Mahmoud Othman Quotes on Constitution (13 Quotes)

I am happy about this decision because I want this to be done democratically, even though we support the constitution.

whether Islam will be the main source or a source of legislation in the constitution.

They made this change because they were afraid the constitution would be rejected. But now it may be counterproductive they made the Sunnis so furious that maybe more of them will vote no.

From the very beginning, we said that if the constitution committee wants to have a draft that all would agree on, it would be impossible by Aug. 15, ... The Sunnis haven't agreed on some points, and I don't think they will. The Kurds also haven't gotten their demands yet. ... There's a concern that the Sunnis and Kurds might boycott.

If concessions are made to the Sunnis to make additions to the constitution, then the other parties want a guarantee from the Sunnis that they will vote back the constitution at the referendum. But there are no guarantees.

Really, we are disappointed with that. It seems like the Americans want to have a constitution at any cost,

It is not good to have a constitution that would limit the liberties of people, the human rights, the freedoms.

We don't want to violate the constitution before our first meeting.

Sunni approval of the constitution would have created a big movement against the terrorists, ... It is a good document. What worries us is our Sunni Arab friends.

The Americans say they don't intervene, but they have intervened deep. They gave us a detailed proposal, almost a full version of a constitution. They try to compromise the different opinions of all the political blocs. The U.S. officials are more interested in the Iraqi constitution than the Iraqis themselves, because they promised their people that it will be done August 15.

The change is good for the country even if the constitution fails, because I prefer it to be honest and fair and democratic.

If we'd had more time, it would have been possible to get Sunni participation. When Oct. 15 comes, many won't even have seen the constitution.

We have seen in recent weeks a security crisis, then a political crisis. This would mean we would now have a constitutional crisis.