Mudarrisi Criticizes Planning for new Constitution

Sayyid Hadi al-Mudarrisi, a major cleric of the holy shrine city of Karbala, issued a denunciation Wednesday of the process whereby preparations are being made to draft a new Iraqi constitution. He said that the IGC owed the Iraqi people much more transparency about the process. (al-Zaman) He complained, as well, that foreign experts were being consulted, but that the Iraqi people as a whole, and the religious clerics in particular, were not being consulted and were in fact being ignored. Al-Mudarris heads, with his brother Hadi, the Islamic Action Organization in Karbala, which has hardline Shiite views. His statement betrays anxiety that the IGC may give Iraq a secular constitution.