User:Toussaint/cultural and religious freedom

In Iraq, both economic stability and political liberalization can be achieved, and it is likely that the Iraqi people will become further geared towards both in the long-term. But what about cultural and religious freedom? Why is it that Iraq still experiences a stunning lack of cultural and religious freedom, despite the granting of a limited degree of economic and political freedom by the current government? Little headway has been made toward a secularization of the government or protection of the cultural diversity of the country. Yes, Iraq is a federal republic with a PR-based electoral system, but it is also, like Russia, a de-facto illiberal democracy.

The gross intolerance of religious differences under the Saddam regime is equaled or paled in comparison to the belligerent hostility visited by both Sunni and Shi'a militias against each other and against smaller religious minorities in post-Saddam Iraq. The education sector is structured towards the gaining of sectarian-flavored knowledge of economic empowerment and cultural affinity, resulting in a monetary empowering and intellectual heightening of pre-existing, hereditarily-instilled bigotries.

The key to fighting the current illiberalism in Iraq is not through empowering the economy and diversifying the political structure, but through breaking up the religious, cultural and ideological monopolies which have a stranglehold over the "liberalized" political process.