sectarian
![Photo reprinted courtesy of Ahmad Shamloo Fard via Wikimedia Commons Iraqi Army and Hashed al-Shaabi defeated the Islamic State in Saladin Governorate, by Ahmad Shamloo Fard](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/iraq%200.jpg?itok=KfG0RBN6)
What's behind the 2015-2016 protests in Iraq?
![Photo Source: USC Annenberg http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2015/150212TomHundley.aspx](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/Tom%20Hundley_275.jpg?itok=Sr0ZYQIU)
With the current sectarian climate in the Middle East, it is rare to find events that host voices from across the region's sectarian and religious divides. But just a few days ago, a small window opened up in Doha. British-Yemeni journalist Abubakr al-Shamahi reports.
If it hadn’t been drowned out by the ongoing wars in Mali and Syria, you would have heard all about the brutal civil war that broke out in the Central African Republic (CAR) in December of 2012. I guess there's only so much war you can read about at any given time, but the one currently tearing through the bush of the Central African Republic is a significant one. One UN official is even claiming a high threat of genocide in the coming months as Christian and Muslim militias face off in a war of escalating sectarian violence.