The mother of all quizzes: How much do you know about US-Iraq relations?

A diverse Muslim nation with populations of Shia, Sunni, and Kurds, Iraq has been in the cross hairs of international conflicts for nearly a century. And its complex and at times controversial economic and political relationship with the United States continues to evolve against a backdrop of turmoil both in Iraq and the Middle East.

2. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, Iraq came under control of which foreign power?

Hadi Mizban/AP/File
Pilgrims gather around the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, Iraq, in March 2005, for evening prayers in advance of al-Arbaeen ceremonies. Al-Arbaeen is one the holiest days of the Shiite religious calendar, commemorating the end of a 40-day mourning period after the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, one of Shiism's top saints.

The British

The Dutch

The French

The Italians

Javascript is disabled. Quiz scoring requires Javascript.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.