Re: Iraqi Shiite Leaders Snub U.S. Power Transfer Plan

Do they know the difference between sectarian and universal religious
principles?

Only universal religious principles should be allowed in government
vis-a-vis truthfullness, austerity, charity, and cleanliness.

Sectarian religious principles are based on material duality. Thus bringing
sectarian religious law into government and/or bringing government laws into
sectarian religion will contradict the real purpose of both religion and
government vis-a-vis to maintain the knowledge of reality distinguished from
illusion for the ultimate welfare of all people regardless of race,
religion, nationality, occupation, and gender etc.


"Abu-Alwafa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Iraqi Shiite Leaders Snub U.S. Power Transfer Plan
>
> BAGHDAD, November 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Jalal Talabani,
the
> rotating chairman of the U.S.-appointed Interim Governing council (IGC)
met
> Thursday, November 27, with the country's most influential Shiite scholar
to
> water down his objections to the American power transfer plans.
>
> Talabani said Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani wanted full elections for all
> Iraqi administrative and political bodies to be formed in the future,
> reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
>
> "He wants the Iraqi people to be consulted. He wants elections to be held
> for the municipal councils as well as the legislative council," the IGC
> leader added after the meeting.
>
> Sistani maintained that despite the lack of a reliable census in Iraq,
> elections can still be held on the basis of the food ration cards
> distributed to the population under the regime of Saddam Hussein and that
> are still in use, said Talabani, a Kurdish leader.
>
> Ayatollah Sistani had expressed concerns over real gaps in the American
> plans agreed on by the occupation authorities and the IGC on November 15.
>
> He stressed that they diminished the role of the Iraqi people in the
process
> of power transfer.
>
> "Ayatollah Sistani insists that the Iraqi people give their opinion on
> central and crucial matters pertaining to the country and this is not the
> case as the (process of selecting the) transitional assembly now stands,"
> leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)
> Abdel-Aziz Hakim said Wednesday, November 26.
>
> Sistani did not see any reason why elections should be delayed until 2005,
> the time frame set by the transition accord, Hakim, himself a member of
the
> IGC, told a press conference in the Shiite holy city of An-Najaf.
>
> The prominent scholar didn't also find anything that assures the Islamic
> identity of the country in the proposed plans.
>
> "There should have been a stipulation which prevents legislating anything
> that contradicts Islam in the new Iraq," Hakim said.
>
> He added that Sistani and other Shiite leaders wanted assurances that the
> interim "Fundamental Law" would contain nothing contrary to Islam as well
as
> a more representative system of selection for the assembly.
>
> Both Ayatollah Sistani and Ayatollah Mohammed Said Hakim, another top
Shiite
> leader, "shared the same reservations".
>
> "There will be real problems if the reservations we have expressed are not
> taken into account," Hakim warned.
>
> Sistani, widely revered as Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, has
> stopped short of issuing any fatwas calling on Shiites, making up some 60
> per cent of the population, to fight occupation forces.
>
> He had exhorted the Iraqi people to resort to "civil Jihad" instead of
> launching armed attacks against Anglo-American occupation soldiers.
>
> Reservations
>
> Other Shiite religious parties have expressed reservations about the new
> U.S. plans to hand over sovereignty to an unelected provisional government
> by June next year.
>
> But the warning issued Wednesday by Sistani and Hakim marked a sharp
> escalation in the opposition from Iraq's generally quiescent majority
> community.
>
> U.S. and British occupation troops have thus far had a relatively easy
ride
> from Iraq's Shiite community who were severely repressed under Saddam
> regime.
>
> Observers said the Shiite reservations add to pressures on the U.S.
> occupation forces, facing a cauldron of seething, bubbling cauldron of
> resentment and anger among ordinary Iraqis.
>
> They cited the threatening tone of Hakim, warning that the power transfer
> "will be deficient and will not meet the expectations of the people of
Iraq"
> if the Shiite concerns were not addressed.
>
> There are fears among the Shiite religious parties that the indirect
system
> of selection chosen by the U.S. will not reflect the extent of their
popular
> support.
>
> Some Shiites figures also argue that it is high time for Shiites and
Sunnis
> in Iraq to join hands in resisting the U.S.-led occupation of their
country
> and drive out the invaders.
>
> U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday, November 16, the power
> transfer plan will have no effect on U.S. military presence in the
country.
>
> The plan foresees a transitional assembly selected through a complicated
> system of caucuses convened under U.S. supervision, and operating under an
> interim constitution drawn up with American assistance.
>
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