The situation in Iraq is degenerating rapidly into anarchy.
Senior Islamic clerics have condemned the campaign of direct action - but at the same time they speak well of its impact, claiming that all vice offends the deeply held principles of Islam.
There were some limitations in Saddam's Iraq - alcohol could only be sold warm and by Christians, and be drunk at home; cinemas could not show pornography. But for all that it remained a broadly secular society.
Now the clerics are endorsing the setting up of mosque committees, the brief of which appears to have been directly lifted from Saudi Arabia's and the Taliban's ministries for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice.
Women have also been told to return to wearing the traditional hejab head dress.
Posted by Peter at August 13, 2003 11:47 PM