Cultural Differences Between North Africa And Southwest Asia

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North Africa is categorized regionally with Southwest Asia, separate from sub-Saharan Africa by many factors. For example, NASWA region is more developed and has predominately Arabs living in this realm. The geography theme place is defined as physical and human characteristics that include landforms, people, waterways, languages, climate, transportation, and communication. The Mediterranean Sea border North Africa and Southwest Asia. This realm has river valleys, mountain basins, deltas, and moist coastlines. Per text, most people live along the Nile River, the coastal strip, Asian eastern and northeastern shores of the Mediterranean, as well as the desert oases in parts of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin and along the lower mountain slopes of Iran south of the Caspian Sea (Nijman, Muller, & De Blij, 2016). …show more content…

Although there are other religions followed such as Christianity and Judaism, Islam is what most people practiced in the Middle East. Followers of this religion are called Muslims and there are two main groups: Sunni and Shiite. The Sunnis were those who believe that any devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad could take over after he died. However, the Shiites were against it and felt only a blood relative should uphold the teachings of the prophet. This caused conflict because each religion had their own beliefs as to what was more holy.
The natural resources in this realm made countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates wealthy. However, it also caused rifts between the Islamic societies and their governments. Also, because of not having access to drinkable water some people in these regions suffered because they did not have desalinization plants to turn the seawater into