Inside Story - Turkey Confronts EU Concerns
The government is taking a bold step to address discrimination against religious minorities but is it a move to appease the European Union or a bid to fend off the Islamist image of the ruling AK party?

Alevis Rally for Religious Rights
Mar 7 - Tens of thousands of Turkish Alevis demonstrate over government policies against religious minorities. Travis Brecher reports

Iraqi Christians Protest End to Legislative Quotas
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister sought safeguards Sunday for small religious communities in this mainly Muslim country as Christians protested parliament's decision to stop setting aside seats for minorities on provincial councils.

In Baghdad, a series of explosions struck mostly Shiite areas, killing at least 32 people and wounding nearly 100, police said. The attacks appeared aimed at reviving sectarian tensions that once threatened to plunge the nation into civil war.

Parliament last week approved a new law mandating elections in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. But the law removed a system that reserved a few legislative seats for Christians and other religious minorities.

Lawmakers cited a lack of census data to determine what the quotas should be. But many Christians saw the move as an effort to marginalize their community.

"I think that some political groups are pushing the remaining Christians to leave Iraq," worshipper Afram Razzaq-Allah said after services at a Catholic church in Baghdad. "They want us to feel that we are no longer Iraqis." Iraqi Christians Protest End to Legislative Quotas: Parliament Stops Reserving Minority Seats; 
32 Die in Series of Baghdad Explosions >>> AP | September 29, 2008

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