Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood Seeks to Islamize the Constitution
Muhsin Abdel Hamid, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party (Muslim Brotherhood), is this month’s president of the Interim Governing Council. He has weighed in on the need for the Fundamental Law now being drafted to govern Iraq until a new constitution can be written to reflect the Islamic character of Iraq. AP reports that although President Bush has said he was assured there would be freedom of religion in Iraq, in fact powerful members of the American-appointed IGC are striving to enshrine a conservative interpretation of Islamic law as the law of the land. That would detract from women’s rights and the rights of religious minorities, inevitably.
I have no confidence whatsoever that Bush knows enough about the subject to understand what he was told, or to avoid being tricked by clever wording. Ahmad Chalabi’s son is helping to draft the Fundamental Law, and AP quotes him as ready to throw in the towel and just give in to the shari`ah or the medieval jurisprudence of Islam.