Halpern: None for all

I'm thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

In March of 1972 the Organization of the Islamic Conference held its first meeting. The Organization was founded in order to foster unity between Muslims in scientific, cultural, social and political arenas. It has been a colossal failure, subject to infighting and outright hostility from its inception.

Internal hatred and historical divisions are intense. If membership had been limited to Zanzibar, Senegal and Jordan there would probably have been agreement on most issues. But with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Sierra Leone — altogether 57 member nations thrown in — what unites the Organization of Islamic Conferences more than anything else is its disunity.

The Islamic Games, under the auspices of the Islamic Conference, have been scheduled, postponed and now finally, ultimately, canceled. It was to have been the first ever publicly sanctioned games in which women were permitted to compete — many Islamic countries forbid women from participating in the Olympics. The reason for the cancellation has nothing to do with women; it has everything to do with the logo that Iran chose to display on their national Islamic Games promotional material.

Iran’s logo choice was a map of the body of water that abuts their country, the body of water they call “The Persian Gulf” and everyone else in the region calls “The Arabian Gulf.” Saudi Arabia, which also abuts the Gulf, refused to allow Iran to claim ownership of something that was not theirs.

This is an issue so incendiary that it might destabilize the entire region.

In May, Saudi Arabia accepted a compromise and agreed to call the water simply, euphemistically, “The Gulf.” Iran rejected that compromise outright and passed a series of policies that actually ban Iranians from ever using the term “The Gulf.” The Iranian speaker of the parliament underscored how strongly Iranian leadership feels about this issue when he called other Arab nations “feeble” for trying to hold on to their past history. He said that other nations have no right and no ability to back up their shared claim to the waterway.

I do not often take Iran’s side in conflicts relating to international affairs, but in this case, I must. The Iranians are absolutely correct. Historically, the body of water in question has almost always been called “The Persian Gulf.” Maps drawn and published prior to the 1960’s rise of pan-Arabism called that waterway “The Persian Gulf” and only “The Persian Gulf.” It was only after the rise of Arab nationalism that the seven Arab countries on the other side of the gulf began referring to it as the Arabian Gulf.

The maps of the great Greek geographer Ptolemy, a Roman citizen, were the foundation maps used by all mapmakers for centuries. On Ptolemy’s maps the area is marked as “Sinus Persicus” which in Latin translates to mean “The Persian Gulf.” A 9th century map in Arabic that I found reads very clearly “Bahr Fars” which, again, translates to mean “The Persian Gulf.”

In 1979, following the Islamic Revolution during which Iranians officially changed the name of their country to the Islamic Republic they also considered changing the name of the Gulf to the “Islamic Gulf.” This time it was Iran’s neighboring nations who rejected the idea outright.

Tensions in the Muslim world are deep.

Driving from the airport several days ago I asked my Egyptian Arab driver who he hated more - Israeli Jews or the Iranian Shiites. He didn’t hesitate for a moment. The answer was Iranian Shiites.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com