Tyranny of the Majority

So, the Shiites and the Kurds collaborated on their draft of the Constitution, signing it despite protest from the Sunnis in the Iraqi National Assembly.

This is troubling. You didn't have the Federalists overpowering the Antifederalists. Well, they did in more subtle ways. They simply can't maintain peace when they've shut out a minority group like this. Washington Post reports:

"The chances of bringing Sunni Arabs to the political process are almost lost," said Salih Mutlak, the most vocal and most publicly unyielding of the Sunnis involved in talks on the constitution. "The Sunni Arabs will suffer a lot, unfortunately. Everybody in Iraq is going to suffer from this."

If the constitution in approved in the referendum, elections would be held by Dec. 15 for a new, full-term assembly, or parliament. But if voters reject it, the December election would be for an assembly that would serve just one year and would try again to frame an acceptable constitution -- a process that, with Iraq's already inflamed sectarian and ethnic tensions, would put great stress on the country's fragile government-building effort.

There is nothing to be gained from an overwhelming majority that is willing to overlook minorities.

But the conflict over the constitution isn't just about the different sects of Islam disagreeing with each other. The WorldNetDaily summarizes why the constitution actually UNDOES the progresses made in Iraq:

On Aug. 23, President Bush said, "The fact that Iraq will have a democratic constitution that honors women's rights, the rights of minorities, is, is going to be an important change in the, in the broader Middle East." (New York Times)

Reality Check: Although the president may be well intentioned in his "wishful thinking" statement, it appears obvious he has never read the Quran or the key tenants of Islamic "Sharia" law. If he did, he would know that Sharia law (the proposed backbone of the new Iraqi constitution that nullifies all laws that contradict the beliefs of Islam) is the antithesis of a handbook on women's rights.

While the President criticized the Taliban's treatment of women, he doesn't realize that this "democratic constitution" will undermine the progress that had taken decades to take place.

The Assyrian author of that WorldNetDaily commentary, Jerry McGlothlin continues:

The American people deserve to see the free Iraq that their soldiers died for. These precious men and women of valor did not give their lives simply to create The Islamic Republic of Iraq. And now that Iraqi men and women have had a taste of freedom, it would be cruel and unusual punishment to throw them back under the bondage of the harsh Sharia law that currently enslaves the people of Iran and Sudan. We cannot – we must not-- allow this to happen to the people of Iraq.

The theocratic regime aside, the rights of individuals is critical. That, believe it or not, would include WOMEN.

Remember HER? She was the featured person on the balcony at Bush's State of the Union Address, which was shortly after the Iraq elections. She created quite a media buzz by hugging the mother of one of the 1877 American soldiers KILLED in Iraq.



She came out against the current situation in Iraq. The Independent (UK) reports:

Back in February, with blue ink on her finger symbolising the recent Iraqi election in which she had just voted, Safia Taleb al-Souhail was invited to sit with the first lady, Laura Bush, and listen to the President claim in his state of the union address that success was being achieved in Iraq. Her picture went round the world after she turned to hug Janet Norwood, a Texas woman whose son had been killed in Iraq.

But now it appears Ms Souhail, an anti-Saddam activist who became Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, may be having second thoughts about the "success" she celebrated with a two-fingered victory sign.

Having seen the negotiations for the country's constitution fall into disarray and the prospect of a secular constitution severely undermined, she expressed her concerns last week.

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment. Human rights should not be linked to Islamic sharia law at all. They should be listed separately in the constitution."

I wonder how long it would be before Rush Limbaugh starts attacking HER. Oh wait, unless he's still busy over Cindy Sheehan. But if it's any comfort to Ms. al-Souhail, a constitutional guarantee of individual rights doesn't always mean anything to certain "democratic" leaders even in the U.S.