How do Perceptions of Outgroups Indicate Barriers to Civil Society in Iraq?

At the Iraq "liberation" in 2003, many of us asked, "Is there really hope for civil society to emerge from the chaos?" We guessed about how Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish factions could be brought together, and if it was likely that ethnic conflicts would lead to civil war. Seeking a better understanding of the situation, this project tried to address: "How do Iraqis' ethnic and religious identities relate to perceptions of other groups (outgroups)?" and "how does place of residence relate to those perceptions about outgroups?" I collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands. I asked Iraqis for their own ideas about their future, personal and collective, and their perceptions of Those Other Groups, their "outgroups." What did I find? That background items of religion, ethnic origin, and location, alone, did not relate strongly to respondents’ attitudes towards outgroups. But, some combinations of background items did give significant differences in perceptions towards other groups. For example, "moderate” Arabs in Iraq were the group most opposed to foreigners, and were the group most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. This project, and the follow-up project on social networks of Iraqis, presents one approach from which researchers and fieldworkers can develop theories to explore and explain elements of civil society in Iraq, and beyond. ____ Jon Gresham is a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. His work focuses on the Middle East; he worked twelve years there

Civil Society Iraq: Ethnic, Religious, and Location Influences on Outgroup Perception

Civil Society Iraq: Ethnic, Religious, and Location Influences on Outgroup Perception Jon Gresham* April 2004 A significant research question in the immediate post-war (May 2003) environment of Iraq was: "How do Iraqis’ ethnicity, religious affiliation, and location affect expressed perceptions of threat from outgroups?" We collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions, in five locations in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands, with a single page instrument. Religion, ethnic origin, and location alone had little direct bearing on respondents’ attitudes towards outgroups or change (another type of threat) in Iraq. However, certain sets of interacting elements did reflect significant differences in perceptions of threat. For example, Shi’a Muslims of urban Basra had very different expressions towards return of expatriate Iraqis than did Baghdad residents. A serendipitous innovation was that of publishing our research process onto a "wiki" web page where visitors could add to or change contents of the documents. The wiki live publishing helped fellow scientists, decision-makers, resource agencies, and Iraq fieldworkers participate in our project. Why Civil Society? The term describes both behavior and social systems and provides a sociological framework from which to explore social interactions in Iraq. Follow-up is warranted. We found, for example, that "moderate Arabs" in Iraq were the most opposed to foreign involvement and were the most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. This finding is relevant to decision-makers and field workers in relief, development, and reconstruction in Iraq. This paper describes our research process in a post-regime-change environment. I would welcome comments onto the web site: http://CivilSocietyIraq.seedwiki.com. _____________ * Jon Gresham is a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. His work focuses on the Cyprus-Syria-Iraq-Iran area. Special thanks are given to Hub Linssen, Assistant Professor at the University of Utrecht, with interest in cross-national comparative survey methodology

Inconceivable: An Analysis of Assisted Reproductive Technology for the Church

Infertility pushes the boundaries of emotional and physical health, which is why many couples inside and outside the church turn to Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) for a solution. Despite what has seemed like silence from the Church, some individuals have braved the biological confusion and ethical dilemmas to evaluate the technology. Three major ethical viewpoints have emerged that each prioritize something over medical technology, namely community, order, or human dignity. This paper serves to educate pastors and church leaders on the ever-changing biology of ART as well as give voice to Christians that have spoken out on this issue. At stake is the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the infertile couple as well as the life of the embryo. In question is how an accurate theological view of health, medical technology, and infertility impact Christian involvement in ART

Civil Society Iraq: Location Influences on Outgroup Perception (June 2004)

A significant research question in the immediate post-war (May 2003) environment of Iraq was: "How do Iraqis’ location affect expressed perceptions of threat from outgroups?" We collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions, in five locations (in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands), with a single page instrument. Religion, ethnic origin, like location alone, had little strong bearing on respondents’ expressed attitudes towards outgroups or the government in Iraq. However, certain sets of interacting elements did reflect significant differences in perceptions of threat. For example, Shi’a Muslims of urban Basra had very different expressions towards return of expatriate Iraqis than did Shi’a Muslims of rural Basra. A serendipitous innovation was that of publishing our research process onto a "wiki" web page where visitors could add to or change contents of the documents. The wiki live publishing helped fellow scientists, decision-makers, resource agencies, and Iraq fieldworkers participate in our project. Why Civil Society? The term describes both behavior and social systems and provides an overarching framework from which to explore social interactions in Iraq. Follow-up is warranted. We found, for example, that "moderate Arabs" in Iraq were the most opposed to foreign involvement and were the most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. This finding is relevant to decision-makers and field workers in relief, development, and reconstruction in Iraq. This paper describes our research process in a post-regime-change environment. I would welcome comments onto the web site: http://CivilSocietyIraq.seedwiki.com

One Child\u27s Story of School-experienced Isolation and Rejection

Abstract For twelve years of school, a tiny girl endured isolation and rejection from her peers most likely due to a physical abnormality. As the girl remembers, the educators in a small, rural school district did little to support her as she was ostracized by her classmates and encourage other children to practice compassion. At times, the educators even participated in the rejection of the child. This is the story of a tiny, brown-eyed little girl who experienced isolation and rejection time and time again. Keywords: isolation, rejection, bullying, abus

Color Octet Scalar Production at the LHC

New physics at the weak scale that can couple to quarks typically gives rise to unacceptably large flavor changing neutral currents. An attractive way to avoid this problem is to impose the principal of minimal flavor violation (MFV). Recently it was noted that in MFV only scalars with the same gauge quantum numbers as the standard model Higgs doublet or color octet scalars with the same weak quantum numbers as the Higgs doublet can couple to quarks. In this paper we compute the one-loop rate for production of a single color octet scalar through gluon fusion at the LHC, which can become greater than the tree level pair production rate for octet scalar masses around a TeV. We also calculate the precision electroweak constraint from Z decays to a b and anti-b quark; this constraint on color octet mass and Yukawa coupling affects the allowed range for single octet scalar production through gluon fusion.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

On the Effect of Nuclear Response Functions in Dark Matter Direct Detection

We examine the effect of nuclear response functions, as laid out in [Fitzpatrick et al, arXiv:1203.3542], on dark matter (DM) direct detection in the context of well-motivated UV completions, including electric and magnetic dipoles, anapole, spin-orbit, and pseudoscalar-mediated DM. Together, these encompass five of the six nuclear responses extracted from the non-relativistic effective theory of [Fitzpatrick et al, arXiv:1203.3542] (with the sixth difficult to UV complete), with two of the six combinations corresponding to standard spin-independent and -dependent responses. For constraints from existing direct detection experiments, we find that only the COUPP constraint, due to its heavy iodine target with large angular momentum and an unpaired spin, and its large energy range sensitivity, is substantially modified by the new responses compared to what would be inferred using the standard form factors to model the energy dependence of the response. For heavy targets such as xenon and germanium, the behavior of the new nuclear responses as recoil energy increases can be substantially different than that of the standard responses, but this has almost no impact on the constraints derived from experiments such as LUX, XENON100 and CDMS since the maximum nuclear recoil energy detected in these experiments is relatively low. We simulate mock data for 80 and 250 GeV DM candidates utilizing the new nuclear responses to highlight how they might affect a putative signal, and find the new responses are most important for momentum-suppressed interactions such as the magnetic dipole or pseudoscalar-mediated interaction when the target is relatively heavy (such as xenon and iodine).Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, 5 table

Asymmetric Dark Stars and Neutron Star Stability

We consider gravitationally bound states of asymmetric dark matter (ADM stars), and the impact of ADM capture on the stability of neutron stars. We derive and interpret the equation of state for ADM with both attractive and repulsive interactions, and solve the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations to find equilibrium sequences and maximum masses of ADM stars. Gravitational wave searches can utilize our solutions to model exotic compact objects (ECOs). Our results for attractive interactions differ substantially from those in the literature, where fermionic ADM with attractive self-interactions was employed to destabilize neutron stars more effectively than non-interacting fermionic ADM. By contrast, we argue that fermionic ADM with an attractive force is no more effective in destabilizing neutron stars than fermionic ADM with no self-interactions.Comment: 9 pages plus 2 appendices (15 pages total), 7 figures, 1 tabl

Light Dark Matter Anomalies After LUX

We examine the consistency of light dark matter (DM) elastic scattering in CoGeNT, DAMA, and CDMS-Silicon in light of constraints from XENON, CDMS, LUX, PICASSO and COUPP. We consider a variety of operators that have been employed to reconcile anomalies with constraints, including anapole, magnetic dipole, momentum-dependent, and isospin-violating DM. We find that elastic scattering through these alternative operators does not substantially reduce the tension between the signals and the null constraints for operators where at least two of the three purported signals map onto a common space in the DM mass--scattering cross-section plane. Taking a choice of the scintillation efficiency that lies at the $-1 \sigma$ region of the Manzur et al measurement relieves tension between signals and the LUX constraint---in particular for a magnetic dipole interaction and a xenophobic interaction (though for the latter the signal regions do not substantially overlap). We also find that modest changes in the halo model does not alter this result. We conclude that, even relaxing the assumption about the type of elastic scattering interaction and taking a conservative choice for the scintillation efficiency, LUX and the results from other null experiments remain in tension with a light DM elastic scattering explanation of direct detection anomalies.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures; v2: typos corrected, a few references added, and in the appendix: discussion of LUX analysis expanded and clarifications made on XENON100 analysi