At a lengthy news conference after his return from 23 years in Iranian exile, the head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, emphasised that the Iraqi state he envisages would be a "modern" one. The 66-year-old cleric declared his model state would display tolerance toward the country's mosaic of ethnic and religious groups.
| This is "Islamic" tolerance, of course. Pay your dhimmi tax and go about your business... |
Iraq should have a system of governance with five characteristics, said Hakim, whose news conference effectively turned into a speech interrupted by religious chants from the crowd.- The first is freedom, and while "one of the gains" of the US-led war was the "measure of freedom" which the Iraqis now enjoyed, freedom in the presence of foreign forces could not be total, he said.
| For instance, there's no freedom to overthrow the state (or lack thereof at the moment) and establish another dictatorship... |
- Iraq's future government should be "based on the will of the Iraqi people, that is it should be elected by them — democratic if you will," Hakim said.
| I think this is that "one man, one vote, one time" idea sneaking in here... |
- Thirdly, Iraq should have a system of government that "respects Islam, the religion of the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people." Islam should be Iraq's official religion, and Sharia, or Islamic law, should be a "main source" of legislation, the greying cleric said, stressing that the future regime should "respect Islamic values."
| There would have to be a Guardians Council to overrule any non-Islamic legislation, of course. And a Supreme Leader — a trained holy man, versed in exactly what God wants — to oversee them... |
- At the same time, the fourth characteristic of Iraq's future government should be "respect for the specificities of the components of the Iraqi population" — a mixture of Shiites, Sunni Muslims, Christians, Kurds, Turkoman and others.
| This is where the dhimmi tax comes in. There will be a few minor differences in blood money, and their testimony won't count the same in court as that of a Shia, but that's just minor stuff... |
- Finally, the future government should embody the unity of Iraq in terms of people and land, he said.
| There's no need for any of that local autonomy stuff, like the Kurds had under Sammy... |
Hakim said that while some of the slogans he raises might be perceived as "religious," he envisaged a "modern state, in the full sense of the word" in line with what he called Islam's reformist tradition.
| Kind of like Iran. A lot like Iran, in fact... |
In such a state, women, "who make up half of society," would play their full role and young people's "potential would be exploited to the highest degree." A modern state would "promote construction and development," said Hakim. And with its formidable human and economic resources and long history, Iraq had the potential to turn into a "great" country given the proper government.
The Shiite leader, reiterated SAIRI's longstanding argument that the US-led war was not necessary because the Iraqi people could have toppled Saddam if they had received adequate "assistance from the international community." However, he issued a sweeping indictment of the former regime, whose dictatorial nature not only surpassed that of other autocratic regimes in the Arab and Islamic world but whose "racism" was no less than that of the former apartheid regime in South Africa. |