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Iraqi Kurds call for a clear separation of
religion from state
5.7.2007
By Mohammed A. Salih |
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July
5, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan (Iraq), -- Disputes
have arisen within Kurdistan over the role Islam
should play in a new constitution.
The Iraqi national constitution asserts Islam as the
country's official religion and a major source of
legislation. But not everyone wants that for a
Kurdistan constitution.
Secular forces call for a clear separation of
religion from state, while the Islamists insist that
Islam should be at least "a principal source of
legislation" if not "the principal one."
Kurds have been running their own affairs for the
past 16 years, but without a constitution. Divisions
have surfaced now that they are going to write one.
Article seven in the draft constitution emphasises
the Muslim identity of the majority of Kurdistan
people and recognises "the principles of Islamic
Sharia as one of the sources of legislation."
Secularists want to omit this reference to Islam and
to the "Muslim identity" of Kurdish society, saying
it will restrict the rights of certain social groups
and of religious minorities within Kurdistan.
"Women will be most negatively affected by a
religious constitution, and their rights in terms of
divorce, inheritance, testimony and others will be
violated," says Sozan Shahab, a woman member of the
Kurdistan parliament in the regional capital Erbil.
Shahab, alongside several other activists, has
collected more than 4,000 signatures from Kurdish
associations and political parties in a campaign to
remove article seven.
Under Islamic rules a woman gets half of a man's
share as inheritance, and it takes the testimony of
two women in court to equal that of one man.
An early version of the draft constitution,
comprising 160 articles, was released last
September. The Kurdish Parliament has received more
than 10,000 proposals to amend the draft. After
approval by the regional parliament, the draft will
be put to public referendum in Kurdistan's three
provinces Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok. Lawmakers
say this will happen next year or later.
The two powerful Kurdish parties, the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan led by Iraq's president Jalal
Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by
the regional president Massoud Barzani, say they
support a secular constitution. However, during the
drafting of Iraq's constitution they conceded to
demands by Shia Islamic parties on a role for Islam.
That presents a serious challenge since the Iraqi
constitution says regional constitutions should not
contradict the national charter. Kurdistan is
currently the only autonomous region within the
country.
"But, legally speaking, if you don't mention Islam
it does not go against the Iraqi constitution, since
you haven't alluded to its role in any way," said
Shahab.
Islamists are equally fervent in rejecting a secular
constitution, which they see as ignoring the will of
the Muslim people of Kurdistan.
"Islam is not a religion that only concerns the
personal and moral aspects of human lives," Hassan
Babakr, member of the regional parliament from the
Kurdistan Islamic Group told IPS. "It is a
comprehensive religion that has its own rules and
programme for all aspects of life from social to
economic to political and military."
Since Muslims are the vast majority of the
population in Kurdistan, "the regional constitution
should give a strong and prominent role to Islam,"
he said.
Babakr, whose party has six seats in parliament,
criticised the KDP and the PUK for falling under
"the hegemony of the U.S. and the West over the
Islamic world" and the influence of "American
military presence in Iraq."
In what was interpreted as a clear backing for a
secular front, Barzani recently told a gathering of
Christians and Yazidis -- followers of an ancient
Mesopotamian faith -- that "religion ought to be
separated from state."
The Kurdish region is home to tens of thousands of
indigenous Christians and Yazidis, who all oppose an
Islam-dominated constitution.
Amid campaigns and counter-campaigns to influence
the draft constitution, both Shahab and Babakr say
they will not give up until they find "success." But
they do agree on one thing: they will not vote for a
draft in a referendum if it is not what they want.
IPS
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