Religious geopolitics in the middle east: The importance of jerusalem for Abrahamic religions

In 20th century the importance of religion was disregarded because the main focus of the people was on daily realities or ideologies like liberalism and modernism. This situation, accordingly, culminated in an underestimation of the importance of religious geopolitics. Nevertheless, religion has still been an important determinant to understand ongoing conflicts or peace processes in the world. This study, therefore, focuses on the religion upon international relations and study the religious geopolitics which affects reactions of the societies and policies of states in general in the Middle East and in particular in Jerusalem. In fact, many Western people were not aware of the effect of religion on international relations or even ruled it out until the September 11. They regarded religion and even ethnicity was not related to international relations and because of this underestimation, they couldn't understand the importance of religion in world politics as well. However, religion and religious geopolitics has been a great determinant especially in the Middle East, the birth place of three Abrahamic religions. Moreover, it is possible to connect many past and current events to religion and religious geopolitics. The most explicit example of religious centered conflict is certainly that of Crusades but today it is possible to realize another great conflict which is between Arabs and Jews. This ongoing conflict is certainly the result of a religious struggle upon the holy city of Jerusalem which is regarded as holy for all three Abrahamic religions.