Sunday, February 6, 2005
I think we'll call this story-line "Son of Quagmire," or maybe, "the election was a success BUT"... Here's the next phase of nail-biting front-page stories that we'll have to watch coming out of Iraq - the possible emergence of a Sharia-based Consitution. It's certainly a worry, and we'll just have to wait and see at this point, but I sincerely doubt we'll be able to get anything approaching a real sense of just how serious a threat this is by reading the MSM. This is going to fill the next phase of the doom and gloom narrative way too conveniently to trust almost anyone's ability to report with real perspective and proportion. How serious is the threat? You won't find out from reading the NYT without a very serious and sophisticated filter in place.
That said, here's three pages on some of the issues.
Exactly how Islamic to make the document is the subject of debate.
At the very least, the clerics say, the constitution should ensure that legal measures overseeing personal matters like marriage, divorce and family inheritance fall under Shariah, or Koranic law. For example, daughters would receive half the inheritances of sons under that law.
On other issues, opinion varies, with the more conservative leaders insisting that Shariah be the foundation for all legislation...
