08 September 2007

Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the age of religious governments in the Middle East came to an end. The era had started off with Islamic conquests during the 8th century, and continued for 13 centuries.

The states which were established as a result to the Sykes-Picot agreement were mainly based on secular principles.

Their constitutions and laws had many liberal aspects. The Iraqi constitution of 1925, for example, did not allow a religious state to be established, despite the fact that one of its articles said Islam is one source of legislation.

This is understandable, as the Middle East was built as per the victor's wishes. Britain and France strived to establish stable countries in the region to protect both their interests for a long time to come.

Turkey is distinguished by its secular character, with a clear reference to this aspect in its constitution.

Although Turkey was secularised at the official level, religion remained a strong force at the popular level. Some political leaders tried to benefit from popular attachment to religion by espousing support for programmes and policies which appealed to the religiously inclined. Such efforts were opposed by most of the political elite, who believed that secularism was an essential principle of the Kemalist ideology. This disinclination to appreciate religious values and beliefs gradually led to a polarisation of society. The religious establishment in Turkey works under the civil authority.

In the 1980s, religious forces and parties in a number of Middle Eastern countries started emerging. The most prominent example was the Iranian revolution in 1979. Other examples of parties based on Islam coming to power were the emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the ascendance of the Justice and Development party in Turkey, as well as two, consecutive religiously-inclined governments in Iraq after the interim period following the downfall of the Baathist regime in 2003.

Hamas's victory in last year's Palestinian elections and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's gains in the Egyptian parliament are more examples.

Now, after four years in which religious parties have controlled the Iraqi street and important aspects of the Iraqi political process, US polls published recently showed an increasing change in the Iraqis' political temperament towards secularism and national identity over the sectarian identity

The polls between 2004-2007 showed a decline in popular backing for religious governments and an increasing preference for a secular political regime.

Mansour Muadal, a professor and researcher in Social Sciences at the University of East Michigan said after supervising the polls: "Iraqis have a high sense of national identity which transcends both religious and political lines".

Polls conducted in 2007 showed that 54 per cent of Iraqis identified themselves as "Iraqis first", in comparison to 29 per cent in April 2006. Of the 54 per cent, 75 per cent were Iraqis from Baghdad which is the Iraqi city which is most ethnically diversity.

Polls also showed that there is a significant change in the mood of the Iraqi street in connection to the relation between religion and politics. About 30 per cent of Iraqis in the poll said in March 2007 that Iraq would be better off if religion was separated from politics. The same opinion was expressed by 18 per cent of Iraqis in October 2006, and 26 per cent in December 2004.

I do not assume that all Iraqis who took part in the poll are aware of the full meaning of secularism, but they believed that politics and religion must be separate.

These results support several opinions stating that what appears as a sectarian struggle in Iraq is in fact a struggle between political groups that have utilised sectarian divisions for their own interests.

The Iraqi people have paid a dire price for their political existence and experience. And probably will pay a bigger price still to get back their balance and consciousness.

Dr Mohammad Akef Jamal is an Iraqi writer based in Dubai.

By Mohammad Akef Jamal

Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.