The Iraqi Constitution of 2005 and the Principles of Islam

The article analyses constitutional provisions of the Republic of Iraq (2005) referring to Shari‘a and Islam in general. It offers a comparative analysis of the present Constitution and the previous one (1970). It is demonstrated that there are virtually no significant places for Shari‘a and Islam in the Constitution of 1970. The Constitution of 2005 offers a more meaningful role for the Islamic principles. It is also demonstrated that still the new Constitution of Iraq has very limited mentions of Islam which can be connected with the pressure of the provisional American occupation authorities, as well as Shi‘a — Sunni contradictions. The Administration of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq produced a tough resistance to the attempts to include Islamic principles in any project of future Constitution. As a result, the final version of the constitution was neither Sunni nor Shi‘a. Against this background, the very fact of a reduced number of references to Islam (without Shia or Sunni connotations) might have been regarded as a sort of compromise. Meanwhile, it can be concluded that throughout the extremely complicated political history of the country the consensus in constitutional construction has not been obtained so far.