Yesterday, we traced the background of the Arab nationalism to unite regardless of the religions, based on "Middle East Issues" by Ms. Keiko Sakai. 

On the other hand, "Islamism" was to be developed in the Middle East region. Having two holy cities Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia had established a position of the hegemon of Muslim world, and thus it was resisted to the Arab nationalism. 

When Iraq was founded, the British supported the house of Hashim and installed Faysal as the king of Iraq. At the same time, the British was approaching the house of Saud who was increasing their power in the inland of the Arabian Peninsula. Because the British chose Faysal from the house of Hashim, Saudi-Arabia (a kingdom of the Saud family) grew away from the British. 

It is the U.S. that tried to exploit this opportunity. The U.S. was behind their expansion in the Middle East, and didn't have the access to oil in the countries controlled by the British. Thus, the U.S. approached Saudi and started the oil field development there. 

As a feudalistic and conservative country, Saudi seemed to be exactly opposite to the U.S. But there was one more reason for America to work closely with Saudi. That is the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In the Middle East, there are three countries that border on the socialist countries under the influence of the Soviet: Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Because Iraq converted to a socialist country after the revolution, the importance of Iran increased for the U.S. 

In February 1979, however, the Iranian revolution broke out. When Iran declared the independence from the American control, Iran was no more a breakwater for the U.S. against the Soviet. In addition, the Soviet invaded Afghanistan in November same year. As the Hegemon of Muslims, Saudi felt the Soviet invasion very threatening due to their atheism and thus allied with the U.S. With their ally, Pakistan joined. Pakistan is another country where the Islamism had developed. Saudi and Pakistan dispatched troops to Afghanistan. 

These volunteer soldiers were called "Arab-Afghan" and fought transcending national boundary for protecting the land of Islam. Usama Bin-Laden was the one who fought as an Arab-Afghan. After the downfall of the Soviet Union, the Muslim soldiers were of no more use for the U.S. But for them, the battle for building the Islamic community had not been over. 

Ms. Sakai points out that by looking back the background of various Middle East issues, we can see the issues were caused by people who were strategically involved and manipulated in the power struggles during the Cold War. In this book, she further talks about the current situations of the Middle East people, which gives us very interesting insights.