Is Iraq moving, inch by inch, towards becoming an Islamic republic?
it is a prospect that is as unsettling for many Iraqis as it is for George Bush in the White House. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a centralised and largely secular state. Now, if the Shia religious parties get their way, it will be a decentralised state with a pronounced Islamic identity. The draft of the new constitution describes Islam as “a main source” of legislation and stipulates that no law may contradict Islamic principles. It also says a group of provinces is entitled to form a “region”, which can then expect a specified share of the national budget. Federalism All this amounts to a radical change, and inevitably it is arousing strong passions. The two groups who dominate the new Iraq – the Kurds and the Shia religious parties – have an obvious interest in breaking with the past. The Kurds want to cement, and if possible extend, the autonomy they have enjoyed in the north for over a decade. The Shia religious parties want to reverse the secularising policies of Saddam, and th
