Sectarian discrimination by Iraq’s government fueled retaliatory Sunni violence

Evidence

After prolonged controversy Nouri al-Maliki, a highly divisive Shiite, was chosen to govern the nation. His discriminatory policies mistreated and essentially disenfranchised the Sunni minority. He further alienated them by arrest-ing Sunni political leaders for terrorist activities. In retaliation, Sunni militants escalated their violence and suicide bombings against Shiite targets. … Amnesty International charged the Shiite militia with abducting and killing Sunni civilians, which the militia justified on the grounds that they were terrorists. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2433

Categorization

• XREF: The militia’s ‘they were terrorists’ justification is a variant of Bandura’s moral-justification mechanism — each side paints its victims as threats to legitimize killing, echoing existing claims about how ordinary actors rationalize harmful policy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2433