Are you a Northerner or a Southerner?
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On February 22, 2006, Sunni Muslims overwhelmed the
caretaker and staff of the Mosque of the Golden
Dome in Samarra, sixty miles north of Baghdad, Iraq.
The mosque was among the most revered Shiite
shrines in the Middle East, visited by more than a mil-
lion Muslims each year. Sunni and Shiite Muslims dif-
fered in their interpretation of Islam. Sunni insurgents
placed explosives at the base of the dome and left the
building. Moments later, an explosion collapsed the
dome, shattering its 72,000 golden tiles. By sunset,
Shiite militiamen had destroyed twenty-seven Sunni
mosques and killed three imams—Islamic holy men.
Over the next twelve months, the violence escalated,
resulting in the deaths of over 34,000 Iraqi civilians.
“The gates of hell are open in Iraq,” declared Amr
Moussa, head of the Arab League.
In 2009 President Barack Obama visited Iraq after a
spate of bombings had destroyed another Shiite shrine
and killed scores of Muslims. Obama called on Iraqis to
end “this senseless violence.”