Tightrope Walk Ahead for Iraqi Shiite Majority Rule

As The Dread Pundit Bluto pointed out here on Saturday, the large Shiite majority sure to have won election in Iraq must walk a tightrope between secular and religious factions in forming the new Iraqi government.

Today, the New York Times reports

AJAF, Iraq, Feb. 4 - With religious Shiite parties poised to take power in the new constitutional assembly, leading Shiite clerics are pushing for Islam to be recognized as the guiding principle of the new constitution.

Exactly how Islamic to make the document is the subject of debate.

At the very least, the clerics say, the constitution should ensure that legal measures overseeing personal matters like marriage, divorce and family inheritance fall under Shariah, or Koranic law. For example, daughters would receive half the inheritances of sons under that law.

It would be a tragedy for Iraq to fall under the influence of the mullahs the way Iran, the only other large, Shiite-dominated middle east country has.