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Iraq's Sunni-Shiite Killings: When It’s Based on a Name

In a time when something as simple as your name or accent can condemn you to death, many Iraqis, particularly the youth, are distancing themselves from divisive sectarian identities.
An Iraqi couple ride a motorbike during a biker show on Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad October 19, 2012.  Drag-racing in California, you say? No, this is Baghdad, where youthful rebellion and American biker style clash with  conservative mores in Iraq, a country where just a few years ago militias imposed their own radical Islamic views at gunpoint. Picture taken October 19, 2012. To match Feature IRAQ-CULTURE/BIKERS   REUTERS/Saad Shalash (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY SPORT MOTORSPORT) - RTR39IOY
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Omar al-Jaffal, an Iraqi journalist, wrote a scary note on his Facebook page: “I can be killed just because of my name. Have you ever heard of someone fearing his own name?” The Iraqi poet Ahmed Abdul Hussein replied: “Mere names have become a pretext for killing people.”

The story seems similar to a movie recalling the events of the 2006-08 civil war in Iraq, when both armed Sunni and Shiite groups decided to set up checkpoints, catching and killing members of the other sect. They mostly relied on names and religious and historical connotations to identify their targets. For instance, Omar is a Sunni name, whereas Abdel-Hussein is Shiite.

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