Word: sectarians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That was the day a powerful bomb set by Sunni extremists ripped through the golden dome of the ancient al-Askari Shrine, one of the holiest sites of Shi'ism, located in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra, 65 miles north of Baghdad. The blast triggered a round of sectarian bombings, massacres and kidnappings so horrifying that for the next year and a half, many Iraqis would wonder if life would ever return to normal - and had many in Washington warning of an intractable slide into civil...
...revival. Two months ago, the central market re-opened; a university - the city's first - is now under construction; and even the rubble of the ancient shrine, which was bombed again in 2007, is being prepared for a momentous rehabilitation. A city that had come to symbolize Iraq's sectarian schism may yet play a key role in national reconciliation. That's if its leaders heed the lingering warning signs...
...when Baghdad bolstered its security presence in the city and residents began to help push for change. The police walled the city in, leaving only three entrances, to prevent infiltration. The city's 800 policemen, planned to grow to a force of 1,500, have also dealt effectively with sectarian tensions, says deputy police commander General Adnan al-Saadi. "When we first came here, al-Qaeda spread rumors that we were here to occupy the city, and that we are [Shi'ite] and were going to treat [the residents] badly. But then the people started to realize that we were...
...threat, as India's major cities immediately set up checkpoints and metal detectors. At least 17 more unexploded bombs were defused on July 29 in Surat, a global diamond hub halfway between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The possibility that the terrorists may themselves have been Indian suggests that the sectarian anger boiling beneath the nation's modern veneer has taken on a new and bloodier tenor...
...particular, have become a rallying cry for extremist groups, who have drowned out the voices of moderation among India's Muslims. "We have a completely extraordinary situation post-2002 in Gujarat," says Harsh Mander, a former civil-service officer who works with victims of the riots. Other spasms of sectarian violence in India have been followed by "some kind of healing process," he says, with official remorse and legal action. But six years after the Gujarat riots, only a handful of cases have led to convictions. The Indian Supreme Court forced the state's government in 2004 to reopen nearly...