An Iraqi governor resigns after a deadly mall fire
The fire last Wednesday tore through a newly opened shopping center in the town of Kut in Wasit province. While an investigation is ongoing, officials and residents have said that lack of safety measures in the building exacerbated the tragedy.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Miyahi said he had resigned 'in honor of the blood of the martyrs, as they are in need of a gesture that may soothe part of their deep wounds, and in loyalty to them and to the people of this province.' The provincial council elected a new governor, Hadi Majid Kazzar.
The fire had sparked widespread public anger, with families of the victims demanding the governor's dismissal and that others responsible for negligence be held accountable. They asserted that the blaze was the result of a long history of administrative corruption and weak oversight.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani had sent an official request to Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani calling for the governor's dismissal, and the Cabinet decided in a session Tuesday to refer al-Miyahi to the investigation.
Al-Miyahi previously said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits, and that legal complaints had been filed against the owner and shopping center owner.
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of 'sandwich panel' cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
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While Conzatti is consistent in stating that voters of every state should have the power to choose what 'religious values and system of morality their state government will reflect,' he said 'biblical Christianity' is the only worldview that can sustain the country. 'We can — and we should — openly promote biblical Christian values and acknowledge God in our governmental affairs," Conzatti said. 'Idaho Family Policy Center affirms the freedom of all religious minorities to live out their faith, and we advocate for the religious freedom of everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.' Idaho's history of religious discrimination Republican Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen, who represents the area west of Idaho Falls, said proposals for the state to come out in transparent support of a certain interpretation of Christianity have 'been on turbocharge over the last few years.' Groups like Idaho Family Policy Center have an 'outsized influence' in Idaho politics because of the partnerships they have developed with many sitting lawmakers and prospective primary challengers, Mickelsen said. While some of their initiatives align with conservative small government principles, like allowing tax dollars to follow students outside of public school, others would expand government through increased litigation, spending and regulations, according to Mickelsen. An approach to social issues that takes control away from local governments is not just heavy-handed, it could create a precedent that infringes on the kind of pluralism that protects religious diversity, Mickelsen said. 'I think that we're getting back to a very slippery slope of being like the Church of England, or the Roman Catholic influence in Italy,' Mickelsen said. 'When's this going to stop? What's good enough for them?' Even though the 14th Amendment extended the Constitution's prohibition on religious tests to the states in 1868, just after Idaho became a territory, in the state's early history there was an effort to exclude Latter-day Saints from political life. Despite Latter-day Saint missionaries being among the first Europeans to settle in Idaho, the territory's laws in the 1880s, and its first state constitution, required an 'Idaho Test Oath' that banned supporters of groups that practiced polygamy from voting, serving on juries or holding office. The Supreme Court upheld the law in an unanimous ruling in 1890 — the same year the church ended the practice of plural marriage. And while enforcement ended later in the 1890s, the language that had earlier disenfranchised Latter-day Saint voters was not removed from the Idaho State Constitution until 1982. Personal faith in the public sphere Like Wheeler, Mickelsen, who is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pointed to the church's seminary program as an example of how to bring religion into the public square without imposing on others. In southeast Idaho, as in Utah, high school students are given release time to leave campus for one period to attend church seminary buildings that are often built next door to the school. Former Republican Rep. Chenele Dixon, who was defeated in a primary in 2024 after opposing an Idaho Family Policy Center proposal, said she shared Wheeler and Mickelsen's view that an individual's faith should influence their policy decisions, and that this is healthy for society. During her single term in office, Dixon supported some bills written by the Idaho Family Policy Center that overlapped with her conservative views as a lifelong Republican, she said. But she said she thought other bills seemed like solutions in search of problems that the Idaho Family Policy Center had stirred up in an effort to box out views, or religions, they did not agree with. 'I do have a concern when we say that we need to be a Christian state, because there is always, I have found, a litmus test for Christianity with people that say that,' Dixon said. 'And actually, the folks who are saying that, don't have room for LDS people either, and I think a lot of LDS people don't understand that.' Correction: The Idaho Family Policy Center was not directly involved in lobbying for bills to require the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and to allow chaplains to serve as school counselors. Solve the daily Crossword
