Thursday, June 12, 2014

Prejudice and Conflict

The civil war in Iraq, like so many other conflicts based on differences among people apart from their views, is based on the machinations of political, power-hungry people. The age-old divide between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is more about prejudice and caste than it is about different interpretations of the Quran.

More deeply, its premise is the soft underbelly of all prejudice: Preying on people's fears and pre-conceived notions, asking them to identify as one group or another because of their birth or color or religion or whatever, rather than engaging in a debate about what the real differences may or may not be.

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