Kenya's current boundaries?

Are the current ethnic problems in Iraq and Syria due to the artificial boundaries once set by the colonizers?

• Currently, Iraq and Syria are suffering from ethnic turmoil. Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites are fighting one another over territory. Could these problems have never erupted if the boundaries were set along ethnic lines and not the arbitrary boundaries set by the British colonizers.

• Answer:

  If you read any in-depth studies of Levant or Middle Eastern history, you'd notice that ethnic warfare is nothing new. The Allied drawing of borders in the early 1900s perhaps exacerbated some problems that were already present, and perhaps created or intensified certain power dynamcis, but they didn't necessarily create the underlying problems either. For example, the area you are taking about was actually ruled over by the Ottomans for hundreds of years. The Levant was conquered in 1481 and most of Iraq came under Ottoman control by the 1530s. The Turks were in charge until 1918. Even though they provided a larger Islamic-based system of governance, there was still considerable ethnic and national warfare. Maronites and Christians went at it. The Yezidi were constantly being attacked. On and on. The Turks also had to deal with Wahabbi threats as well. In fact, this is probably the closest analogy or representative of what is truly going on in that region right now. It is a clash of RELIGIOUS sects. And when you are speaking about Islam, there is always a socio-political framework that is a built-in component.   This is just a short list of hostilities that flared up in the Levant and Iraq, during Ottoman Rule (which apparently is not called "colonialism" for some reason):   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Saudi_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian%E2%80%93Ottoman_War_(1831%E2%80%9333) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Druze%E2%80%93Maronite_conflict http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Badr_Khan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Genocide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Safavid_War_(1532%E2%80%9355)     It is dramatically easier to blame "The West" and say all the recent trouble has to do with drawing borders in the early 1900s, or saying it is vaguely "colonialism," (as long as it is White Europeans or Jews) rather than reflect on the system of government in Islamic countries and the socio-political realities on the ground in those regions. Western (and American) occupation and meddling is certainly a factor, but it is not the primary and singular problem either. The real driving force for the  can be summed up in the following terms:   Salafi Takfiri Jihadist Islamist Extremist