--- I missed this one yesterday. Sharia in Canada (hat tip: Sully)
Almad and thousands of other Muslims, taking advantage of a
provision of the law in the province of Ontario, can now decide some
civil disputes under sharia, including family disagreements and
inheritance, business and divorce issues, using tribunals that include
imams, Muslim elders and lawyers. While it is less than full
implementation of sharia, local leaders consider it a significant step.
Muslim promoters of sharia arbitration said that no cases had been
decided but that the process is set. Islamic leaders created an Islamic
Court of Civil Justice last fall and that organization, in turn, has
chosen arbitrators, who have undergone training in sharia and Canadian
civil law, according to organizers and participants.
NO! NO! NO! NO! This is just so wrong on so many levels. And this would be one of them:
Although advocates of the sharia process stressed that participation
in the tribunal process would be voluntary, some critics expressed
concern that many Muslims would be labeled disobedient if they refused
participation in such sharia-based arbitrations.
"If I am a woman of faith, and the community of people who see
themselves as leaders say that if I do not follow the sharia court
here, the Islamic Institute, then I will be tantamount to blasphemy and
apostasy," Hogben said in a debate shown on Canadian television. "And
you know that in some countries, apostasy means death sentence."
Not to mention this:
Syed Mumtaz Ali , the president of the Canadian Society of Muslims,
began circulating the idea for the court two years ago. In a statement
on his organization's Web site, he said that the tribunals
would allow Muslims to practice freedom of religion. "Muslim minorities
living in non-Muslim countries like Canada are like wandering
Bedouins," he wrote. "Although they are free to live according to the
Divine Law to practice their faith unhindered in their homes" and
mosques, he said, "they have practically no say in the making of the
laws of the land and governmental institutions do not cater to their
needs." Ali said the creation of the Islamic Court of Civil Justice
would allow this "without violating any Canadian Law." Ali told the
Canadian Law Times that sharia tribunals were important for practicing
Muslims in Canada. He said that Muslims would no longer have an excuse
not to follow sharia because it would no longer be impractical in
Canada. "The concession given by sharia is no longer available to us
because the impracticality has been removed," Ali said. He has written
that Muslims who choose not to be governed by sharia "for reasons of
convenience would be guilty of a far greater crime." Ali said in a
telephone interview that no tribunal cases have been heard yet. He
would not elaborate.
{emphasis mine}
In other words, God's law trumps man's law and man's law has made
allowances for this in the name of sacrificing common sense to the God
of Multicultural Diversity. I despise Sharia. It's politically
incorrect to say this, but I don't really give a rat's ass. Like
anything, Sharia has its good points, but they do not overwhelm the bad
in a significant enough way to make it a system worthy of reform, let
alone actual use. It's medieval. It's completely neglects that the Age
of Reason ever happened; it negates that Western cultural values have
any worth and what makes this so enraging is that it's a democratic, Western country
that is allowing for the practice of this backwards legal system. Oh,
but it's only for family disputes, the advocates say. It's only for
property disputes. It's only for divorce. It's only for inheritance
disputes. In general I have the tendency to go worst case scenario, so
maybe this is a bit over the top, but what if a girl decides she
doesn't want to be genitally mutilated, but her dad decides that's just
what's needed to keep her knickers on? Which system holds the trump
card? What if a wife wants to divorce her husband because he's beating
the crap out of her? Which system holds the trump card? What if a woman
is the sole inheritor to a property---while this is completely legal
under Canadian law, if she's Muslim, that property will go to her
husband. Ah, but they do have a Canadian legal remedy, particularly for criminal cases..
Ok, so what if a woman is raped. By a Muslim man. The Canadian legal
system takes care of the man, but what happens to the woman? Is she to
be forced to go before the Sharia court if her husband wants to divorce
her on the grounds that she's been adulterous? What if she isn't
married, but is a young girl instead. What if her father decides to
disinherit her because she's been impure? How does the Sharia court
rule then? These are the exact areas of Sharia where discrimination
occurs. Justice in Sharia isn't blind. She looks to see if you have
tits or a cock before she passes her judgments. The scales are
overwhelmingly balanced in favor of Muslim men, not Muslim women. If
pious women feel they have to go before this court otherwise they're
going to hell, how are their rights, under Canadian law, being
protected? I'm just not seeing it.