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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When Iraq's recently elected
parliament starts debating a new national
constitution, one of its thorniest tasks will be to
agree on the role of Islam.
The decisions of the 275 MPs, who hold their first
working session this month, could have wide-ranging
repercussions in a region still searching for a
balance between Islam and politics.
Kurds, who have 75 assembly seats, and other
secular-minded members say Islam should remain a
source of legislation but not the sole one -- the
formula adopted for an interim constitution drawn up
a year ago under the U.S.-led occupation authority.
Islamists in the parliament's Shi'ite majority may
seek a greater role for Muslim sharia law.
Given Iraq's sectarian mix and secular traditions,
there is no obvious model for the parliamentarians
to follow.
Clerical rulers in Shi'ite Muslim Iran and
Afghanistan under the Sunni Muslim Taliban have
attempted to enforce strict Islamic codes and
punishments with varying degress of rigour.
Saudi Arabia's royal family, backed by the kingdom's
Wahhabi clerical establishment, imposes a similarly
austere code, under which thieves may have their
hands amputated, female adulterers may be stoned to
death and murderers are beheaded.
Few Iraqis advocate emulating these regional
examples, but many differ sharply on Islam's place
in matters of state.
Toppled President Saddam Hussein injected some
supposedly Islamic elements into Iraq's largely
secular constitution as he sought to shore up
support after his 1991 Gulf War defeat.
Some of these regulations remain on the statute
book, including one that denies women passports if
they are under 45 and do not have permission from
male relatives to travel.
So, for now, does a secular civil affairs law dating
from the 1950s. Iraq's postwar U.S. administrator
prevented Islamists on a now-defunct Governing
Council from scrapping it in 2003.
Shi'ite Islamists in parliament say universal values
and equality for women will be respected even if
Islam gains a bigger role in the constitution that
must be drafted by August.
"Western politicians I meet are surprised how we can
espouse human rights while being so devout to Islam,
but there is no contradiction," said Dawa Party
leader Ibrahim Jaafari, who is almost certain to
become Iraq's next prime minister.
The 58-year-old physician, who wears a suit and tie,
has criticised the Iranian government for its human
rights record, although he spent years in exile in
Iran.
Jaafari points to Dawa's founder, the Shi'ite
theologian Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, as representing
Islamic teachings compatible with liberty and
democracy.
But Jaafari and other Shi'ite assembly members must
answer to largely poor Shi'ite voters, long
oppressed under Saddam's Sunni-based regime, who
might prove less tolerant than they are.
MIXED SIGNALS
In Basra last week, a group of Islamists attacked a
picnic for university students.
"They hit us and called the girls names because they
mixed with boys. The police did not do anything.
They think they have the right to do this in a
democracy," one student said.
And in the holy city of Najaf, the Shi'ite election
victory on Jan. 30 was viewed as a triumph for
Islam.
"We want an Islamic constitution, although to be
honest we don't know exactly what it means and
whether Iran is the correct model," said Zeid Riad,
a supporter of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
SCIRI, a Shi'ite party founded by Islamist exiles in
Iran in 1982, pays homage to Iran's Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei, as well as to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric.
Sistani, who was born in Iran and is based in Najaf,
pushed strongly for the Iraqi elections. His aides
say he opposes the idea of clerical rule introduced
by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the 1979
Islamic revolution.
The Iranian model does not enjoy wide popularity in
Iraq and those hoping for a separation of mosque and
state and a gentler constitution than Iran's are
looking to Sistani.
"You will not see the ayatollah coming out in public
in favour of a political position," said Ali al-Dabbagh,
a member of the majority Shi'ite bloc in parliament.
"But there is no question he is a force for
moderation."
Reuters
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