Word: sectarianism
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...wore on, it became clear that the tragedy had more to do with inadequate policing and haphazard crowd control than with sectarian animosities. If anything, many Shi'ites said, the Sunnis behaved honorably, both before and after the tragedy. After all, over a million Shi'ite pilgrims had passed unmolested through the Sunni stronghold of Adhamiya on their way to the bridge. And when disaster struck, its residents rushed to the rescue. Many jumped into the Tigris River to pull out pilgrims who had leaped (or fallen) off the bridge; others took injured and exhausted pilgrims into their homes, providing...
...Baghdad's supercharged political atmosphere, it was inevitable that reaction to Wednesday's tragedy on the Bridge of the Imams would be colored by sectarian sentiment. Within a couple of hours the city was already rife with wild rumors of an impending backlash by Shia pilgrims incensed by the death of nearly 800 of their fellows. Many streets were empty, and security forces were out in strength...
...evening, as Baghdad residents absorbed the enormity of the tragedy, the sectarian sensibilities faded as many began to blame the Shia-dominated Iraqi government for failing to anticipate the numbers of pilgrims and provide for adequate security and crowd-control. "Everybody knew there would be more than a million people crossing the bridge today," said Sami Hilli, a Shia Baghdad resident. "Why were there not enough policemen here, to organize the traffic...
...murder spree has erupted in Washash, as in countless neighborhoods across Baghdad. Death squads, which tend to move in Opel sedans, are entering what once were tight-knit communities and killing ordinary citizens, apparently to stir up sectarian hatred. The goal: to incite a civil war that each side hopes will give its sect dominance over the other. In Baghdad, a city of more than 5 million, there were at least 880 violent deaths last month, according to Faiq Amin Bakr, director of the Baghdad central morgue. (In New York City, with a population of more than 8 million...
...evening, say witnesses, a mob of 15 gunmen, all relatives and friends of the three dead brothers, surrounded the house of popular Shi'ite clergyman Sheik Razzaq. A frail man in his 50s with a white skullcap and a ready smile, Razzaq had tried to stem the tide of sectarian hatred in the neighborhood, even accepting both Sunni and Shi'ite children into his Koran study classes. Sunni extremists found his message of tolerance threatening. "I was sitting with my wife and son and heard someone call out to me from the gate," recalls Razzaq. "As I walked...