Word: sectarianism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rubaiyi was celebrating the ascent of the country's Shi'ite majority after decades of repression under Saddam Hussein. But the revelry turned sour after officials at the college of pharmacy asked al-Rubaiyi and his friends to break up the event, saying it violated a university policy banning sectarian gatherings on campus. The students refused the request, and al-Rubaiyi scuffled with the bodyguard of the dean of the pharmacy college, Mustafa al-Hiti, before heading home. He never made it. A few hours later, he was shot and killed by unknown assailants on a street near his house...
...most deadly spasm of violence in a year: last month alone, attacks killed more than 600 Iraqis, many of them Shi'ites targeted by Sunni jihadis bent on sowing civil war. The country's universities have long served as the bulwark of Iraq's secular society, refuges from the sectarian strife that threatens to rip the country apart. But now violence has come to the campuses. A rocket attack on an engineering college in the heart of Baghdad two weeks ago killed two students and injured 17 others. Bombs have been found at several colleges, leading many universities to institute...
...biggest danger is that in the process, the radicals will succeed in igniting simmering ethnic and religious tensions-and mirror the divisions already apparent outside the university walls. Sectarian groups were barred from running for student-union elections earlier this year, but many simply set up parallel "committees" that carry greater clout than the elected unions. At Mustansiriya University, there are two "committees" representing Shi'ites-radical cleric al-Sadr is particularly popular-and a third is backed by Sunni students. All three routinely celebrate religious events on campus, plaster walls with posters depicting their respective religious leaders and conduct...
...President Pervez Musharraf responded with a call to oppose "anyone trying to incite hatred." But sectarian violence has worsened under his reign. Musharraf has been reluctant to act against militant groups, largely to avoid alienating the fundamentalist political parties keeping his secular political opposition at bay. "The government does not recognize the threat homegrown terrorists pose to the stability of Pakistan," says Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO. "Isn't it time the government recognized the price of the game being played...
...other words, the Sunnis coming in to the political process may shun Zarqawi, but they appear to accept Baathist-led guerrilla fighters killing U.S. soldiers as part of the Sunni mainstream. Fears of full-blown sectarian warfare between Shiites and Sunnis, meanwhile, have prompted urgent mediation efforts by, among others, the firebrand Shiite maverick Moqtada Sadr. Sadr appears to be using the opportunity to regain political traction against rivals in organizations such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the most influential party in the ruling coalition of prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. But Sadr...