February 06, 2005

The Next Big Question in Iraq: Will They Have Separation of Mosque and State?

This is the big question that’s coming up next as the new Iraq government comes into power.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 – Vice President Dick Cheney turned aside today concerns that the emerging government in Iraq might be strongly Islamic and might set more restrictive standards for women’s rights than for those of men.

Leading Shiite clerics in Iraq, whose religious parties appear likely to take power in the new constitutional assembly, have been pushing for a clear Islamic aspect to the country’s new constitution, with such matters as marriage and divorce made subject to Koranic law, and daughters liable to receive only half the inheritances of sons.

But Mr. Cheney appeared cautious and sanguine when asked about this.

“We have to be very careful here,” he said on the television program “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re trying to forecast what an as-yet-unformed government is going to do.”

“This is going to be Iraqi, whatever it is,” he said. “It’s not going to be American. It’s not going to look like Wyoming or New York when they get their political process all put together.”

...Mr. Cheney said he doubted that Iraqi Shiites would be strongly influenced by what he said was the failed theocratic approach of their Shiite brethren in Iran. “The Iraqis have watched the Iranians operate for years and create a religious theocracy that has been a dismal failure,” he said.

...A move toward a Koran-based constitution would, nonetheless, be alarming for some in the United States.

Mr. Cheney said he was comforted by the public pronouncements of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s revered Shiite cleric, who had made clear that “he doesn’t believe clerics should play a direct role in the day-to-day operations of government.”

Stay tuned.