Iraq's Worrisome Constitution
A future government will have to untangle the threads of a document that claims to be both Islamic and democratic.
by Paul Marshall | posted 8/30/2005 12:00AM
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This contradictory draft constitution provokes many cans, coulds, and other concerns. Its clauses might be used either to bolster or to limit religious freedom. Since the Iraqis are continually adapting the document, the United States should discreetly push particularly for changes in Article 39 and the "Islamic identity" provisions in Article 2. If the constitution is accepted in the October referendum, the other worrying clauses could become much less worrisome in the hands of capable judges who reinforce the document's human-rights guarantees. In this, as in so much else, the major effect of the constitution is going to depend on the quality of the government that enforces it.
Paul Marshall is senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., and editor of the new volume Radical Islam's Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari'ah Law (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
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