UNPRECEDENTED BILL AIMS TO ADDRESS CHRISTIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003006 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/16/2018 TAGS: KIRF PGOV PREL IZ SUBJECT: UNPRECEDENTED BILL AIMS TO ADDRESS CHRISTIAN PERSONAL STATUS ISSUES; 2009 BUDGET INCREASE FOR NON-MUSLIM ENDOWMENTS OFFICE REF: A. BAGHDAD 2175 ¶B. BAGHDAD 1962 ¶C. BAGHDAD 2829 Classified By: By PolMinCons Robert S. Ford for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Non-Muslim Endowments Office Director Abdullah Al-Naufali and associates are drafting a new law that will aim to protect the personal status rights of Christians. According to one of the drafting committee lawyers, the nearly completed draft will be submitted to the Shura Council by the end of September. The law, if passed by the Council of Representatives (CoR),would be the first Iraqi law to legally recognize Christian practices and traditions in matters related to marriage, divorce and inheritance. Also, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has approved a large increase for the Non-Muslim Endowment's 2009 personnel budget, which will allow hiring of new staff to undertake a backlog of restoration projects of Iraq's non-Muslim places of worship. Al-Naufali participates in interfaith dialogue meetings arranged by MNF-I, but he thinks Muslims still have far to go in accepting Christians. We don't know if the draft law will eventually gain passage, and we will monitor its progress closely, weighing in as needed. End Summary. -------------- -------------- New Law to Protect Christian Personal Status Rights -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Non-Muslim Endowments Office Director Abdullah Al-Naufali told POLOFF on September 5 that associates of the Endowments Office have drafted a new law which aims to protect the personal status of Christians. Al-Naufali emphasized that its sole focus will be the rights of Christians in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance matters. In a separate September 10 meeting, one of the drafting committee lawyers, Azad Hermiz Nissan, told POLOFF that the draft is nearly complete and will be submitted to the Shura Council by the end of September. He was confident that the proposed law will be sent to the Council of Ministers, and eventually be put to a vote in the CoR, although he could not predict when this might happen. Nissan noted that senior leadership of all Iraqi Christian sects had collaborated and agreed on the text. ¶3. (C) According to Nissan, this is the first Iraqi law that will take Christian traditions and practice into consideration in matters related to marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. For example, all inheritance rulings are now based on the Hanafi school of Sharia law. However, non-Muslims deal with inheritance quite differently from accepted Islamic practice, which also can differ among different sects. Nissan acknowledged that although Christians publicly accept Iraqi law as it is, they may privately arrange their inheritance matters according to their own preferences. ¶4. (C) On the other hand, it has not been possible for non-Muslims to circumvent a 1972 law which stipulates that all minor children born of a marriage between two non-Muslims automatically become Muslim if one of the parents converts to Islam. Article 29 of the new draft law would effectively abrogate the 1972 law by stipulating that children retain their birth religion; i.e., Christianity, regardless of whether a parent converts to another religion. (Note: Such a situation would occur when a Catholic man converts to Islam in order to divorce his wife. Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Delly claimed in July 2008 that there are 1800 such cases in Iraq (ref A). End note.) Nissan noted that Catholic authorities often circumvent the divorce prohibition by facilitating marriage annulments. -------------- Flush 2009 Budget Outlook -------------- ¶5. (C) Al-Naufali mentioned that the MoF had approved a 216 percent personnel hiring budget increase for 2009. In a June 25 meeting (ref B),Al-Naufali had complained that the MoF would not release his 2008 investment budget due to delay in passing of a Christian Sects law in the CoR. In our more recent meeting, Al Naufali was optimistic that this new BAGHDAD 00003006 002 OF 002 allocation for 2009 will materialize and enable him to hire 150 expert staff, including engineers, lawyers, and accountants, who could contribute to the urgently needed restoration and protection of Iraq's churches and other non-Muslim religious sites. -------------- Interfaith Dialogue: A Futile Exercise? -------------- ¶6. (C) Al-Naufali, a Christian, participates in occasional interfaith gatherings organized by MNF-I. The meetings include Sheikh Fatih Kashif Al-Gitta, the Shia co-chair of the Iraq Inter-Religious Congress, and Mandaean and Yezidi representatives from the Non-Muslim Endowments. Al-Naufali characterized the gatherings as "nice meetings", but noted the "nothing will change, until their (Muslims') mentality changes". -------------- Comment -------------- ¶7. (C) While neither Al-Naufali nor Nissan could say they had high-level official assurances that bringing the law to a CoR vote was a sure thing, both were upbeat and gave the impression the prospects were good. The law would be a significant step forward for minority rights, since it would address some of the issues that outspoken minority leaders often mention as barriers to their achieving equal status with Muslims. Al-Naufali has, in the past, been pessimistic about the future of Christians in Iraq. The effort he and his associates have put into drafting the new law, however, suggest he is hopeful that the legal rights of minorities, and especially Christians, will finally be given legal recognition, thus paving the way for their fuller integration into Iraqi society. Al-Naufali was pleased about his office's budget increase, in a "better late than never" sort of way, but did not attribute the windfall to any particular effort on the part of supporters in the GOI. We note, however, recent signs indicating increased GOI attention to Christian matters, including PM Maliki's July meeting with Pope Benedict XIV and the GOI's intention to hold a conference about Christian concerns later this year (ref C). We will follow up closely with Al-Naufali and Nissan the draft Christian personal status law's progress toward ratification, weighing in with parliamentarians and opinion shapers when it is useful. CROCKER