| abstract | - The Muslim Bloc was a coalition of newly-democratic Muslim nation-states in the Middle East on Earth in the early 21st century. In 2031, the Muslim Bloc nations were amongst those who pooled resources with the rest of the world to help divert the orbits of a number of asteroids threatening impact with the planet, endangering all life on Earth. In 2053, the Muslim Bloc states were amongst those hardest hit by the outbreak of World War III; nuclear weapons detonated over cities such as Riyadh and Mecca, and Jerusalem, a city sacred to Jews and Christians as well as Muslims, was destroyed in the process. (ST - The Lost Era novel: The Sundered) The exact composition of the Muslim Bloc went unestablished. Whether Jerusalem remained the capital of Israel or was divided between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine, as has been proposed in a number of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, went unestablished; thus, Jerusalem's status as a city within the Muslim Bloc or within Israel is unknown. The Sundered seems to imply that the Middle East has undergone a democratic revolution by 2031; presumably, there may have been an effective peace in Palestine/Israel as a result.
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