Essay Resource #1

            For one of my resources I found an American Army brochure online about Iraq’s culture and religion. This brochure talks about the different cultural groups within Iraq. They distinctly point out 6 different cultural groups, the Arabs, Shia and Sunni Arabs (which are grouped together even though there is a lot of tension between Shia and Sunni Arabs), Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldbans and the Turkoman. In the brochure it states how each of these cultural groups feel about the others, their population in Iraq and their religion. Only the Assyrians and Chaldeans are not Muslim. Also in the brochure they talk about Islamic religious beliefs and terminology as well as their religious holidays (this brochure only shows the dates of their holidays for 2004 – 2006. Each year the dates of their holidays change).

            I think this brochure will be helpful for my research paper because it tells me all about the different cultural and religious groups all in one place. It also shows me the religious holidays and what they do for them as well as some of their beliefs. Overall, I think this brochure could not only be helpful for me but for others who may be researching either Iraqi culture or the conflicts between different Iraqi cultural groups.

http://www.armytoolbag.com/Tools/Culture/ArmyCard.pdf