WASHINGTON: A group of well-meaning American lawmakers in Washington sat through a briefing on Afghanistan on Wednesday wondering how to implement liberal secular values in a country steeped in religious traditions.

They were assisted by a group of US officials, equally sincere to liberal values, but a little less enthusiastic about the possibility of transforming Afghanistan into a Middle Eastern version of the United States or Britain.

They had gathered for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia on Afghanistan’s new Constitution titled: “Afghanistan: Democratization and Human Rights on the Eve of the Constitutional Loya Jirga.”

Their attention was focused on a document that will become Afghanistan’s Constitution once the loya jirga approves it next month. The jirga meets on Dec 10.

But as they started going through the draft, they found several provisions that were not secular. In fact some of them appeared inclined to protect a traditional Islamic society that does not conform to the secular values of the West.

“Article two of the draft Constitution begins affirming that followers of other religions are free to perform their religious ceremonies, yet it ends by placing this guarantee ... within the limits of the provisions of laws,” observed Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

“The draft states that no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam,” pointed out US Ambassador-at-large John Hanford.

Ms Ros-Lehtinen showed another incompatibility with Western values in the proposed Afghan Constitution where it says that the Afghans are free to formulate political parties provided “the programme and charter of the party are not contrary to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam.”

Congressman Bill Janklow said that the draft Constitution allows a person to become a judge of the Afghan Supreme Court if he has “higher education in law or in Islamic jurisprudence.”

Ms Ros-Lehtinen, who chaired the hearing, also referred to article 17 of the Constitution, which says: “The state shall adopt necessary measures for promotion of education in all level, development of religious education, organizing and improving the conditions of mosques, madrasas and religious centers.”

There are certain other Islamic provisions in the draft Constitution as well: “The calendar of the country shall be based on the pilgrimage of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Friday is a public holiday. The Afghan flag shall have the sacred phrase of there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, and Allah is Great.”

None of these can help create a secular society in Afghanistan, if that’s what the US lawmakers believe that the US is doing in that country, said an observer.

These are, Ms Ros-Lehtinen pointed out, “conservative religious tendencies of the Afghan society” that have been “enshrined in the Constitution and could, in their practical application, empower extremist elements in the country.”

But as Congresswoman Diane Watson suggested, US policy-makers should first decide what they want to do in traditional societies like Afghanistan and Iraq before attempting to change them.

And Lorne W. Craner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, warned that any effort to impose external values on traditional societies like Afghanistan’s may have negative repercussions.