ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting examples of the problems is in Libya, technically outside the Arab world but nonetheless involved in the dilemmas of the Salafiyya movement. Libya scholar Lisa Anderson has provided an enlightening review of Libya’s traditional appeal to Islam as the basis of national political legitimacy. Iraq and Iran have always been distinct entities, the former being Semitic Arab and the latter an Indo-Aryan culture. Heightened activity by Iranian revolutionaries had been observed throughout the region. Iran, Iraq and Syria would best qualify for that designation even under America’s distinctly biased rubric. In an economy devastated by nearly fifteen years of civil war—where frequently the only job available is in a militia—infusions of Iranian capital have made it a buyer’s market for the Shi’i activist groups. The best evidence indicates that the plan to sell arms to Iran originated in Israel, in line with Israel’s traditional policy of supporting the “enemies of its enemies.”
