Iraq to promote religious tourism

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1829463,00.html

TIME Magazine speaks about Iraq and religious tourism. Here are a couple of sample articles....

February 22, 2006 was when it all went to hell. At least, that's how many Iraqis— Sunnis and Shi'ites alike — remember it. That was the day a powerful bomb set by Sunni extremists ripped through the golden dome of the ancient al-Askari Shrine, one of the holiest sites of Shi'ism, located in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra, 65 miles north of Baghdad. The blast triggered a round of sectarian bombings, massacres and kidnappings so horrifying that for the next year and a half, many Iraqis would wonder if life would ever return to normal — and had many in Washington warning of an intractable slide into civil war.

But the progress in Samarra, like much of Iraq, is precarious. Though insurgent attacks have dropped dramatically, "the biggest concern now is unemployment, because it directly affects the security situation," said General Mohammed. And reconstructing the shrine is central to the prospects of a city whose economy has for years depended largely on religious tourism.