the region has witnessed.

- Hassan Bin Youssef Yassin is a political analyst based in Jeddah. He can be contacted at Zyzy30@aol.com