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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JustTradeEm who wrote (85997)	3/25/2003 11:15:29 AM
From: michael97123	Respond to of 281500

US/Republican combat has begun according to CBS. No details..

To: JustTradeEm who wrote (85997)	3/25/2003 11:55:19 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

Pick a middle eastern country, show me where different religious sects, different ancestral tribes ( not sure this is the right word ) but show me where they trust each other and reside peacefully and successfully. I have the perfect example for you. I am quoting this from Sandra Mackey's book The Iranians: Persia, Islam, and the Soul of a Nation. It is a highly recommended book. Like a Persian carpet, Iran is a complex pattern of ethnic groups, languages, religions, and regions. This diversity is fundamental to Iran's character. For territorially and politically, the country is as much an empire as a nation. In conflicts that are as contemporary as historical, Iran is afflicted by enmities between the nation's geographical heartland located on the vast Iranian plateau and the regions on its periphery; between Shia Islam and minority faiths; between the speakers of Persian and those who speak the language of their own ethnicity...Yet while Iran is cast in the mold of Persian language and culture...they include 12 million Azerbaijanis who speak Turkish rather than Farsi...6 million Kurds...large nomadic tribes number as many as four hundred...1 million Baluchis...seven hundered thousand Lurs...1 million Bakhtiari...1.2 million Turkomans...1 million Qashqais...still other groups less numerous...half million Arabs...2.5 million Gilakis and Mazandaranis...fragments of religion like Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, Bahais...The Christians subdivided into Eastern Orthodox Assyrians, Protestants, and Armenians, who are also ethnic minority and claiming their own distinct history, language, literature, and music. Of the religious minorities, the Jews are the most closely integrated into an Iranian culture... ... The great paradox is that out of this varied mix of language, ethnicity, and religion rises an intense sense of Iranian identity that is shared by all people of Iran with the possible exception of Kurds. I can't imagine a more varied country outside of North America. And they do trust each other and live in peace. More so in fact than various segments of American society do. I really encourage everyone to try and put their prejudices aside and read about the various cultures from different authors and perspectives. Then take a vacation to those countries. It'll be both fun and enlightening. But read first before you travel. Sun Tzu