Word: sectarianism
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...your March 12 cover story: As a Sunni Muslim in the U.S., I am often asked to explain the differences and disagreements between the Islamic sects. Your superb analysis has made my job so much easier. It is the most balanced, finely nuanced examination of the sectarian divide I have ever read in the mainstream media. Unlike many other non-Muslim commentators, Bobby Ghosh correctly realizes that the root of the fighting in Iraq (and in other parts of the Islamic world) is not religion but politics. The warring parties cloak themselves in religious garb and quote suras from...
...sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites would be comparable to a civil war in the U.S. between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics. If Iraqis cannot tolerate slight differences in practice of the same religion, how can they embrace democracy? One of the foundations of our democracy is the acceptance of different ideologies, including religion. It's time for Sunnis and Shi'ites to get over their mutual 1,300-year-old grudge. If Americans can accept a multitude of religious creeds among their compatriots, then surely the Iraqis can accept differences in the same religion. Ronn Ohl, Raleigh, North...
...sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites would be comparable to a civil war in the U.S. between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics. If Iraqis cannot tolerate slight differences in practice of the same religion, how can they embrace democracy? One of the foundations of our democracy is the acceptance of different ideologies, including religion. It's time for Sunnis and Shi'ites to get over their mutual 1,300-year-old grudge. If Americans can accept a multitude of religious creeds among their compatriots, then surely the Iraqis can accept differences in the same religion. Ronn Ohl, raleigh, NORTH...
...learning it can't pick sides in the sectarian bloodbath that has unfolded over the past year as ballooning Sunni and Shi'ite death squads have played a gruesome game of tit-for-tat. Last fall, a senior U.S. intelligence official in Baghdad explained that one side would always seek to take advantage of the other's weakness, which necessitated that the U.S. move to weaken and dismantle both in equal measure. To demonstrate, he put his hands up at the same level and brought them down simultaneously, as if closing a window...
...same time, al-Sadr seems to be offering an olive branch to his Sunni rivals. His most recent Friday prayer, usually delivered to excitable crowds, was handed out on flyers in Sadr City. In it he asked his followers to unite with all Iraqis. "Reject all division and factionalism, sectarian and civil war," read the missive. "Treat your brother Iraqis as brothers. Do not discriminate between Sunni and Shi'ite at all, and nor against others, so that you be the highest example of all this." Instead he asked them to focus their rage against another enemy: "Raise your voices...