Two questions here: A) How do the common people of the middle east and Islamic-Africa view religious governments where officials promote and favor Islam? I know Iran has such a government but what about Saudi Arabians? Turkish? I want to know about the common people, not those already in power B) How do Islamic national groups see each other. Do Egyptians like Iranians? Do Saudi Arabians hate Pakistanis?
It has to do more with the branch of Islam (esp. Sunni vs. Shia) and how religious the people are. In every country there are people who want a religiously based government and laws, and people who want a more secular government.
Oh I had overlooked the conflict between the Islamic branches... The reason why I asked is because the premise of my story involved an facist, christian America that was in direct contention with an "Islamic Commonwealth" who controls the world's oil, forcing America to both conquer South America for resources and build a ridiculous amount of nuclear power. I might have to push forward the dates a bit to make the world seem plausible and allow others to speculate how two highly-hated branches united under one flag.
i suppose it's possible to imagine a time when a shared hatred of the west and the common goal of destroying it would trump islamic sectarian predjudice/hatred...
Yes, money and a common enemy could gloss over sectarian differences (and it has in the past.) A fascist, religious-based U.S. that declared war on Islam certainly could bring a lot of other nations together. Your premise is rich with possibilities -- although as far as "resources" in South America -- which resources, specifically? Although they do have some oil reserves they're not as extensive as they are in the Middle East. Venezuela is an OPEC nation - that could be an interesting nugget to explore if the U.S. were to invade them, perhaps for that reason. Most of South America is very Catholic. You might be able to explore the relationship with the Vatican, etc., if you're making a religious-based conflict. Europe has traditionally been more swayed by the Vatican than has the Far East, although some countries, such as the Philippines have very close ties. You could explore issues of global warming and overpopulation leading to, perhaps, a fight for Antarctica -- I don't know if there's any oil in that region, but you could make it that there is some huge oil reserve there that's been discovered after a lot of ice melting. Argentina and Chile have some sense of closeness with Antarctica and that could be a strategic reason why the U.S. would want to invade them.
In my world, Catholics and Jews are second class citizens and Muslims are in internment camps or have fled to Russia through Alaska. The Commonwealth has the Russians and Chinese at their heels and are making moves into Africa, for better or worse. The Americans have effectively turned Canada into a puppet and annexed most South American nations (For gaining religious influence and oil/metal resources). UN and NATO are just thoughts on paper as the EU tries to avoid war with the Commonwealth and "American Holy Empire" EDIT: The Vatican actively refers to President Claymore as the devil reincarnate but have lost most of its funding from religious fear in Europe.
