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Originally Posted by alansmithee
I honestly don't see why people get so uptight about religion. It seems that people on BOTH sides are willing to ignore parts of the constitution when it fits their needs, not just people who have religious beliefs. If people want to have schools teach their children creationism, let them.
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The schools are public, supported by taxing people who have specific religious
beliefs, and people who don't. If the majority of the people who live in a public
school district are in favor of requiring female students to wear veils and to
"beef up" the school curricculum with teachings from the Quran, would you
not imagine how non-muslim taxpayers might react to that? Here is what
is happening in Iraq's post democratic election climate,,,,,don't you see how
our first amendment restrains the religious majority here ?
This is what is being communicated from the factions in Iraq who apparently
garnered the most votes in the democratic election of Jan. 30:
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<a href="http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12171839%255E401,00.html">http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12171839%255E401,00.html</a>
Shias demand sharia law for constitution
From correspondents in Baghdad
07feb05
IRAQ'S Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and another senior cleric last night set out radical demands that Islam be the sole source of legislation in the country's new constitution.
The shock Shiite move came after Iraq's leading Sunni clerics group yesterday demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led forces as a condition for joining talks on a new constitution.
After a leading Shiite cleric issued a statement setting out the position on sharia law, Ayatollah Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites, made it clear he backed demands for the Koran to be the basis of legislation.
The national assembly set up after last month's US-backed election is to oversee the drawing up of the new constitution. The role of Islam has been at the centre of a dispute between the rival parties and the US-led occupation authority that administered Iraq until last June.
Ayatollah Sistani leads the five most important clerics, known as Marja al-Taqlid, or sources of emulation, who had shown a more moderate face going into the election.
The surprise statement was issued by Sheikh Ibrahim Ibrahimi, a representative of Ayatollah Mohammad Ishaq al-Fayad, a member of the marja. "All the ulema (clergy) and marja, and the majority of the Iraqi people, want the national assembly to make Islam the source of legislation in the constitution and to reject any law that is contrary to Islam," the statement said.
"We warn against a separation of the state and religion, because this is completely rejected by the ulema and marja and we will accept no compromise on this question."
A source close to Ayatollah Sistani said the spiritual leader backed the demand.
The role of Islam was a sticking point when the interim constitution was drawn up under the US-led occupation.
After acrimonious debate and the threat of a veto by US administrator Paul Bremer, the final version completed last March said Islam should be "a source" of legislation.
No law that "contradicts the universally agreed tenets of Islam" would be accepted, the final draft of the "fundamental law" stated.
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