London, England - A leading Roman Catholic cardinal has urged Britain to help remove a clause from Iraq's draft constitution he says would deny Christians and other minorities their basic rights as citizens.
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who is Archbishop of Westminster, warned British Foreign Minister Jack Straw last week the clause could have 'devastating consequences' for Iraq's Christian minority. His office gave some details of his letter on Monday.
Determining the role of Islam in Iraq has been one factor stalling the drafting of a new constitution. A draft submitted last month will now be put to a referendum in October although some fine tuning is still taking place.
One clause in the draft states that 'no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam', according to the statement from the cardinal's office.
In recent years, the Vatican has stressed the issue of religious liberty in Muslim countries and has raised in the United Nations the question of persecution of Christians and other minorities in some societies with Islamic majorities.
While church leaders recognise that Iraq will be an Islamic state and that Islam will be a source for legislation, they are 'most alarmed' by the article and consider it 'a real threat to religious freedom', Murphy-O'Connor told Straw.
He called on Britain's foreign minister to influence those drawing up the constitution to remove the clause and include guarantees which establish the equality of non-Muslims.
'Iraq is a sovereign country and it is up to them how they vote and draft their constitution. It is not our prerogative to steer the course of decision making,' a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.
'We have many interests to take into account and we make those interests clear.'
In the early 1990s, Iraq's Christian community was estimated at more than one million out of a population of 27 million but since 1991, and particularly over the past 2 1/2 years, the community has dwindled to about 600,000.