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| Sistani aide backs freedom | |
| 2004-03-01 | |
| An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, said even in an Islamic state, people should be free to drink alcohol or women to wear veils. Err, what about the women who don’t want to wear veils?
That would be the "One Man, One Vote, One Time" policy. You don’t get to vote to disband a islamic state once you have one. Iraqi leaders agreed early yesterday to the interim constitution that would serve as the framework for the government through next year, Iraqi officials said. Even before the hard bargaining began, there was agreement on many of its features, including the freedom of speech, press, assembly and the free exercise of religion. The constitution provides for equal treatment under the law, regardless of sex or ethnicity. It also provides for civilian control over the military. Sounds good, it’s the implementation part that gets tricky. "This document protects the rights of individuals more than any other document in the region," said Feisal al-Istrabadi, an Iraqi-American lawyer who helped draft it. It wouldn’t take much to do that. The Governing Council members reached compromise language on several difficult issues, the Iraqi officials said. Islam was to be designated "a source" of legislation, not "the primary source," as had been demanded by several Muslim members. That compromise was finessed when Iraqi leaders agreed to insert language prohibiting the passage of any legislation "against" Islam, Mr Qanbar said. They’ll be arguing about the definition of "against" for years. In another important compromise, Iraqi officials agreed to allow thousands of Kurdish militiamen to hold on to their arms as part of a "national guard" under the command of regional governments, he said. Well, it’s not like they were going to lay them down anytime this century. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 LH-- I assumed that the statement was juxtapose Iraq and France, and no I'm not being sarcastic (nor am I saying Iraq is freer than France). |
| Posted by: BMN 2004-3-1 7:02:30 PM |
| #2 "In another important compromise, Iraqi officials agreed to allow thousands of Kurdish militiamen to hold on to their arms as part of a "national guard" under the command of regional governments, he said" That the Shiite leaders were willing to accept keeping the Peshmerga intact, and allowing multiprovince federations (including Kurdistan) is probably a bigger deal (and better news for the US and anyone who wants a democractic Iraq) than anything else. Id take "sharia as A source of law' in return for the Peshmerga. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-3-1 2:40:40 PM |
| #1 "An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, said even in an Islamic state, people should be free to drink alcohol or women to wear veils. Err, what about the women who don’t want to wear veils?" I presume we've got some kind of mistranslation here, or an Iraqi with a great sense of humor. Get 'em drunk, then put veils on them??? Only allow women with veils to buy liquor??? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-3-1 2:37:46 PM |