I told you so update. From Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islam will be "the main source" of Iraq's law and parliament will observe religious principles, negotiators said on Saturday after what some called a major turn in talks on the constitution and a shift in the U.S. position.If agreed by Monday's parliamentary deadline, it would appear to be a major concession to Islamist leaders from the Shi'ite Muslim majority and sit uneasily with U.S. insistence on the primacy of democracy and human rights in the new Iraq.
U.S. diplomats, who have been shepherding the process closely, declined immediate comment and at least one secular Kurdish politician said Kurds would try to block such a deal.
But an official from one of the main Shi'ite Islamist parties and a leading Sunni Arab negotiator said agreement had been reached, reversing an understanding reached earlier in the recent talks that Islam would simply be "a main source" of law.
Parliament would not be able to pass legislation that contradicted the principles of Islam, several negotiators told Reuters. One Shi'ite official said that a constitutional court would decide whether laws conformed to Islamic faith.
It seems that the "legacy" of George W. Bush will read something like this:
George W. Bush
The first American President to use the full force of the American Armed forces to establish an Islamic government in another nation. Sharia Law, not democracy, as Bush had promised, will rule in Iraq and law will make it illegal to revoke Sharia law.
Bush 'legacy":
Bush is not the first to establish an Islamic government.
Clinton helped to establish Bosnia/Kosovo
Reminds me of
"fools to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you..."
As noted in a previous post:
After thousands of lives and billions of dollars, we get the Iraqis to exchange slavery to a live maniac for slavery to a dead one.
I want my money back.
I paid for a U.S.-styled secular Constitution.
And they hand me the Koran instead?
Email your compliments to:
president@whitehouse.gov
(Keep the vituperatives polysyllabic.)
People, people, people!
You make it sound like there's something wrong with islam. What's wrong with all of you? Islamaphobes?
Just think, another islamic paradise in the Middle East where women and religious minorities will be repected, "in accordance with islamic law." Nothing to worry about.
This news will not be greeted well by the country’s women or religious minorities, but meshes perfectly with Iranian goals. An Arab News article, informs the reader of Iran’s position concerning democratic reforms. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, remains firm in his short and long-term program to the Islamic Majlis (parliament). Western ideas concerning government are incompatible with Islam and his new administration “bravely rejects all alien political ideas”.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s “program,” a 7,000 word document, describes the United States and an Islamic Middle East as incompatible entities with the former eventually collapsing while the latter, inspired by Iran’s “divine system”, prevails. The Arab News article continues,
“The creation of an “Islamic pole” is the key objective of what the document refers to as “the 20-year strategy” of the Islamic Republic. It is not clear who developed that strategy and whether or not Ahmadinejad, who is elected for a four-year term, hopes to remain in power for two decades.”
“The goal of the “Islamic pole” would be to unite the world under the banner of Islam, as the “final Divine message” and “the only True Faith.” “
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s objective concerning the Iranian state is to control all aspects of its citizens.
“The state would follow the citizens from birth to death, ensuring their health, education, well-being and leisure. It will guide them as to what to read and write and what “cultural products” to consume so as not to be contaminated by Western ideas.”
Iran’s president is honest by divulging his plans and is not shy concerning his ambition. Hitler revealed his intentions via Mein Kampf, but the free world was unconcerned until it was too late. Will the West ignore Mr. Ahmadinejad as well? Will the shift in policy by the United States concerning Islam’s influence in Iraqi politics be the “Czechoslovakia” concession to Iranian goals?
So, Iraq will be an Islamist state to join all the others in a token display of democracy, but in actuality will perpetuate human rights abuses of all kinds under the guise of following “religious principles.” Wake Up Call # 14597 for the West!
The primacy of Islam in the minds of its followers made this a foregone conclusion. We were fools to have thought otherwise. Some, like the incisive minds here at JW/DW, knew what the outcome would be, but some others of us listened to Bush’s expressed hope (sincere or not, I’m not sure, but he did express it) that democracy would prevail because that’s what the Iraqi people wanted. How wrong we were!
And so we are reminded that the US intended for “the primacy of democracy and human rights.” As I posted elsewhere on this site yesterday, religious norms are given legal precedence over human rights even in Western nations, such as Canada. Not being familiar with the US Constitution I can’t make the same comment for America, but I suspect it’s true there also. Why then are we surprised that Islam will be allowed also to practice sexism, racism, religious discrimination, and so on?
The difference is that Western democracies make some attempt to establish a human rights code, but then allow religious norms to take precedence over these rights. Will any religious norm do? Or does this apply only to the major world religions? I suspect there’s some discrimination going on in the interpretation of the word “religion” - - but that’s another story. Same goes for the interpretation of “norm.”
The day when a religious norm denies a basic human right which the majority of the people hold inviolable is the day when this current practice will be challenged. Until then we placidly allow the rights of females, for example, to be trodden on by religious norms. Obviously, for most in the West, this critical point has not yet been reached.
In Iraq, the new “democracy” will establish a human rights code only as Islam allows it - and I see precious few human rights evident within Islam. The Iraqis are being more efficient - they cut right to the heart of the matter: Islam is their universal principle, human rights merely of trifling importance.
Here in the West, we with the help of the United Nations declared a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (note that grand word “universal”) but then allowed religious norms to have precedence. Obviously, these norms are seen as supra-universal.
The main difference here is that in Iraq the religion to take precedence over human rights is named openly: Islam. In the West, the religion could be any recognized religion. We don’t discriminate when practicing our discrimination!
World, we have a problem!
What a surprise! To think that our mainstream media has been hiding so much material from us all these years about core Islam and the Koran...Well, I guess "W" and Condi really misjudged this bunch, didn't they? So, when do we get this war under way without the kid gloves, like we intend to win? Or are we gonna roll over like Neville Chamberlain did with the Czechs in 1939 and just give em Israel to savage?
I think it needn`t have come to this. They could have made a deal with the Bhaatists to keep a lid on the country.
But instead, Bremer insisted on trying his "De-Baathification", probably imagining himsels as a kind of Churchill and Iraq as Germany.
Now look where that got us.
Nauseating.