Iraqi Sunnis Against Secular Constitution

The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the largest religious Authority in Iraq, stressed that the constitution should embrace the Islamic law in a country populated by more than 90 percent of Muslims.

“There is an Islamic political Shari`ah related to international agreements, for example,” said Omar Ragheb, a spokesman for AMS.

“The political vision should thus be Shari’ah-based, in order for AMS to decide whether to participate in drafting the constitution or not.”

Ragheb was responding, in statements to IOL, to foreign press reports claims AMS was not, in principle, against separating religion from state or what is widely known in Arab media as “secularism”.

The prominent group was not officially invited to help write down the constitution, which is the task of the elected members of the Transitional National Assembly.

But the UN secretary general’s envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, made a recent invitation during talks with AMS Secretary General Harith Al-Dari.

Al-Dari gave a qualified acceptance, saying a timetable for foreign forces withdrawal from Iraq should be laid first.

Press reports carried Sunni threats of using veto to kill off the drafted constitution, which should be held on referendum in October for ratification.

According to new rules agreed last year, the referendum would fail if two-thirds of eligible voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces give it the thumbs-down.

“Acutely Rejected”

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political group, also rejects the separation of religion and state in the new constitution.

“We want a constitution founded in Islam and accepted by all Iraqi parties,” the party’s secretary general, Tariq Al-Hashimi, told IslamOnline.net.

The party officials had earlier highlighted it would play no role in the new government or assembly but later said it still plans to help draft the constitution.

Adnan Soliman, a spokesman for the Sunnis Congress - which groups independent Sunni figures – said separating state and religion is “against Islamic culture we had been bred on.”

The statements came after a high-ranking Shiite scholar who helped a coalition of religious parties to an expected landslide victory in Iraq's elections, declared the same message.

“We will accept no compromise,” said a statement by Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Ishaq Al-Fayad.

The separation of religion and state must be “completely rejected,” said Al-Fayad, one of the three top Shiite scholars who serve beneath the most senior religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

A spokesman for Sistani later denied Al-Fayad’s statement, while saying the constitution “should respect the Islamic identity of Iraqis”.

Ballot counting is expected to take several more days. Partial tallies show a coalition of Sistani-backed political parties will be the largest bloc and could capture a wide majority in Iraq's new assembly.

The 275 -member assembly is to appoint a temporary government and write a constitution.

Leaders of the coalition stressed during the campaign that the Shiites would seek a broad-based government including members of the rival Sunni Muslim sect.

Iraq's ayatollahs have pressed for Islamic law in the country.

http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-02/11/article02.shtml