FYI and nothing else, this dry, informational piece in the Chicago Sun-Times gives some details of coalitions forming and their platforms for the coming elections in Iraq.
Also, a prominent Sunni party which said it would boycott quietly submitted a full list of candidates.
An excerpt:
Details began to emerge Friday about the composition of a 228-candidate list presented by Iraq's mainstream #####e groups in the run-up to next month's parliamentary elections, part of their bid to take a leading role in post-occupation Iraq.
As expected, representatives of Iraq's dominant Iran-linked #####e party topped the list of the United Iraqi Alliance.
Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, was number one, said one of his aides. But there were also representatives of small northern Sunni tribes, Turkomen movements and others in an apparent attempt to attract wide support.
Members of participating groups said the coalition's platform would include a call for working toward the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq.
"There must be a timetable for this," said Hussein al-Mousawi, an official of the #####e Political Council, an umbrella group that has some parties represented in the alliance.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraq10.html
EDIT: A lengthy article in the New York Times examining the large debate ongoing in the Muslim world over the interpretation of Islam, a debate being sparked by the incredible depth of violence seen in Iraq in the name of their religion.
A very interesting read if you have the time - an excerpt:
The long-simmering internal debate over political violence in Islamic cultures is swelling, with seminars like that one and a raft of newspaper columns breaking previous taboos by suggesting that the problem lies in the way Islam is being interpreted. On Saturday in Morocco, a major conference, attended by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, will focus on increasing democracy and liberal principles in the Muslim world.
On one side of the discussion sit mostly secular intellectuals horrified by the gore joined by those ordinary Muslims dismayed by the ever more bloody image of Islam around the world. They are determined to find a way to wrestle the faith back from extremists. Basically the liberals seek to dilute what they criticize as the clerical monopoly on disseminating interpretations of the sacred texts.
Arrayed against them are powerful religious institutions like Al Azhar University, prominent clerics and a whole different class of scholars who argue that Islam is under assault by the West. Fighting back with any means possible is the sole defense available to a weaker victim, they say.
The debate, which can be heard in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, is driven primarily by carnage in Iraq. The hellish stream of images of American soldiers attacking mosques and other targets are juxtaposed with those of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheading civilian victims on his home videos as a Koranic verse including the line "Smite at their necks" scrolls underneath.
When the mayhem in Iraq slows, events like the slaying in September of more than 300 people at a Russian school - half of them children - or some other attack in the Netherlands, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia or Spain labeled jihad by its perpetrators serves to fuel discussions on satellite television, in newspapers and around the dinner tables of ordinary Muslims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/internat...html?oref=login
Cowperson