Iraq (Vegetarian World)

Iraq is an Islamic nation situated in the Mesopotamia region of. It is a military dictatorship, and is currently at odds with all of its neighbors, especially Basra.

History
Mesopotamia has a long history, and is one of the first agriculturally-based societies. However, thousands of years later, Iraq is no longer at the forefront of civilization, but now lacks basic infrastructure, as it was bankrupted during two consecutive wars. Formerly known simply as "Baghdad", like its current capital and largest city, it and Basra clashed during the 1980-1988 Baghdad-Basra War. After annexing Basra, "Baghdad" changed its name to "Iraq" and implemented a purge of Shiite clerics and other powerful Shiites. Though much of the country was heavily damaged, the Iraqi government was still so stoked from its recent victory that in 1990, it decided to attack Kuwait as well. However, this time, as Kuwait had been a neutral nation and had not initiated any attacks on Iraq, the international community condemned this move. Stories of attrocities directed against the Shiites in Basra also filtered out to the rest of the world, so the stage was set for an utter Iraqi defeat. After quickly freeing Kuwait, the coalition moved on to Basra to free the previously-enslaved nation. The soldiers were welcomed in both places with open arms and cheers that the liberators had arrived. Pushed back to its original boundaries, Iraq's generals who failed were to be disciplined. Instead, they took the chance to stage a coup, killing the former leader and ruling by oligarchy. Since then, there have been disputes and assassinations high in the ranks, and the economy has tanked. Iraq has also been criticised for keeping its name, instead of reverting back to the name "Baghdad". Basra is especially wary of future threats to its sovereignty, and has thus been building up its military and positioning units on the border with Iraq.

Religion

 * 94% Muslims
 * 06% infidels*

*Infidels include Assyrian Christians, Druze, and others. Though to boost the percentage of Muslims, the 5-10% of Shiites are counted as Muslims, they are officially discriminated against like the so-called "infidels".

Ethnic Groups
95% Arabs 05% others (Turkoman, Assyrians, Kurds)

Languages

 * 96% Arabic
 * 04% others (Turkish, Syriac, Kurdish)

Vegetarianism
Note: This is estimated, as there are no government statistics.


 * 95% Non-Vegetarian*
 * 05% Vegetarian*

*Perhaps the majority of people in Iraq do not eat meat most days, but this is almost always due to poverty instead of vegetarianism.