THE QUESTION

It's the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War. Looking at Iraq and your own region, why do ethnic and religious groups fight each other? And what is the solution?

Posted by Fareed Zakaria on March 20, 2007 10:58 AM

FROM THE PANEL

Michael Young is the Opinion Editor and a columnist for Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper. He is also a contributing editor and contributor at Reason magazine, where he writes bi-weely articles.

Arabs May Quarrel, But Never Really Divorce

The conflict in Iraq is primarily one of comparative torment, with different groups trying to right past suffering or avoid it in the future. Yet I do not predict that Iraq will partition. Arab states are sometimes like Arab households: one may suffer but never truly breaks free.

Michael Young Beirut, Lebanon | 24 COMMENTS
Mar 22, 2007 at 2:54 PM
Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune. An internationally syndicated political columnist and book author, he is also the first director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University and the Dubai School of Government. He was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006. He teaches annually at American University of Beirut, University of Chicago and Northeastern University. He has been a fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, Syracuse University and Stanford University, and is a member of the Brookings Institution Task Force on US Relations with the Islamic World. He is a Fellow of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Jerusalem), and a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School. He also serves on the board of the East-West Institute, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University (USA), and the Jordan National Museum. He was editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times for seven years and for 18 years he was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, Jordan, where he also served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archeology, history and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan, and often comments on Mideast issues in the international media. He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, NY, USA.

Tyrants Gone, Iraqis Fight For Themselves

Rami G. Khouri Beirut, Lebanon | 31 COMMENTS
Saul Singer, a columnist and former editorial page editor at the Jerusalem Post, is co-author of the forthcoming book, Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Middle East Quarterly, Moment, the New Leader, and bitterlemons.org (an Israeli/Palestinian e-zine). Before moving to Israel in 1994, he served as an adviser in the United States Congress to the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Banking Committees. He is also on Twitter.

People Kill Since Biblical Times

Saul Singer Jerusalem, Israel | 34 COMMENTS
Miklós Vámos is a Hungarian novelist, screenwriter and talk show host. He is one of the most read and respected writers in his native Hungary. He has taught at Yale University on a Fulbright fellowship, served as The Nation’s East European correspondent, worked as consultant on the Oscar-winning film Mephisto, and presented Hungary’s most-watched cultural television show. Vámos has received numerous awards for his plays, screenplays, novels and short stories, including the Hungarian Merit Award for lifetime achievement. The Book of Fathers is considered his most accomplished novel and has sold 200,000 copies in Hungary.

The Ease of Misunderstanding

Miklos Vamos Budapest, Hungary | 30 COMMENTS
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READER RESPONSE

» ORL | Ethnic and religious groups oppose each other mainly because of lack of respect and intolerance, i.e. not accepting others as they are, and not accept...
» thrh | Why did the Irish fight one another, and also the English, for so many centuries and generations? The English and the Scots and the Irish and the Wel...
» Dave! | Why do ethnic and religious groups fight each other? A good question. Perhaps one should also ask why, in other places, ethnic and religious groups ...
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