Monday, March 01, 2010

Cultural sensitivity training in Jordan

"from a source in baghdad":

"so the United Nations Mission to Iraq, UNAMI, which is based in Jordan, has a serving Jordanian army captain train new UN staff in cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness on Iraq. It was UNDSS, the security people in the UN, who ask the guy to come. So the Jordanian army captain lecturing the UN people was explaining the differences between Sunnis and Shiites. He referred to Sunnis as Muslims, not as Sunnis, but he refered to Shiites as Shiites (and not as Muslims). He said that Shiites are very religious and they look to Iran for leadership. He said Sunnis are secular and put the community first. He also said Sunnis don’t care what name you have but Shiites do care and hate Sunni names. more to come"