I joined others in a collective warning about Afghanistan's tap-dance on the constitutional precipice between a secular future and theocratic doom last week. As Charles Krauthammer explained, Afghanistan had never been as ambitious or premeditated a democratization as Iraq; its strategic interest, unfortunately, ended at preventing a complete Islamist return. Anything in between, presumably, including an "Islamic Republic" would be acceptable in the short term - but, as we have now seen with the descent of the Near East, disastrous in years to come. It turns out that our fears could be allayed after all, judging from an advance copy fetched by the Washington Post:

Afghanistan's draft constitution outlines a nation based on Islam but does not impose strict Sharia law and calls for a president elected by popular vote, the Washington Post said in a weekend report.

...Conservative Muslim scholars had pressed for the full-fledged adoption of strict Islamic law while more progressive Afghans opposed a return to any resemblance of Taliban rule when women were forced to wear veils and harsh physical punishments were meted out to criminals, it said.

"In the end, though, the panel adopted mild language stating merely that no laws in Afghanistan 'shall run counter to the sacred principles of Islam,' and specifically protecting the rights of religious minorities," it said.

It does not enshrine Sharia law.

This is a powerful early victory for secularists, and the lasting freedom of Afghanistan as a whole. Islam can certainly instruct the social mores of the society, but the fact that it has been pushed out of any real constitutional authority or foundation - and instead into a position where its relationship to legal precedent can be addressed by courts - should be cause for universal relief. "Principle" carries a very broad interpretation, and is a slap in the face for those who assumed that they could wreath the country's rebirth in fundamentalist dogma. If reactionary forces can be defeated popularly by secular Afghans and Islamist terrorists masquerading as conservatives can be defeated militarily by occupation troops, the embattled country will be set on an inexorable push towards modernity.

Other issues, such as executive and executive-legislator conflict, are relatively minor to the theocracy litmus. Americans carry on similar discussions of power division today, and will always do so. Debate and ratification by the Loya Jirga, planned for December, will settle those arguments for the sake of the original document with relative ease.