Analysis of the influential geopolitical factors of Islamic countries on international equations

Academic Thesis for Master's degree (MA)

Field: Geography       Tension: Political

Abstract

Islamic world has a set of heterogeneous geopolitical features. Muslim countries have extremely important facilities for regional convergence and the formation of a regional system based on indigenous elements and mixtures. This thesis was carried out with the aim of analyzing the influencing factors of the geopolitics of Islamic countries on international equations and the question was raised which are the influencing factors of the geopolitics of Islamic countries on international equations. The goals of this research include explaining the geopolitical position of Islamic countries and identifying factors influencing the convergence of Islamic countries based on the Islamic religion as a global power.  This thesis is a descriptive research and the findings of the research showed that the geographical location of Islamic countries can be influential with convergence in equations, and Islam can be a factor in the power of Islamic countries in international equations.

Key words: geopolitics, Islam, convergence, international equations, union, Arab.

Chapter 1

General research

Introduction

The Islamic world A population of more than one billion people, as a large demographic, cultural, economic and political pole, covers a wide area of ??the earth, which has strong capabilities for convergence. From the point of view of political geography, most of the Islamic countries are in the first stages of the political organization of space. In these countries, the population is increasing rapidly. In terms of geopolitics, there are also issues in the Islamic world. Islamic countries located in the Middle East and North Africa suffer from the natural and geographical problem of water scarcity. This issue has created a challenge between countries with shared water basins and has turned water into a geopolitical issue. The Islamic world, on the other hand, has significant areas of convergence, which is the largest reservoir of energy at the disposal of the Islamic world. Due to the declining energy hydrocarbon resources in other areas, the Persian Gulf region, due to its huge energy resources, will continue to receive serious attention from the world economy for at least the next quarter of a century, and this feature is sufficient for the geopolitics of this region. It was divided and considering that this division was more in harmony with the facts of the spread and influence of Islam, it was also noticed by Western experts. The need to change the structure of the world's geostrategic system led to the change in the structure of the former Soviet system, after the collapse of which the Soviet Muslim republics gained independence, and this transformation first of all changed the geopolitical borders of the Islamic world, as a result of which we are now faced with a set of geographical territories of the Islamic world (Ezzati, 2009, p. 1).

Islamic thinkers based on the teachings of the visual Islamic religion They present a geopolitics of world order that is clearly different from the existing geographical order. The first feature of such an order is to ignore the national governments and the geographical territory of the countries. Islam recognizes ideological borders and an ummah order in the territory of Dar al-Islam, which creates coherence and unity among Muslims based on the common beliefs and principles of Islam. Such an attitude emphasizes the creation of a book of power (the third power) within the framework of the balance of power and current international equations (Pishegahi Fard et al., 1385, p. 115).

The program of Islamic fundamentalism has emerged through several different political processes and depending on the campaigns of each national government and the form of global planning in each economy, in the capacity of Islamic societies as well as among Muslim minorities in non-Muslim societies. A new identity is being created, but by returning to the tradition, but by working on traditional materials and materials in order to research a divine and fraternal world in which the deprived masses and disaffected intellectuals may create a new meaning that becomes universal because it rejects the world order (Shamsini Ghiathund et al., 2011, p. 80). Geopolitics of the unity of the Islamic Ummah and beyond that the solidarity of mankind in the shadow of common foundations and ideological bonds. This principle is fundamentally in conflict with the foundations of the international geographical order (Pishgami Fard et al.

Nowadays, in order to promote convergence and cooperation between countries in various political, economic, cultural, scientific and technological fields, both at the regional level and at the international level, unions or organizations are created that operate transnationally with official structures and based on multilateral agreements between governments. In the field of Islamic countries, the existence of an efficient and inclusive organization in order to bring countries together in the process of convergence, like the European Union, is an inevitable necessity. Although the Organization of the Islamic Conference could have been a suitable option in relation to the convergence of the Islamic world, because all Islamic countries are members of it and it has several decades of organizational experience, but this organization has been ineffective due to the fact that it does not have the necessary efficiency and power, as well as the dependence of some member countries on foreigners, the lack of attention of some members to cooperate with the organization, and the lack of effective mechanisms in forcing countries to implement the resolutions of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to converge the Islamic countries (Hosseini Moghadam et al., 2013, Pg. 4-5).

Although most of the Muslims ideologically want to establish solidarity and global unity of Muslim countries, but in reality such a thing faces different challenges. These different challenges clearly exist in the form of dissatisfactions among Muslim countries, which cannot be emphasized only on the existence of the unifying factor of Islam. Although the Islamic world as a whole is influential in global processes, but in fact, due to the lack of necessary coherence, it has not been able to become an effective axis. The Islamic world, as a significant region in the geography of the world, is involved in internal-national and regional problems. Since many of these challenges are caused by theological approaches, but the solution to the problems is not theological measures, but geopolitical approaches to introduce new and functional horizons should be taken into consideration (Yousfi et al., 2019, p. 5).

According to the issues raised, this research aims to explain the geopolitical situation of Islamic countries and the factors influencing the convergence of Islamic countries based on religion. to identify Islam as a global power. 1-2- Necessity of research The Islamic world geographically covers a considerable area of ??the earth. Its extent includes about eleven thousand kilometers of longitude, from the westernmost point in North Africa to the Java Islands of Indonesia, and about 6 thousand kilometers of latitude, from the north of Kazakhstan to the south of Sudan. According to optimistic estimates, the population of the Islamic world is more than one billion and two hundred million people, most of whom follow the religion of Islam in the above-mentioned area in the form of different nationalities. This area includes the central Islamic region and peripheral Islam. Central Islam includes the countries that converted to this religion in the early years of the spread of Islam, and peripheral Islam is the parts of the Islamic world that chose Islam as their divine religion in the following centuries. In addition to this scope, today Muslims are present in all countries of the world. The Muslim population in some European countries, although they are a minority, constitute a minority that is a significant majority.  In recent years, the occurrence of incidents in the world with the agency of some people who appear to be Muslims caused widespread negative propaganda against Muslims. The September 11 incident and the formation of the extremist government of the Taliban in Afghanistan is the latest example of these actions. Some people in the West, using the tools of propaganda, made visible Muslim violent and anti-Islamic acts appear as Islamic acts and tried to present what happened as the reality of the Muslim world. What is certain is that the Islamic world is separate from these anti-God and anti-human acts. With the decline of other materialistic schools in today's world, the Islamic world has very valuable intrinsic values ??that can show the world the compatibility of the Islamic world and Islamic civilization with other religions and civilizations. Certainly, achieving this purpose is not easily possible; Especially, the fact that anti-Islamic currents try to distort the face of the Islamic world by making it look upside down. The Islamic world, currently, has a set of heterogeneous geopolitical features, for this reason it has extremely important features for convergence and the formation of a regional system based on local elements and mixtures.