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Sunni Hegemony Shattered
(Jerusalem Post) Shlomo Avineri - The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq put an end to decades of Sunni hegemony in a country which has a Shi'ite majority. Ever since the British in the 1920s stitched Iraq together from three very disparate provinces of the old Ottoman Empire, the Sunni Arab minority, which never numbered more than 20%, tried to maintain its rule over the 60% Shi'ite majority. The recent attacks against the Shi'ites are the death throes of the defeated Sunni ruling minority. In addition, the 20% Kurds, who are not ethnic Arabs, now appear not to wish to live under Arab domination any longer. Only a fortnight ago 1.7 million Kurds signed a petition calling for independence, to which the Kurds - if one takes the idea of self-determination seriously - are as entitled as the Palestinians.