Iraq To Be Based On Islamic Law?

Everywhere I look now in the news, I see articles describing how some Iraqis are calling for Islamic law to rule in the newly liberated Iraq. Without fail, every article makes it seem as though “Islamic law” will be this great and terrible evil visited upon the Iraqi people. The implication being that if we allow the establishment of Islamic law our efforts to liberate the nation will be wasted as we will trade a thugocracy for a satanic theocracy. I don’t agree with that implication.

But before I can discuss why I think it is wrong, we need to examine the foundations that the implication is built upon. The term Islamic law is used in the media to describe the extremist forms of Koranic interpretation. The term has been used so many times to describe decapitations, public amputations, torture, rape, executions, intolerance and a whole host of other inhumane evils that it has become a loaded term. People now have trouble separating the term from extremist actions. Islamic law does not necessarily need to indicate that it is only practiced by dictators and clerics.

What is law? Law is a set of codified principles. It sets forth what society sees as right and wrong and establishes punishments in the case of someone violating one of the society’s mores. Can the definition of society be manipulated by power hungry people? Sure. But regardless of who establishes the law and for what reason, it will always be a reflection of some principle.

The United States was founded on Christian principles. Our laws are based on the Christian views of right and wrong. But our Christian underpinnings have also served as one of our great strengths. Our attempts to meet the Christian ideals of fairness, justice, and compassion have driven us to be better as a people. Have we succeeded? Not always. Are we better for having tried? Most certainly.

Ignoring the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, how different are the underlying principles from those of Christianity? They really aren’t all that different. The Koran, the Torah, and the Bible are all similar in that they were originally written as handbooks for life. The books exist and are enduring because they speak to the basic instinctual humanity in all of us. All speak of the sanctity of life, the need to do good deeds in life; they speak of tolerance and of love for fellow man. The messages are the same, only the stories that convey those messages are different.

A new Iraq based on Islamic principles of law is not incompatible with our own desires to see a more tolerant and open government in Baghdad. There will always be a minority fringe that wants to set up an Iranian style interpretation of Islamic law in Iraq - just as we have a minority fringe that wants to establish a fundamentalist Christian state in the US. Our goal should be to help the Iraqi people set up a secular government based on true Islamic principles, not the hijacked extremist ones. If we are successful in doing so, the Iraqi people themselves will marginalize the extremists, much like what has happened in Turkey - a secular government based on Islamic principle where even an Islamic Party can live within the rules of fair government.

We need to bring together the clerics and the initial leaders of the new Iraq and help them to build a new country based on their principles. Like it or not, the clerics will be key in helping to establish the new Iraq as they can hold vast sway over large numbers of Iraqi citizens - just like the preachers and pastors of pre-Revolutionary America. They can help to ensure that the new Iraq has real meaning to the people.

An Islamic Iraq needs not be a fear of ours, only an Iraq based on an extremist interpretation of Islamic law. Let Islam establish the guiding principles of the nation. It is our job to help the people of Iraq to establish a new government, not to dictate it to them.