Isis and the Middle East

The other day, the U.S. began air strikes on ISIS. Isis is one of many issues that have occurred in the middle east this past century. It is curious why this region of the world always seems to have issues. I read an op-ed in the New York Times titled as "Isis Crisis". In this op-ed the author, named Thomas Friedman, tries to explain why this region has so much conflict. He believes it is only because of the Islamic religion, however I disagree. Every religion has extremists and although these certain extremists have taken their violence much to far, the original reason for conflict in this area is oil.

Oil is a major energy source in our world. Every country needs oil and will do anything to get it. The middle east is a region known to have a lot of oil, because of this many countries wish to control the oil wealth in this region. This greed for oil causes conflict between countries trying to control the region and people in the region. Since these conflicts occurred the region began to become broken by war and civil dispute. Arising from this crippled society are extremists. Since Islam is the primary religion in this area the extremists are Islamic. Also the United States' attempt to control the oil in the area has made many of the citizens in the area hateful towards us. When they believe they can hold no hope on their individual governments they turn to someone else to lead them. These leaders are the extremists and so the hatred grows and violence erupts.

The author of the op-ed argues that the extremists arose out of a broken religious society. He says, that Islam is the only reason for the violence in the area, and that the Arab society is too far gone. He says that any of our victories will be temporary. I agree that there is a very large amount of extremists, but he does not offer the idea that our involvement in the area sparked violence. His statements also do not go into the fact that their are many muslims trying to fight ISIS. Religion has sparked violence but the same  religion is also attempting to stop it with our help. The extremists of Islam are a terrible group of people and must be destroyed, however Islam is not the only reason for violence.