Dividing the Sheep from the Goats
Hamza Hendawi of AP writes about trends toward self-segregation among Shiite and Sunni in the New Iraq. It’s something to keep an eye on, but it must be said that
* For whatever reason, most of Hendawi’s informants are Shiites. There’s brief mention of issues involving Sunni neighborhoods in Basra but no quotes;
* There’s no hard data - it’s an impressions piece.
Take the article as the first word rather than the last word on the subject.
Comment by Yuri Guri —
January 31, 2006 @ 12:03 pm
For whatever reason, most of Hendawi’s informants are Shiites.
It may be that Hendawi is a Shi’a himself, which would make it difficult for him to travel in Sunni areas. Most of his reporting that I am familiar with contains more details about Shi’ite politics than anything else (he had marvelous coverage of al Sadr’s rebellion).
That even talented journalists are mainly focused on their own tribe, may in its own way actually confirm the increasing ghettoization of Iraq that Hendawi is reporting.