Shariah Law

And so it begins:

One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion.

Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.

Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.

I've said since day 1 that if Iraq turns into an Islamic state, every last American that died in the effort would have died in vain.

The process is well under way.

This simply cannot be allowed to happen. We cannot allow the previously secular Iraq to fall to the mullahs, and if that means the American's write the constitution for them, so be it.

I would have preferred we not invaded Iraq, but instead worked to win over the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims, but now that we're there, we cannot afford to screw it up.

The entire goal of the American foreign policy towards the middle east must be modernization, and the destruction of the religious state through peaceful political processes. I'm not in any way advocating replacing Islam with Christianity. Quite simply, the rule of law must be fair to everyone and completely independent of religious superstition.

This really struck a cord with me today because I just finished looking at Sullivan's blog. He links to a story, with heart breaking pictures, of two young men (one under 18 years old) that were executed by hanging yesterday in Iran. Their crime? Being gay.

I considered posting the picture, but I'm not even going to link it. It's disgusting.

Fuck those Islamic assholes...