Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

Questions About Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

by Kim Ghattas (Goodreads Author)

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Black Wave, please sign up.

Answered Questions (1)

Did she answer the question of how the fundamental Islamic faith got reestablished in the Middle East-a huge cultural and political step backwards?

Stephanie I would say she clearly captures the reestablisment of fundamental Islamic faith on parallel paths of the Shiites in Iran with their Supreme Leader an…moreI would say she clearly captures the reestablisment of fundamental Islamic faith on parallel paths of the Shiites in Iran with their Supreme Leader and the Sunnis theological school of Wahhabism after the 1979 Revolution in Iran. The author illustrates how the competing fundamental Islamic theologies spread through the Middle East and the Muslim world like a "black wave" of repression as the countries compete for domination with money, weapons, and theology.(less)

flag

Unanswered Questions (2)

Question after reading this brilliant book. Iran’s per-capita GDP is a small fraction of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has pumped serious proportions of its $1T annual defense $ to support Saudi interests for decades. Iran can’t really sell its main commodity (oil) in open markets at market prices because of sanctions, meaning selling at steep discounts in the black market. How does it compete in this arms race? Thoughts?

Answer

Flag

Did whoever wrote the Goodreads summary read the book? The summary contains an egregious error. There was no U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991. It is probably an inept reference to either the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq or the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, the United Kingdom and other coalition members.

Answer

Flag

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more