Leading cardinal urges Iraq constitution change

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20050905-1259-iraq-constitution-religion.html

LONDON – A leading Roman Catholic cardinal has urged Britain to help remove a clause from Iraq's draft constitution he says would deny Christians and other minorities their basic rights as citizens.

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who is Archbishop of Westminster, warned British Foreign Minister Jack Straw last week the clause could have 'devastating consequences' for Iraq's Christian minority. His office gave some details of his letter on Monday.

Determining the role of Islam in Iraq has been one factor stalling the drafting of a new constitution. A draft submitted last month will now be put to a referendum in October although some fine tuning is still taking place.

One clause in the draft states that 'no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam', according to the statement from the cardinal's office.

I'm sure the Iraqis are going to just love the Catholic (Christian) Church poking their nose in this. It's not bad enough they've got a bunch of Bush fundie Christians shooting them.

...namely, Iraqi Catholics. There are a lot more reasons to dislike the current draft Iraqi constitution than just it's potential hostility towards non-Muslims, but it's hard to fault this cardinal for trying to protect the rights of his fellow religionists. It's much like a Mexican cabinet minister calling for laws protecting Mexican citizens on US soil.

Islamic law.