The Influence Of Political Geography On The Culture Of Islam In Central Asia
A stateless nation is a nation with no borders, a nation with just equality and no wrongs but just rights. A stateless nation has one culture but still differences. It is also a place with shared beliefs and shared politics. A stateless nation is different for everyone, but for me it is a nation only things that are right, and one healthy politic. The stateless nation that I choose is Central Asia, the reason for this is because Central Asia shares the same religion Islam.
According to “The Culture of Islam” by Berkley Center, the religion of Islam is more than just a religion, it is an identity. What makes Islam more than just a religion is how it affects people in their everyday lives. Modesty is a big part of this culture and it brings many people together, which makes it a stateless nation. Everyone in the culture of Islam has the same clothes, which makes the culture a stateless nation. The uses of the phrases Inshallah (God willing), Al-Hamdullilah (Praises be to God), and As-salamu Alaykum (Peace be upon you) are what bring the nation together, because as all the people are stateless, they understand each other and all of these phrases which really brings their culture together. It demonstrates the power of Islamic culture as a cultural tool for all people that are in this stateless nation. The culture of Islam also has some holidays which brings all of the people who are in this stateless nation together including friends and neighbors. “During Eid al-Adha (one of the Islam holdiays), many Muslims sacrifice a sheep, cow, goat, or camel and give about one-third of the meat to friends and neighbors (both Muslim and Christian) and donate one-third or more to the poor.” In this stateless nation food and love and the culture is given to everyone, friends, neighbors, and even the poor making it a whole nation full of no borders and just a stateless nation. Islam is a religion and a culture, this is important because it shows that it brings a whole nation together in many ways.
Geography influences culture in many ways, especially in a stateless nation because attributes of geography like landforms, climate, vegetation, bodies of water, and all other geographical types of nature can affect the way humans adapt to environmental conditions they encounter, therefore it affects the culture. Some examples of the environmental conditions humans encounter are like high mountains, deserts, rivers, and the arctic cold. All this geography can affect a whole culture, and especially a whole nation, specifically a stateless nation. According to the scholarly article “Influences of culture and environmental attitude on thermal, emotional and perceptual evaluations of public square”, geography influences are huge on the way cultures are affected.
Geography affects the culture of Islam because Central Asia has an arid type of climate, it gets very hot in the summer but can be extremely cold in the winter, and very snowy. This climate can affect the culture of Islam because it affects the way people interact with the weather, meaning this climate can change the way a culture acts as a stateless nation, in this case the culture of Islam. Because Central Asia is at lower altitude than mountains than the culture of Islam developed to a culture created around low altitude, and a different climate than many other cultures all around the world. According to “How Geography Shapes Cultural Diversity” from nature.com, climate affects the way cultures form because of the vegetation, the agriculture, and the animals that live around that culture.
According to “The Culture of Islam” by Berkley Center, the culture of Islam sacrifice a sheep, cow, goat, or camel and the reason for those animals is because those animals are the ones that live around the culture of Islam, and that is how geography can have such a big effect on the way it affects a culture, especially a stateless culture. Political Geography is a branch of geography that deals with governments, boundaries, nations, states, and even cities. It can also deal with culture, the way political geography affects the culture of Islam is how it affected the spread of Islam in Central Asia for it soon to become a stateless nation. Political geography influenced the economy of the culture of Islam, it affected the culture socially, and politically.
