As noted in earlier coverage, this quota scheme is problematic in several ways. Of particular concern is the low standard the quotas set for deciding when there are "enough" non-Muslims in the legislature, which also sets the bar very low for determining what constitutes an "excess" of non-Muslim representation. And that will only make it more difficult to increase minority representation in the future.
"Presidential council ratifies electoral law. No change in quotas for minorities," from AsiaNews:
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Iraqi presidential council has ratified the law, approved by parliament on Monday, November 3, with 106 votes out of 150, reserving a quota of seats for minorities, in view of the elections for the renewal of the provincial councils, scheduled for January 31, 2009.
The law sets aside six seats out of a total of 440: three go to Christians (Baghdad, Nineveh, and Basra), one each to the Yazidi and the Shabak in Nineveh, and one to the Sabians, in the capital. On Saturday, November 8, President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish) and vice-presidents Tareq Al Hashemi (Sunni) and Adel Abdul-Mahdi (Shiite) ratified the decree into law, despite the opposition of the Christian community, which had called for a presidential veto.
One can't help but ask: Are they allotting seats based on the present numbers of religious minorities, or based on where the numbers are likely to be after a few more years of jihadist aggression?
On Wednesday, November 5, in an interview with AsiaNews, Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, called the concession a "token" that does not truly take into account the rights of Iraqi Christians.
On Saturday, November 8, Naseer Ani, head of the presidential staff, released a statement on the "extensive discussions" between the presidential council and Vatican representatives, which examined the invitation of the United Nations to reintroduce article 50. The first draft, which was ultimately rejected, gave 15 seats in six different provinces to the minorities, including 13 for Christians and one each for the Shabak and Yazidi. The head of the presidential cabinet says that in the end, it was decided to ratify the law without introducing any changes, in order to "respect" the role and functions of parliament.
The reply from the Christians is blunt: member of parliament Younaam Kanna says that the community is ready to "boycott the elections," and calls the ratification of the law "an insult." On the Sunni side, involved in a bitter dispute with its Kurdish counterparts in the region of Nineveh, the firm opposition continues to the concession of a quota for minorities. The Sunnis are afraid of an alliance of Christians and Kurds that would increase Kurdish influence in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has also dashed the expectations of the Kurds, emphasizing the need for a "strong federal state," at a moment in which constitutional modifications are proceeding. It is a new signal from the central government on the ambitions of autonomy in certain areas of Iraq, especially the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which has extensive oil reserves. Baghdad is afraid that an eventual referendum could bring an expansion of Kurdish territories.
Perfectly predictable. And easily explicable, to those who refuse to pretend that Islam does not explain the past, present, and likely future behavior of Muslims, once unconstrained by worries over the reaction of, or withholding of aid by, powerful non-Muslims.
What would any sensible person have expected?
No, not the members of the Bush Administation who waxed ecstatic over the purple-thumbed "exercise in democracy" back in January 2005. Not all those who think that the "surge worked" and that "freedom" has been brought to "ordinary moms and dads" in Muslim-dominated Iraq, and that in some carefully-never-stated way (apparently, we are all supposed to know, so it need never be explained to us - it's an old trick, the kind of thing the teacher who hasn't the faintest idea himself of how to answer the question uses to parry that question, looking around complacently at the students over whom, of course, he has the power of the grade) that the bringing of that "freedom" to "ordinary moms and dads," and the building up of the "Iraqi" army and police (some $20 billion of American aid, and counting), and the "prosperity" (all those reconstruction projects, and more aid, and more, while the billions pile up in Iraq's own untouched surplus from oil revenues), and the "unity" will all end up inexorably leading to a much better situation for America and other Infidels, and presumably all over the world, wherever the threat of Jihad menaces.
But how? Tell us how. Not vaguely. Not "everyone knows this." No. Tell us exactly, and in detail, how the two trillion dollars spent in Iraq will weaken the Camp of Islam, and strengthen the camp of its as yet far-from-united would-be victims.
Tell us.
We'll all wait right here.
Bush's mistakes in the Iraq war were not having enough boots on the ground in the beginning, and letting the Iraqis having a shariah constitution.
They should have argued (but who'd dare, no one has dared so far), that shariah is against basic human rights, hence there can never be a democracy in country with shariah based laws.
Islam should be recognized as it is, an ideology. Once it's accepted as what it is, there is a base to work on in combating jihadists worldwide.
According to the World Factbook, the non-Muslim population of Iraq is about 3% and is noted only as "Christians and others" leaving moot the relative numbers of Yazidi, Shabak, and Sabians.
A parliamentarian representation of six seats out of 440 yields only a ratio of 1.36% meaning that the "Christians and others" are underrepresented by a factor of at least two.
This is understandable, as according to Islamic dogma and Shariah practice, a Muslim is worth at least twice as much as a Kaffir.
I don't blame the Christians, Yazidi, Shabak, and Sabians for wanting to boycott the elections, as their representation therein would only legitimise this insulting, demeaning, and patronising arrangement.
I predict that it is only a matter of about five years before almost all non-Muslims desert Iraq, or are driven from it, or simply killed, as is done in India, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, KSA, etc., as ordered by Allâh in his Qur’ân.
This is the way Democracy works in Dar-al-Islam.
Well, we did let them enshrine sharia in their constitution.
What else was anybody expecting?