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Ethnic Group Conflict

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Ethnic Group Conflict
PSY 450
March 26, 2012

Ethnic Group Conflict
Knowledge is power and the more knowledge a person has the more power he or she have at their disposal. Power can be defined as a overbearing control over a population or individual. People who are affected by power can be individual or a whole family can be manipulated. Power can cause a person to follow out of fear or out of trust, but the ultimate goal of welding power is the outcome can be the betterment of everyone involved or just the advancement of those in power.
One form of power that can be welded over people is conformity. Conformity is the action of doing what the majority states is appropriate in order to be accepted. That means the majority of the group makes the rules and everyone follows the rules or get discarded. There is acceptable and unacceptable practice that leads to good and bad penalty. For example society which is the majority of the people agree that stealing is wrong, therefore a law was made to inform people stealing is wrong. If a person is caught stealing there are consequences that are set in place such as jail time which is enforced by the police.
Conformity is not the only tool used by society to persuade its people to follow the demands and standards. Social perception and social cognition also play a significant role in getting people to follow the rules. Social perception works in three steps. The first step is the observer will watch the behavior or the observed and make assumptions. The second step is the assumptions will be connected to possible motivation or intention of the observed person. The third step is to determine how the observed behavior is being influenced. It is either being influenced by internal or external forces. For example a person who chooses to work extra hour could want to earn extra money, but that many not be the only reason why someone would choose to work extra hours. Another reason could be the person is trying to avoid being alone or the person did not have enough time to finish his or her work for the day. Social perceptions of people can lack all the evidence that is needed to make a proper judgment, which leads to stereotyping. Social cognition theory is similar to social perception because they both are investigating the link between human behavior and motivation behind it. Social cognitive also looks at the environment factors and personal factors that play a role in a person behavior. The combination of a personal experiences, personal traits, and personal environment will produce individual knowledge. Some past experiences can also be used to assist with solving current problems.
The Turkish and Arabs
Being and Arabian has to do with a trait and anyone that can speak the Arabic language can be considered to be Arab. The Arabic language is also used as the official language of the Islamic holy book the Qur’an. Now not all Arabs are Muslim which means that there is diversity of religions. There are 15 to 18 percent of Arabs who are Muslim. Arabs are a civilized culture with many modern cities. The economic status of Arabs includes rich, middles class, and the poor. Not all women are oppressed and considered to be male possessions, but women are usually victims of not being able to be leaders or someone in power. Islam women should be wear veils but not all the women do. For fear of attack from fanatic and the women who pretend to guard the religion wear veils (Akturk, 2010).
In the Arabs political world party affiliation is linked closely with the different religious groups which include Muslim, Christian, and Druze. The Arab perspective of Israel is not unified in how the nation should be handled but all Arabs will agree that there are hard feelings when it comes to Israel. In terms of conformity Arabs all speak on language in order to be accepted. They are also unified to some extent about their bad feelings toward the Israel. It is said that any person who calls them self Arabic without being able to speak Arabic will not be accepted by the Arab community. Along with those who do not side with Israel would also be rejected (Akturk, 2010).
It is common knowledge that the Israel and the Palestine nation have been in conflict and have not gotten along with one another for numerous years and to tell the truth it will probably not happen anytime soon. Depending on which religious text a person believes, the families were once one. It all started with Abraham who had a wife named Sarah and Sarah’s handmaid. There were two children Isaac who began the ancestry of the Jewish people and Ishmael who begin the ancestry of the Palestine people. The Jewish people’s god Jehovah promised them a land that they would live on for the rest of their lives. The conflict is over where the land is and who rightful owns it. The Palestine believe the land the Israel now occupied is rightful theirs (Altunisik & Cuhadar, 2010).
The feud over the land and the right to live on it is associated with social perspective and social cognition. An outsider without the proper knowledge might think the fighting is pointless because there are plenty of places for the Jews to live and avoid any conflict. So moving would seem like the practical option but the Jewish people will not give up their promise land. The Turkish people are associated with the region in which they live. Only one percent of the Turkish community is not Muslims and the political system is based on militantly ruled sector.
The social problem is this region is due to urbanization and migration to the west. The Turkish people do not believe in the way Islam is blocking the advances to the west. In fact the Turks actually look to the west for political and social reforms (Altunisik & Cuhadar, 2010). This is a positive sign that they do not hate the western ideas and are open to both sides. The military helps to keep the Democratic process balanced. The decision of the people cannot be control by one side. Turkey continues to reach out and find ways to assert them. The Turkic book is one way that was exposed when the USSR fell apart. By taking the route Turkey may find itself regional power.
It is interesting to see that conformity works in a different way with Turkish people. Even thought the majority is Muslim that do not automatically take the Muslim standpoint about rejecting the west. The two vital pieces of evidences that will help an outsider understand the Turkish people would be the regional position and the military rule of their government. They believe that is it is possible for the east and west to gather together. The strength of one can cover the weakness of the other, if both parties are will to come together and work through their difference. The social perception and social cognition is simple differences can be embraced and used to make advancement in people and in the nation as a whole.
In conclusion it is clear that the Arabs community and the Turkish community do not see eye to eye especially when it come to land. The west to most Muslims is the enemy because of undermines of their religion. The Turkish community sees the west as an opportunity for knowledge and expansion. The common ground between the two people is their Muslim religion. Each person should be given a chance regardless of the actions of their entire nation or even the history. If the Turkish community is given a chance to show the Arabs that the west can be beneficial for them than the Arabs perception of the west will changes for the good. The future course that may help their conflict is to develop a bridge were both the Arabs and Turkish cultures are able to come together and discuss their issues and this brave new venture.

References
Akturk, A. S. (2010, September). Arabs in Kemalist Turkish Historiography. , Vol. 46(Issue 5), p633-653. doi:10.1080/00263206.2010.504553
Altunisik, M., & Cuhadar, E. (2010, November). Turkey's Search for a Third Party Role in Arab-Israeli Conflicts: A Neutral Facilitator or a Principal Power Mediator. , Vol. 15(Issue 3), p371-392. doi:10.108/13629395.210.51701

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