This debate about the new Iraqi constitution is bothering me on more than one level. One thing that bothers me tremendously is this notion that Islam should be THE or even A source of legislation. A variation of that phrase is embedded in the constitution of almost all Muslim majority countries. But that notion is not only silly, impractical, and (divinely speaking) pretentious--as if they can infer what God's position is on some minor and modern aspects of the law. It even is impossible. There is a an important book that did not get the attention it deserves in 1984 when it was released (James Piscatori's Islam in a World of Nation States), and it shows that even in devoutly Muslim countries, the legal systems (even in Saudi Arabia) carry within it non-religious civil laws. How could they not? Like what is the Shari`ah's position on internet pornography, or chatrooms, or instant messaging between the sexes, etc. There is no Shari`ah position, but the present-day demagogues who make money and earn power by their clerical and political positions, want us to believe that there is a reference in the Shari`ah to all matters that come before humans, even 1000 years from now. This only underlines the importance of secularism (here and there).