Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This is kind of interesting. Iraq is trying to diminish the fighting between Sunnis and Shiites by encouraging them to marry one another:
Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has an unusual proposal to mend some of Iraq's sectarian wounds: He offers mixed couples a $2,000 "gift" if they get married...About a dozen mixed couples will take part in a mass wedding Friday and will receive their $2,000 gifts, Mohammed said. An additional 375 same-sect couples will join the celebration, but they'll receive $750, Mohammed said. The government wants to help those cash-strapped couples in getting their start, he said.
Just don't ask a certain (in)justice of the peace in Louisiana to officiate. He'll let you use his bathroom, but he doesn't like that kind of thing.
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I was under the impression that Iraqis were "intermarried" quite often before God's Favorite Nation decided to destroy and loot the place.
Posted by: jws | November 26, 2009 9:21 AM
I remember hearing something along these lines about Paraguay - how the dictator forced the spanish and the indians to intermarry. The comment was:
"20 years of misrule by this loathsome dictator left Paraguay peaceful, educated, culturally homogeneous, and with a budget surplus."
Posted by: Paul Murray | November 26, 2009 9:53 AM
"same-sect marriages"
That kind of sounds familiar.
Posted by: Charles Evo | November 26, 2009 12:41 PM
I hope Tariq al-Hashemi brought enough red paint to the ceremony so as not to run out before he finished stenciling two dozen bull's-eyes on the newlyweds' backs.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | November 26, 2009 1:13 PM
The Serbian government is already doing something similar in the rural parts of their country, offering mixed Albanian/Serbian couples money for getting married and even more for having kids.
In that case it's more to do with trying to reverse their declining birth rate than religious rapprochement, but I guess anything that overcomes unwelcome notions of national purity is a net positive.
Posted by: tacitus | November 26, 2009 2:51 PM
...while the implementation may be stupid and/or dangerous, the basic sentiment isn't necessarily a bad idea. It's much easier to write a group off as the Other if you don't personally know any members. Encouraging Iraqis from different sects to get to know each other as people might be a step towards reducing violence in the region.
Posted by: Snoof | November 26, 2009 9:16 PM
Well, we'll just have to wait to see if it was a good idea. If you tried that in India as a means of getting some hindus and muslims to learn to live together you'd have a whole lot of dead newlyweds.
Posted by: MadScientist | November 27, 2009 6:33 AM
I remember reading that in Rwanda during the massacres, it was not uncommon for wives to be killed by their husbands, if it was a Tutu-Hutsi marriage.
Posted by: Roman | November 27, 2009 7:08 AM
I'm sorry to say it, but it sounds like lots of Sunni husbands for lots of Shiite wives, (with all the records meticulous kept a the HQ of the Iraqi State Security Police)*.
This sort of thing has happened before you know. -DJ
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* and of course we trust that paragon of clean, open, democratic and not at all authoritarian government in Iraq, (not!)
Posted by: DingoJack | November 27, 2009 8:49 AM