by KEVIN KNODELL

In February, fighting between Islamic State militants and the Iraqi army drove 41-year-old Salam, a Sunni Arab, from his home in Babil province. He fled with his family to the town of Salahadin, believing it to be safe.

He was wrong. The Iraqi army collapsed. Islamic State captured the city of Mosul … and kept advancing. Salam and his family fled again—this time to the safest place he could think of.

Iraqi Kurdistan.

Thousands of refugees had the same idea. Salam looked around for somewhere to live in the increasingly crowded autonomous region.

No luck at first. He and his family were standing in front of a real estate office in the Kurdish village of Piramagrun when a local man approached them. The Kurd said he had an unfinished house where the family could stay.

“He offered it to us to stay in for free,” Salam said.

They have water for only a couple hours per day. They borrow electricity from the Kurdish neighbors. Salam said he and his family are incredibly thankful for the Kurds’ generosity.

“The people around here, our neighbors, they are very kind and they are helping us by giving us ice, sometimes food,” he said. “They are very nice and hospitable.”

But not all Kurds are as welcoming to Arabs as the people of Piramagrun. In other places refugees have been met with suspicion and scorn. Some Kurds see them as potential terrorists. As the war drags on, anti-Arab sentiment is growing.

Now, many people in Kurdistan worry that the fight against Islamic radicals could morph into a race war between Kurds and Arabs.