“This constitution is like the Balfour Declaration that sold Palestine,” Sadr (AFP)

Additional Reporting By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, March 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraq's Shiite scholars hit out the new interim constitution as a bid  to sell Iraq to the U.S.-led occupation, while thousands of Iraqis rallied against the interim code.

During Friday prayers, March 12, religious leaders in the holy cities of Karbala and An-Najaf, where Iraq's most influential Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is based, reiterated their concerns over the text, which they fear gives too much power to the Kurds, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In An-Najaf, 160 kilometers from Baghdad, leader Sadreddin Kubanji, the representative of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), criticized the “weakness” of the document and said the power it gives the Kurds “threatens the unity of the country”.

“This constitution was not put to the public vote, so how on earth it can be deemed legitimate,” he told the faithful.

Sheik Mohammad Al-Yaaqoubi also said the interim code has lots of loopholes that can pit the Iraqis against one another.

He called on the Shiites, who make some 60 percent of the population, to stand up and be counted and denounce Monday's controversial signing of the new basic law.

 ‘Balfour Declaration’

A protestor chants anti-occupation slogans after Friday prayers

Young firebrand Moqtada Sadr likened the text to a British declaration inviting Jews to settle in Palestine in 1917.

“This constitution is like the Balfour Declaration that sold Palestine. We are selling Iraq and Islam. This is a bad signal to send," he told the faithful at a mosque in Kufa, near Najaf.

He seized Friday sermon to call on both Shiites and Sunnis to act in concert in the face of the U.S.-led occupation.

“Everything that is happening around us should unite us, but unfortunately it is only our Sunni brothers who are coming closer to us,” he said.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Safi, Sistani’s representative in Karbala, described the code as a “historical farce”.

Before the ink had barely dried on the Iraqi interim constitution, observations and objections from some of those who inked the document, in addition to other influential figures, were voiced.

Sistani on Monday, March 8, called the new transitional law an obstacle to a permanent constitution.

‘American Constitution’

Thousands of Iraqis protest the interim constitution

In Baghdad, thousands of Shiites rallied against the constitution, waving banners that read: “We don’t want an American constitution”.

“No, no to the basic law,” the crowd chanted at a peaceful rally in Ferouz square. 

“They want Iraq to split into many countries, and they are targeting the Iraqi people,” they warned. “We will never accept a constitution written by the Jews”.

“We have run out of patience in waiting this constitution, expecting that it would be the bedrock of the Iraq’s unity, but unfortunately I did not live up to the aspirations of the Iraqi people. It is a time bomb that can go off at any time,” Sheikh Abdul Hadi Al-Shams, one of the rally’s leaders told IslamOnline.net.

Another protester regretted that religious authorities were not consulted in drawing up the constitution.

“It is cooked by the Americans and their puppets in the Governing Council. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to change this constitution,” said another protester.  

At the heart of the problem lies Shiite political aspirations after decades of repression under ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Kurdish fears of losing their autonomy, which until Saddam was ousted was guaranteed after the 1991 Gulf War. 

But under the interim law, which cannot be altered without a 75 percent parliamentary majority, any three of Iraq's 18 provinces can reject the permanent constitution when it is drawn up. That gives the Kurds a veto power.

Many fear the mechanism will entrench Iraq's ethnic and religious differences and foment anger in the Sunni community -- which now worries about being sidelined.