Articles tagged with: Shia
A newborn arrives, kicking and screaming into the world. The child is born in Lebanon, and when registered as a Lebanese citizen the parents will have to fill out the dotted line for “sect.” From cradle to grave, the Lebanese are classified according to confessional group, and their personal status matters are administered by the religious authorities. Beyond the personal, confessionalism runs through the political system right up to the top. The prime minister must be a Sunni, the presi...
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Tuesday, 26 Mar, 2013
The vast majority of global debate over the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq has focused on the rights and wrongs of the decision to go to war and questions over whether the beleaguered Iraqis are now better off than they were under Saddam. While war fatigue and the Arab Spring have meant that Iraq has been much underreported in recent years, anniversaries are always opportune moments to take stock of where things are. This is especially true of Iraq, since it continues to sit at a cros...
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Saturday, 2 Mar, 2013
Wedding bells are ringing out for change in Lebanon. On November 10, 2012, Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish became the first couple in Lebanon to tie the knot by way of civ...
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on :
Saturday, 23 Feb, 2013
Few scholars have had a better view of the catastrophic car crash that is modern Iraq than the British academic Toby Dodge. Originally one of a small group of experts called ...
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Twenty years ago—when I was only seven years old—Iranian television broadcasting was limited to two channels. I remember well how one of the channels used to broadcast an A...
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Wednesday, 12 Dec, 2012
Sana’a witnessed a shocking and unprecedented event last month: on 24 November a sectarian bomb attack was carried out against a group of Zaydi Muslims. The group was commemo...
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Monday, 29 Oct, 2012
Stephen Starr spent several years in Syria prior to the uprising against Bashar Al-Assad, which began almost two years ago and doesn’t seem likely to end soon. This long expe...
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Friday, 23 Dec, 2011
This week’s coordinated bombings in Baghdad are only the latest instance of growing sectarian tension in Iraq. The competition is at the very heart of Iraq's government, betw...
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Tuesday, 20 Dec, 2011
Barely 48 hours after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, a crisis—that could precipitate a resurgence in sectarian tensions—has hit the country. The ministry of interio...
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Tuesday, 27 Sep, 2011
Contemporary Iraq is a divided nation, beset by sectarianism and violence and hostage to the interests of a self-serving political elite. Whether Iraq is a democracy or not i...
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