August 22, 2005
Islamic Law and the Iraqi Constitution
Carroll Andrew Morse
Take a look at the phrasing, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, on two of these anti-democratic posters from Iraq.
Whoever did not rule by what Allah has revealed, [those] are the infidelsThe “reasoning” of the anti-democratic forces is clear. They are trying to convince the Iraqi people that they must choose between Islamic law or laws based on a written constitution. This is, I believe, why the framers of the Iraqi Constitution are insisting on some sort of statement in the constitution along the lines of…Our constitution is the Koran, and there is no substitute for it… Who will defend us from the wrath of Allah if we choose a heretical constitution instead of Allah's law?
Islam is a main source for legislation and it is not permitted to legislate anything that conflicts with the fixed principles of its rules.The pro-democracy forces, at least in part, are trying to emphasize that Islamic law and a constitutional system can co-exist. How far they are reaching beyond that goal depends largely upon the meaning, if any, of “the fixed principles of its rules” within an Islamic context.
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