Word: firebrands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Sectarian Strife PAKISTAN Gunmen riddled Azam Tariq's car with bullets on the outskirts of Islamabad, killing the firebrand Sunni extremist member of Pakistan's National Assembly, three of his bodyguards and a driver. They left behind few clues, but turned up the heat on a long-simmering sectarian war between the country's majority Sunni community and the minority Shi'as. Thousands of Tariq's Sunni supporters rioted in Jhang, his hometown, and also in the normally placid capital, where they torched cars, ransacked markets and burned down a cinema - killing an employee - while police stood by and watched...
Puritans and history buffs alike will soon celebrate the 300th birthday of one of America’s greatest eighteenth century firebrand preachers, Jonathan Edwards. But it seems that Massachusetts has only begun its own Great Awakening, with a proposal to repeal some of Edwards’ favorite blue laws still on the books. Created by paternalistic do-gooders who simultaneously serve as legislators, blue laws are those bastions of moral purity, those pesky legal devices that regulate amusements and “immoral” activity—often keeping alcohol locked-up for certain hours or days...
...they would likely top the list of suspects. No matter who carried out the attack, it's a relatively safe bet that Shiites on the street will blame the U.S. for failing to ensure security. Getting Hakim out of the way also strengthens the hand of the young firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr, who is challenging for power among the Shiite clerics by pursuing a more hostile line toward the occupying forces. Removing Hakim also strikes a blow at the IGC - the Ayatollah's sanction would have been important in establishing the body's legitimacy. Ironically - and not necessarily coincidentally - last...
...support among Sunnis, but its growth potential remains distinctly limited without participation from the Shiite majority. The Shiites were the brutally oppressed underclass of Saddam's Iraq, and they are deeply hostile to the Baathists. They also, however, remain for the most part suspicious of the U.S., and the firebrand young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is making confrontation with the occupiers the centerpiece of his own bid for power among the Shiites. Sadr supporters have engaged in violent street demonstrations against the U.S. and its allies both in Baghdad and southern Iraq, and they control the Shiite slums of East...
...most of the resistance thus far has been confined to Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, there are worrying signs emerging among the Shiite majority. While the leading clerics and some of the Shiite organizations previously based in Iran have counseled moderation and working with the U.S. authority, the young firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr appears to be wrapping his own bid for supremacy among the Shia in an increasingly strident campaign to confront the occupation, reinforcing his claims to leadership of the streets by channeling popular sentiment over the heads of those taking a more moderate approach. Last weekend's clashes...