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You say, "* * * *
The new Iraqi constitution
Article (2):
1st - ISLAM is the official religion of the state
AND
is a basic source of legislation:

(a) NO law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of ISLAM

These two clauses act as Koranic Vetoes over the rest of the constitution and thus render it null and void. * * * *"

They have an official State religion. Big deal. And there was, as memory serves, quite a little debate over the article "a" in the part that reads, "is a basic source of legislation". It does not say THE basic source, It says "a" source. Again, big DEAL.

Instead of selectively quoting only a very small portion of the draft document, it might help to include the WHOLE draft Constitution. Because if you take the time to look at the whole thing (including the RIGHTS portion), you will find that there is, under the proposed Constitution, NO discrimination permitted on account of religious belief -- or apostasy even. The document is actually pretty remarkable.

Perfect? Probably not. That's darn subjective, anyway.

But good under all the circumstances? You bet. That's not a guarantee it will work, btw. But it could and it's a darned sight better than what they had.

As an addendum to that last post of mine, for anybody who hasn't taken a good look at the proposed Iraqi Constitution, here's an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_08_05_constit.pdf I note the FOLLOWING is responsive to the post to which I had been responding (i.e., it includes a slightly longer excerpt of the criticized section): "CHAPTER ONE: BASIC PRINCIPLES Article (1): The Republic of Iraq is an independent, sovereign nation, and the system of rule in it is a democratic, federal, representative (parliamentary) republic. Article (2): 1st - Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation: (a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam. (b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy. (c) No law can be passed that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms outlined in this constitution. 2nd - This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and the full religious rights for all individuals and the freedom of creed and religious practices. Article (3): Iraq is a multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-sect country. It is part of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation."

Instead of selectively quoting only a very small portion of the draft document, it might help to include the WHOLE draft Constitution. Because if you take the time to look at the whole thing (including the RIGHTS portion), you will find that there is, under the proposed Constitution, NO discrimination permitted on account of religious belief -- or apostasy even.

Your perfectly correct on that. I didn't want to print the whole worthless piece of paper, just article 2, because once you have stated that NO, not some, or a, or a few, but N O law can contradict Islam, then when they come up with women trying to get equal rights or Hindus trying .... to be Hindus without paying a subjugation tax or being treated as semi-citizens or when someone wants to teach that Islam is a false religion or that Americans are NOT infidels or whatever whatever else.... the shiites are going to say " Hey, that contradicts Islam".

Its as if 60 percent of America were card carrying ACLU MEMBERS and the constitution said that no law could contradict THE ACLU. The rest of the constitution would be out the window everytime something came up to the Supreme Court... Prayer in Schools, out....God in the Pledge of Allegiance, out.... protecting unborn babies from being aborted at a rate of thousands a day, out.... Homosexual in schools, raising children, in.... Damn, maybe I need to focus on our constitution needing some work, who knows.