Iraqi Kurds reject 'Islamic Iraq' as US hunts rebels

"BAGHDAD, Aug 6 (AFP) - Iraqi Kurds Saturday rejected suggestions the country should be proclaimed an Islamic state as the northern region's autonomous parliament debated the country's draft constitution ahead of a national conference on the issue Sunday.

Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan, said the Kurds would not compromise on their demands that include a federal Iraq and the incorporation of the northern oil centre of Kirkuk in their autonomous region.

"We will not accept that Iraq's identity is Islamic," Barzani told an emergency session of the autonomous Kurdistan parliament.

He also rejected suggestions that Iraq be termed an Arab nation. "Let Arab Iraq be part of the Arab nation -- we are not," the Kurdish leader said."
The Kurdistani

I like these Kurds. When I grow up, I want to be a Kurd.