THE LOS ANGELES TIMES quotes Juan Cole today on Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's ambitions for an Iraq governed according to Islamic law:

'Sistani's position is analogous to that of the Christian Coalition in American politics. He wants civil law and policy to be in conformance with Islamic law and principle as far as possible.'

It seems that theocracy is winning out over secularism in the new Iraq -- not exactly what the Bush administration had in mind. Al-Sistani and other leaders in his winning slate don't necessarily want their country to be modeled on Iran, but when it comes to domestic law, the position of women in society, and what radical right-wing Christians in the United States would call "moral values," religious Shiites say that Sharia (Islamic religious law) must prevail.