BAGHDAD — A top Shiite lawmaker urged parliament Monday to restore quotas for Christians and other small religious communities on ruling provincial councils that voters will select by Jan. 31.
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Parliament had dropped the quota system, in place in six of Iraq’s 18 provinces, citing a lack of census data on how many Christians, Yazidis and practitioners of other religions were still in those areas.
But Christians, believed to make up less than 3 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people, complained that the change would effectively exclude them from representation in a system where most people vote along religious lines.
"We do not want to immigrate to the U.S. or Britain — we want to stay in Iraq and have our representatives in both the provincial councils and the legislature,” the Rev. Louis al-Shabi said.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, a Shiite, said none of the political parties intended to deny Christians and others their rights.
"We hope that this issue is solved as soon as possible,” al-Attiyah said.
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Of the many mistakes made in the conduct of the war in Iraq, the lack of attention to the Christian community is big.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.