[CentOS] selinux & iptables

In setting up my new CentOS 6 laptop, I replaced
/etc/sysconfig/iptables with my own, very restrictive
version.  I then tried to restart the iptables daemon,
but it reported that my new iptables was unreadable.
On a guess, I disabled selinux, and my problem was
solved.  Later, I re-enabled selinux and on reboot, it
had to go through a very long setup procedure.

Is there something better I could have done when
replacing iptables, so that I would not have to
disable selinux?

Thanks for your help.
Mike.