Some of the spoken varieties are mutually unintelligible,[4] both written and orally, and the varieties as a whole constitute a sociolinguistic language. This means that on purely linguistic grounds they would likely be considered to constitute more than one language, but are commonly grouped together as a single language for political and/or religious reasons (see below). If considered multiple languages, it is unclear how many languages there would be, as the spoken varieties form a dialect chain with no clear boundaries. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language#Arabic_and_Islam
Nice map, thanks. The history of China has included periods of a great deal of fighting amongst themselves. On the other hand China has been civilized and organized twice as long as some parts of the Arab world. I am excluding Egypt, Persia and Babalon from that statement. I agree tha Iran/Iraq war had a strong ethnic element, however, Sunni Saudis and the Sunni rulers of Barain(sp?) are facing significan Shia communities within their own border who are supported by Iran. There is a whole lot of religious mischief everywhere. If you ever have a chance to read T.E. Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” there is an excellent few pages on a cross section of Lebanon’s diversity.