 Kurds rejected the idea of an Islamic republic in Iraq following the victory of a conservative Shiite list in last month's historic elections.
| "Sorry. No room for Shariah. We've got things to do..." |
"Kurds will oppose setting up an Islamic republic if this question is asked by other political forces in Iraq," Adnan Mufti, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Jalal Talabani, said Wednesday. "Of course we are a Muslim people and we must respect our Muslim identity but we cannot pit religion against democracy," said Mufti, himself a candidate for speaker of the autonomous Kurdish parliament.
| Freedom can't be confined to everything but religion. There's too much of everything else, and religion unchallenged becomes rapacious. |
Sami Shursh, the unofficial minister of culture within the other heavyweight Kurdish party, Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), agrees. "What Kurds want is a republican regime founded on the principle of rotation of power, with a parliamentary system, a separation of powers and a separation of religion and the state," he said Wednesday.
| Best way to preserve your freedom to practice your religion the way you see fit. |
The vast majority of Kurds in Iraq are Sunni Muslims.
| Mostly of the Sufi persuasion, however... |
The PUK and the KDP swept to victory in the Kurdish provinces of Suleimaniya, Erbil and Dohuk, where they will control the autonomous parliament of 111 seats. Their alliance is also due to take 75 seats in the national assembly, having won the northern provinces of Tamim and Nineveh, home respectively to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and Mosul, Iraq's third city. Kurds want Kirkuk to be the capital of their autonomous region.
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Several candidates on the winning Shiite list, backed by spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have said they do not want to set up an Islamic republic in Iraq, but they have yet to dispel all fears. An aide to secular Shiite and outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi also advised Jaafari against the temptation of theocratic power. "Religion is a dangerous thing for Iraq... There are Shiites and Sunnis in the same tribes, in the same families, but if we go down this road, we will create divisions," said Imad Shabib Wednesday. He also warned Jaafari about the risks of siding with Iran. |