Iraqi VP speaks on post-election landscape

BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Islam is a set of guiding principles in Arab democracy where political differences result in an overall benefit for the people, the Iraqi vice president said.

Adel Abdul Mehdi, Iraq's vice president and leading member of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, explained his party platform and standing in the wake of the January provincial elections.

SIIC had backed candidates in the al-Mehrab Martyr list, which finished in the top tiers in many of the southern provinces but was trounced largely by the State of Law coalition of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The results were seen as a referendum on secular politics as many accused SIIC of running under a strong religious platform. The vice president, however, said in an interview with the Iraqi political Web site Niqash that Islam in Iraq is part of the national philosophy.

"The state, by necessity, is a man-made doctrine and cannot be otherwise," he said. "In the end, Islam is a set of principles and values rather than acts of worship."

He blamed the media and others for portraying his party as a scapegoat for many of Iraq's problems, though he acknowledged there was much to gain in the lessons learned from the provincial elections.

"The struggle should be to improve people's conditions and the services provided," the vice president said. "We should not continue fighting each other and compromise the unity of the country."