“We have often said this, we have said we will not accept less than what is determined for the holy religion of Islam in the Iraqi constitution and it’s not acceptable to us, the Justice Group,” Rebwar Hamad, the spokesperson for the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), told Rudaw Radio on Thursday.
Komal was previously known as the Kurdistan Islamic Group.
Hamad said the constitution “is for the people of Kurdistan, it can’t just contain the demands of one party and only the powerful parties, the demand and benefit to the public should be taken into account,” but he added, for them, “the holy religion of Islam in the constitution is an important point.”
Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution says Islam is the official religion and no law may contradict Islamic principles. The 2009 draft of the Kurdistan Region's constitution aligns with Article 2 of Iraq’s.
Parties and minorities each have submitted their ideas for a Kurdish constitution, but Hamad said they have formed a committee to collect their ideas to be submitted.
The Kurdistan Region is majority Muslim, but it is also home to many ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, Yazidis, Kakais, Turkmens, and Arabs.
Minorities in the Kurdistan Region do suffer some discrimination, but the region also receives international praise for its efforts to encourage tolerance and co-existence.
Debate has raged over whether the constitution should be secular or if it should follow Iraq’s lead and adopt Islamic principles, while the Kurdistan Region revives its effort to write a constitution.
Ali Bapir, the head of Komal, said during a conference on the Kurdistan Region’s constitution, “If we look at countries around the world and their constitutions, we see they all respect their religious identity and announce their official religions.”
But the majority of Iraq’s Christians live in the Kurdistan Region and Christian leaders want to see a secular constitution.
The Kurdistan Region currently relies on a series of laws, instructions and norms as a substitution for the constitution. It also heavily relies on the Iraqi constitution for numerous issues, especially those related to crime.
Under Article 120 of the 2005 Iraqi constitution, the Kurdistan Region is entitled to have its own constitution – as long as it does not contradict that of Iraq.
Kurdish political parties have been struggling to agree on a constitution since then. In 2009, they drafted a constitution, but it was not put forward due to disputes over certain articles.
In April, MPs were asked to re-submit their agreements and disagreements to parliament in order to restart work on the draft.
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