Evangelicals (particularly American evangelicals) have largely been seen historically as a monolithic group with similar viewpoints and actions across the board. The group has been tied to historically conservative values and is often held most responsible for the election of President Donald J. Trump. Additionally, American evangelicals have, as a whole, supported the modern State of Israel (both financially through individual donations and/or lobbying efforts and spiritually through prayer). Preliminary research suggested, however, that not all evangelicals have adopted this pro-Israel stance. After conducting 10 interviews (with subjects in the United States, Israel and the Palestinian territories) and researching the history of evangelicalism in these areas, it becomes apparent that evangelicals who are from or are currently living in the United States are much more likely to support the State of Israel than those who are from Israel or the Palestinian territories - though it should be emphasized that they claim their support is not unconditional, as several polls and general attitudes toward evangelicals may imply. Above all else, this essay seeks to prove that evangelicals are not a monolithic entity wherein all of its members harbor the same beliefs and attitudes. As the remainder of this essay will show, there is a wide spectrum of perspectives as it pertains to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which suggests that this conflict is not as polarizing within the evangelical community as one might think. Polls with numbers indicating that a majority of evangelicals support Israel might imply that there must then be conflict between those evangelicals and people who do not support Israel. Such polls neglect to highlight the nuance among members of the evangelical community, a fact that this essay will attempt to rectify.

This research focused on the extent to which Syria's Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian Islamic Front have managed to acquire political legitimacy within a society that has historically remained under the control of either a foreign occupier or an oppressive regime. In addition, the added instability caused by the various ethnic/religious allegiances, external forces and a long-standing tradition of inhibiting a civil society have caused their legitimacy within the society to fluctuate dramatically. As a result the Islamic opposition parties in Syria have undergone a variety of ideological and organizational changes in an attempt to acquire a firm support base from Syria's varied population. Therefore, this thesis looked at each Islamic party's ability to obtain support from a wide spectrum of the Syrian populace, starting from their introduction into the political theatre, up until the onset of the Syrian Civil War.