After 9/11 the Bush admin coined “Greater Middle East” which was literally just every majority Muslim country more or less contiguous to the Middle East. Anything from Mauritania to Somalia to Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan. The former-most having a latitude west of Europe and the latter-most having a latitude going into India and China, being lumped with a geographic region that just means “near the east”
Middle East is where Muslims live QED
After 9/11 the Bush admin coined “Greater Middle East” which was literally just every majority Muslim country more or less contiguous to the Middle East. Anything from Mauritania to Somalia to Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan. The former-most having a latitude west of Europe and the latter-most having a latitude going into India and China, being lumped with a geographic region that just means “near the east”