Word: sectarian
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...change of heart is politically expedient: with provincial elections due in January, the Sunni parties in parliament face a powerful challenge from influential tribal sheiks in their own community. To counter the challenge of the sheiks' political organization, the established Sunni parties are reaching across sectarian lines for support. Come election day, they may need Ameri's help, especially in constituencies where there's a significant Shi'ite swing vote. For the same reason, the Sunni parties have also flirted with followers of al-Sadr...
...This may all be cynical politics, but even alliances of convenience can help take the heat off sectarian enmities. When Iraqi Shi'ites and Sunnis both accuse their politicians of amoral opportunism, that's a kind of unity...
...Bridged. The Bridge of the Imams connecting the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya to the Shi'ite district of Kadhamiya was reopened on Nov. 11, and it was rightly hailed by Iraqi politicians as a turning point in sectarian relations, because the bridge had acted as a barometer of ties between the two communities. In August 2005, a stampede by thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims on the bridge left nearly 1,000 dead; hundreds plunged into the Tigris below and drowned. Despite sectarian tensions, many Sunnis in Adhamiya rushed to help rescue survivors. One young man, Othman al-Obeidi, rescued...
...change the direction of the country. "This wasn't about [opposing] Maliki as a man," said Nada Ibrahim, a Sunni lawmaker from a smaller political bloc that did not vote for the SOFA. "It's about the political parties in this government, the parties that are thinking in a sectarian way, behaving in a sectarian way. That is the problem. We think we have to share everything in this country, to re-evaluate and rebalance things...
...David Petraeus won with his surge and the retooled deployment strategy he spent the last 18 months implementing across Iraq. Violence in the nearly six-year war has ebbed to the point where Iraqi nationalism and a desire to exercise sovereignty have finally trumped Iraqi concerns over bloodshed and sectarian strife...