Word: sectarian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Whoever is behind the recent series of blasts, the intention is clear, says Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi: "They want to hurt India's economy and they want to provoke sectarian unrest between communities here." The blasts over the past three years, Chellaney and other analysts point out, have all been carried out against "soft" targets such as trains, public buildings and markets. Since 2001, India has tightened security around government officials and government offices. But in a country of India's size and population, it's impossible to guard against...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was at pains to stress his new non-sectarian attitude when addressing Iraqi parliamentarians Monday. "The events of the past weeks have proven that we are neutral, not biased, that we did not take the side of this party or this sect against another," said Maliki, whose government has waged a two-month crackdown on the militia of onetime ally Moqtada al-Sadr. "We have also proven there is no security for any sect unless other sects can be guaranteed their security...
...National Accordance Front has long accused Maliki, a Shi'ite, of being too much of a sectarian partisan to offer evenhanded leadership in a coalition government comprising Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. That was a fair criticism until November 2006, when the Sadrists, too, began a boycott of Mailiki's government because the Prime Minister refused to press for an American withdrawal. Tensions between the two formerly allied Shi'ite factions built until open clashes erupted in Basra in March, when Iraqi forces attacked Mahdi Army havens there. The move sparked months of fighting that spread across southern Iraq...
...past few days, the army has vainly tried to prevent some of the clashes, which took place mainly in neighborhoods where Shi'a and Sunni districts meet. Because the country's constitution divides power among the largest religious groups, Lebanon's political stand-off has devolved into a sectarian one, with the main action pitting Shi'a Muslim opposition groups - first among them Hizbollah - against Sunni Muslim government supporters. But the army, which mirrors the country's religious makeup, now appears to be more worried about splitting apart along sectarian lines than it is about keeping the peace...
Museum officials hail success on another front as well. The past year saw a sharp drop in sectarian violence across the country due to the combined effects of a major milita's cease-fire with the government, the expansion of Sunni tribal cooperation with U.S. forces, and the U.S. troop surge. Now, says one museum official, archaeologists are taking advantage of those gains. "After the events of 2003, there was no security. When stability returned to some of the provinces, we resumed excavations," said the official, who added that 11 sites were excavated in 2007 across southern Iraq, in areas...