Abstract
The current sectarian conflict between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, termed as a full-fledged civil war by some observers, threatens to rip the country apart in an orgy of mindless violence. According to one school of thought, the fighting has the potential of escalating beyond the borders of Iraq and destabilizing the whole region of Middle East, particularly after the American occupation force withdraws from Iraq. Others disagree and believe that the conflict is a direct result of the U.S. occupation and may even have been fanned by the occupation forces as a classic colonial tactic of "divide and rule." In this research paper on Sunni-Shiite fighting in Iraq, the author examines the background of the Sunni-Shiite split and traces the history of Iraqi Shiites, besides discussing how the conflict has affected the country.

Outline:
Background of the Conflict--the Sunni-Shiite Split
Shiites in Iraq
Historical Sunni-Shiite Relations in Iraq
The Sunni-Shiite Conflict in the Post 2003 Scenario
Who is Responsible for the Provocative Attacks?
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The Shiite Buyid dynasty, for example, controlled Iraq and Persia for more than a hundred years from 945 to 1060 AD ("Buyid" 2007) and the Iraq region again came under the control of the Shiite/ Persian Safavid Empire during parts of the 16th and 17th century . The Safavid-Ottoman attempts to control Iraq deepened the Shia-Sunni rift as both Empires used Sunni and Shia religions to mobilize domestic support and prosecuted the rival sect during their periods of control. For instance, Iraq's Sunni population suffered immensely during the Safavid reign (1623-38), while Iraqi Shiites were strictly excluded from positions of power during the Ottoman control (1638-1916). During the longer Ottoman period, the Sunnis monopolized administrative and political power and the Shiites were not provided similar opportunities ("The Ottoman Period" 1988)"

Tags:conflict sunni shiite occupation history, middle east

Abstract
This paper examines the ongoing conflict between the two principle branches of Islam: Sunni and Shiite. The paper asserts that this is a relevant, even critical topic for anyone interested in today's world events. The current War on Terror and the struggles between Palestinians and the Israelis make understanding the acrimony between Sunni and Shiite Muslims necessary. The secular, Christian West remained generally ignorant of Islam until September 11, 2001, when members of Islam's radical fringe besmirched their faith in the eyes of the world through an amazing act of terrorism.

From the Paper
"This essay will examine the ongoing conflict between the two principle branches of Islam: Sunni and Shiite. This is a relevant, even critical topic for anyone interested in today's world events. The current War on Terror and the struggles between Palestinians and the Israelis make understanding the acrimony between Sunni and Shiite Muslims necessary. The secular, Christian West remained generally ignorant of Islam until September 11, 2001, when members of Islam's radical fringe besmirched their faith in the eyes of the world through an amazing act of terrorism."

Tags:terrorism, religion, Middle, East, fight

Abstract
This paper will discuss the movie "American History X" in the sociological medium of the Conflict Theory and it implications. The movie is based on the racism that is inherent in every sociological mode and will studied within the scope of this model to truly tell its implications in a conflict. The struggles of the central character will reveal to us the nature of his beliefs and the source of conflict that drives them within the film.

Abstract
Both the perspectives of the European inquisitions and Eco's "Name of the Rose" offer important understandings of medieval history. Eco's novel exemplifies how singular perspectives are often ineffective in determining what is true, or what is truth. In this paper, the role of "truth" is explored as an important process of the inquisitions and an important question for the characters in Eco's novel. The novel, as fiction, plus historical understandings from non-fiction sources, help build an understanding of the role of the Inquisition in establishing bureaucratic processes and legal institutions.

Abstract
This paper explains that Machiavelli's advice regarding the conflict between the Iraqi insurgents and President Bush would be explicit regarding the governance of Iraq: Do not leave governance up to the democratic will of the people because this will only stimulate chaos and revolt and allow minority clerics to stimulate discontent among fundamentalist sympathizers in Iraq. The author points out that Machiavelli would see it foolish for 'Prince' George Bush's own interests to attempt to create a Constitutional democracy in Iraq, which would self-destruct, and thus endanger his own power. The paper relates that Plato from his ideal Socratic oligarchy might agree that democracy would not be the ideal path for Iraq to follow; the problem with Socrates' analysis is that he seems to suggest the most faithful rather than the most popular should hold political sway but, when philosophical correctness within the dominant faith is polarized between Sunni and Shiite, a religious theocracy would be a disaster.

From the Paper
"Machiavelli would see a democratically elected, Constitutional Prince as anathema and unwise in this situation. In Chapter V of "The Prince", he specifically denotes what should be done concerning the governance of "those states which have been acquired," as Iraq has, through warfare and occupation. For states unlike Iraq, that "have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom," such states should be allowed to remain free and constitutionally governed. "Because such a government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot stand without his friendship and interest, and does its utmost to support him; and therefore he who would keep a city accustomed to freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than in any other way.""

Tags:fundamentalist, anathema, prince, self-destruct, theocracy

Abstract
This paper presents an interesting look into the Arab-Israeli conflict. It covers the conflict from the early 1900s, up to and including the current Intifada that began in 2000. It also discusses such subjects as the historical background of European Zionism, the emergence of Zionist terrorism during the ill-fated British Mandate and the birth of Israel as the result of a UN vote. According to this author, it is the continued Israeli occupation and not, the refusal of many Arab countries, or of the Palestinians, to recognize the right of Israel to exist, that is at the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

From the Paper
"Since 1967, the Palestinians have become bitterly reconciled to the existence of the state of Israel. They have no choice but to do so: Israel is the only power in the region with nuclear weapons. It also has the US for its major backer. (Each year Israel receives between $4 billion and $5 billion a year, mostly in military aid, from American taxpayers.) What Palestinians have demanded since 1967, and are still demanding, is that
Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, so that the Palestinian state envisaged in the UN resolution of 1947 can be created. In the meantime, they live in a "protracted state of political subjugation and economic dependence" (Morris 568).
The most critical development in recent years is the Israeli policy of settling the occupied territories with Jewish families. Settlement expansion into the occupied territories was first advocated by the Movement for the Whole Land of Israel and has been official policy in Israel since the rise of the Menachem Begin's Likud (Revisionist Zionist) party to power in May 1977. Between 1977 and 1984, one hundred new settlements were built on occupied land (Morris 567). By 2001, as many as 400,000 Israelis had been settled in areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem and its environs. As a result of the illegal settlements, public opinion in many countries has grown much more sensitive to the Palestinians' plight. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Palestinian cause was not always highly regarded outside the Muslim world on account of its resort to sensational acts of terrorism. However, by the mid-1980s, the PLO was viewed increasingly as representing the victims of the conflict. Many informed people have since come to the conclusion that the well-armed and financed Israelis are no longer simply defending the right of their tiny little state to exist, but are actively using their powers to oppress the Palestinians and prevent them from founding the state to which they are entitled."

Tags:occupation, terrorism, zionist, united, states, soviet, union, britain, hostility, population, rebellion, plan, peel, palestinian, international, immigrants, existence, settlements, bombings, suicide

Abstract
This paper takes a critical look at the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December of 1941. The paper points out that the occupation lasted till the early autumn of 1945, and the brutality of the experience is still a topic of resentment. It asserts that the occupation of World War II is part of Hong Kong's history and local memory for it harshly affected every family then living there. The paper adds that Japan's unknowable agenda caused some people in Hong Kong to rather welcome the 1997 lapse to the PRC, aware that their territory would be defended by the Red Army should their worst fears come to pass. The paper concludes that the fall of Hong Kong and the Japanese occupation were shattering events that have shaped Hong Kong's culture and consciousness.

Outline:
Introduction
Taking Hong Kong
A Fighting People
The 21st Century
A Changed Identity?
Conclusion

From the Paper
"One is unsurprised by comments of older people from Hong Kong on a 'Japanese mentality' or condemnation of recent Japanese elections favouring right-wing candidates. Stories still abound of Hong Kong civilians forced to dig hideouts for Japanese boats on Lamma Island, the diggers killed to keep the boats' locations secret. Part of the trouble involves how such horrid events contrasted with a colony of which many Chinese were most proud for Hong Kong had grown from nothing after the 1840s, the work of ordinary immigrants from the Mainland, the British administration working in their favour in years when the Mainland was hopelessly turbulent or just inefficient. In fact, after World War II, people wanted a return to stable government, eschewing decolonization in favour of colonial rule that lasted till 1997. The Japanese occupation had a deep impact, in this sense, as in 1952 proposed liberal reforms were not of interest to the public. Authoritative, stable rule was wanted instead, for the IJA occupation had destroyed Hong Kong's pre-War trading economy based on entrepot shipping and services linking the Chinese treaty ports that were most profitable. Hong Kong was a place of employment, education and hope, different from other European colonies in the region, its atmosphere said to be happier and more harmonious than in British Malaya or Singapore. Its people were often the children or the grandchildren of 19th century migrants, many from Canton, the whole social order differing from that of China, the well to do proud to descend from some ordinary soul to head for Hong Kong to make his fortune, away from the rigid class system of Mainland China, Qing instability and corruption."

Tags:WWII, occupation, invasion

Abstract
The paper describes the Palestinian women's plight for better living conditions since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. It discusses that women are generally heads of households in Palestine. It briefly examines the Israeli female point of view and the de facto national house arrest as a result of terrorism. The paper also describes feminist demonstrations against the conditions.

From the Paper
"In many ways, women have stood at the periphery, at least in the world's eyes, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To some ironic and terrible extent, this changed when female Palestinian suicide bombers began blowing themselves up earlier this year. The world appeared shocked and dismayed that women and children would join in the violence and bloodshed, begun and perpetrated by men, that has dominated the West Bank and the Israeli-occupied territories for so many years. "

Tags:palestine, israel, media, occupation, terorism, sucide, bombers, terrorsim

Abstract
The following paper examines several issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the Suez Canal crises, the Balfour Declaration, the Yom Kippur War and the Six Day War. The writer discusses the events that lead to the major unresolved issues that remain today in Israel, namely the status of Jerusalem; the future of Israeli settlements; and the rights of Palestine refugees. This paper is written by a pro-Palestinian supporter.

From the Paper
"In 1994, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, ending 27 years of occupation. A Palestinian police force replaced them. In 1995, then a Jewish extremist assassinated Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had been involved in the latest peace processes.
In April 1996, Israeli forces bombed Lebanon for 17 days, with Hezbollah retaliating by firing upon populated areas of Northern Israel. Israel also bombed a UN shelter, killing about 100 out of 800 civilians sheltering there. The UN claimed it was intentional. In 1998, the Wye River Memorandum planned Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank but Israel suspended it in 1999 due to internal disagreements on its implementation."

Tags:palestinian, liberation, organization, extremist, prime, minister, terrorism, occupation, territory