Any Sunni sanity?

From Best of the Web Today:

Keep on the Sunni Side

The Iraqi Parliament approved the new constitution yesterday. It now goes before the voters in an Oct. 15 nationwide referendum. But Shiite and Kurdish parliamentarians approved the charter after Sunni Arabs balked. A two-thirds "no" vote in three of Iraq's provinces would defeat the charter, and Sunni Arabs are the majority in at least four provinces. Thus ratification is not assured.

A New York Times report, however, suggests divisions within the Sunnis:
A Sunni member of the constitutional drafting committee, Mahmoud al-Mashadani, said he favored approving the document. But he added that he feared he could become a target of more militant Sunnis if he were to speak out about it, particularly if the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni group, were to denounce the charter.

"Who is going to protect me when I'm walking in the streets after that?" he said, adding that he had just heard a Sunni imam denouncing those who supported the constitution as infidels.

Other Sunnis have expressed similar fears, especially after two Sunnis involved in drafting the constitution were assassinated last month.

Sunni reactionaries thus find themselves in a curious position. In order to defeat the constitution, they will have to encourage their supporters to vote, which in itself would be a mark of progress toward democracy. But if Mashadani's experience is typical, it may be that Sunni opinion is decidedly mixed, with proponents of democracy keeping their heads down for fear of being targeted by paramilitary death squads. In the privacy of the voting booth, however, enough of them may vote for the constitution to ensure its passage.