[TETENAL]

According to an independent newspaper, chess is going to be forbidden in Iraq:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=609191

"Cricket is allowed but chess is "absolutely forbidden"."

What's the purpose of this law?

"Women may not shake hands with men. Music is permitted but only if it is not for enjoyment."

Not for enjoyment? Why would anyone want to hear music, if not for enjoyment.

"Men cannot pray when wearing earrings.

These are the views of the most powerful man in Iraq. After the US invasion, various American officials and generals believed they occupied this position. They turned out to be wrong. As the election victory of the Shias has confirmed, the most influential figure in Iraq, dressed in tattered grey robe and black turban, is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

[…]

US officials have been quick to insist just how different the Iraqi Shia clergy are from their Iranian equivalents. Vice-President Dick Cheney said over the weekend that "the Iraqis have watched the Iranians operate for years and create a religious theocracy that has been a dismal failure". Mr Cheney vaguely implied that Iraqi Shia religious leaders believed in the separation of church and state. It is true that the ayatollah and his school of religious thinking do not believe that clerics should rule directly, taking over positions in government. But they do not really have to. The victorious religious parties, mostly led by laymen, are quite capable of setting up an Islamic state on their own.

Iraq could be on the verge of seeing the greatest setback to women's rights in the Middle East since Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979. Laws on marriage, divorce and inheritance could be changed in favour of men. Under Islamic law, daughters inherit less than the sons."

[…]

"Already there are signs of Iraq becoming more Islamic particularly in Sunni districts. Many shops selling alcohol, usually owned by Christians, have closed. Some have been attacked. In al-Rashid Street and the largely Sunni district of Dohra, shops selling CDs have been destroyed. Female students at Baghdad University now frequently have their heads covered to make it less likely that they will be kidnapped."

[vmarks]

http://democracyiniraq.blogspot.com/...eek-after.html

I am still confident that things are going to end up well for Iraq. Despite reports, and I have many emails sort of in a panic, that this party is encouraging a theocracy, I think there is a misunderstanding of the language used by these clerics. Indeed, this win will give clerics more importance, but it does not mean they will rule us. I have posted before, that Sistani does not mix politics and religion, this makes him different from Khomeni. He has always said that religious leaders should be more like advisors. I do not necessarily have a problem with that.

The call for Islamic law to be mixed with law is not a problem. I do not envision our nation turning into Saudi Arabia. The reality we must all understand is that all laws are based on moral principles. Religions in their skeletal phase are just that, a system of moral principles. The basics of law, wehtehr they are Islamic or secular call for a just society where organization is maintained, people are respected, and personal rights are not infringed upon.

The ultimate reason for my confidence is that Iraqis in Shia areas have lvied with some theocratic forms of government in some parts. I doubt that they are going to stand by and let the entire nation fall under such a government. Undrstand that people here have been very patient, there has been much upheavel. We waited for Saddam to be done with, and he was. but then we had to live with violence and a foreign army in our land. Now we are ready to wait this out for the bright future. For this reason, the Shias have seen the theocratic flashes as nothing more than a waiting period, any attempt to make this nationwide will be met with fierce resistance.

Let us not forget that Iraq does have many Sunnis, Shia are majority, but we the Sunni are a very large minority. Sunni leaders have begun to realize that they must participate in the new government, for this reason they are now openly making concilliatory gestures to the government and beginning to integrate themselves. With the addition of more Sunnis to the government, it only guarantees that we will have to have a pluralistic system that look sout for all people.

I tell you all to not worry, people have worked so hard, have given so much, to be free, we are not going to turn around and elect in people who will shackle us again. And if those who we elect aim to do this, we will not stand for it, and we will deny them with as much excitement as with which we have turned our backs on the terrorists who continue to be like a hard to kill mosquito.

posted by Husayn at 6:28 AM