Word: sunni
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...World War I, London thought that the best way to secure routes to India, the jewel in its imperial crown, was to dominate Mesopotamia. To that end, the treaty at the close of the war cobbled together Iraq from three Ottoman provinces, one Kurdish, one Sunni Muslim and another Shi'ite Muslim. The British moved in under a League of Nations mandate. They didn't have a clue. In 1920 a full-scale revolt broke out. By one account, Britain lost 450 in the rebellion; other sources put the figure higher. Very quickly the British public, weary of endless...
...unheard of back home. Turgut Öker, who heads the union, hopes the organization's existence will speed the process of reform and help bring Turkey into the European Union. Non-Muslims enjoy religious freedom in Turkey, but the 98% of the population who are Muslims must study a Sunni-based Islamic curriculum designed by Turkey's Department of Religion. In Germany, however, public schools provide religious instruction in accordance with the country's "religious communities." That once meant Catholic or Protestant, but most German school districts have introduced Islamic studies as well. In Berlin, parents can choose from curricula...
...Pakistan, which had long been a principal hub for militants, armed Sunni extremist movements had enjoyed the complicity of successive governments. But General Pervez Musharraf has decided to smash these movements in exchange for strong backing by the U.S. It will be a long, hard haul. As the killings of American journalist Daniel Pearl and 11 French engineers in Karachi demonstrate, General Musharraf is not yet out of the woods--especially given Pakistan's endemic state of cold war with India over Kashmir. But one year after Sept. 11, Southwest Asia has neither exploded nor risen up at the instigation...
...support from both the U.S. and the Saudis in its gruesome war with Tehran. Iraq's ethnic makeup raises fears that the state itself could be dismembered, destabilizing the regional balance of power: The members of Saddam's regime are largely drawn from the country's 15 percent Sunni Muslim minority. Sixty percent of the population are Shiite Muslims, and the largest opposition group among them is allied with Tehran. To the north, secessionist-minded Kurds make up a further 20 percent of the population. Their aspirations diametrically opposed to the interests of Turkey, which fears it's own Kurdish...
BAMIYAN With about 10,000 troops at his command, Hazara Shi'ite KARIM KHALILI holds sway over Bamiyan province, which has a Hazara majority. Unlike other leading warlords, he has little in the way of armor or heavy weapons. His prospects are limited in Afghanistan, whose population is predominantly Sunni...