Canada: Implementing Shariah Law
World Wide Religious News reports:
Under the law, Jews and Christians have settled a relatively narrow number of issues without going through the courts. Rabbis have granted religious divorces, decided on matters relating to kosher dietary laws and arbitrated business disputes. Catholic couples have gone to priests to annul marriages, while churches of various dominations have settled disputes related to inappropriate behavior of ministers and monetary disagreements within and between parishes.
But the Islamic Institute wants imams and other arbitrators to decide a broader range of issues. For Syed Mumtaz Ali, 77, an India-born Islamic lawyer and scholar who is the driving intellectual force behind the institute, a Muslim cannot be a Muslim without following Shariah. "Basically, Muslims live a different kind of life from the Western life, which is secular," he noted in an interview. "Everything we do is governed by religious law." For Mr. Ali, it is perfectly acceptable that a son receive twice the inheritance of a daughter and that a man have the automatic right to divorce while a woman does not.
Question: if their intention is to abandon the “Western way of life,” why are they living in the West? There is already more than one Islamic theocracy in the world. What’s so unattractive about them?
Critics say that Shariah contradicts the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada's bill of rights, which guarantees the equality of men and women. Under Canadian family law, for instance, men and women have equal rights to inheritance and property acquired during a marriage.
Canadians voluntarily waive their legal rights all the time, but it is the obligation of the courts to ensure that they have independent legal advice before doing so. Critics of Shariah say Muslim women would be deprived of their rights because, even after emigrating, they frequently live in isolation from the broader society and are beholden to men who routinely tell them what to do and say.
"I don't see how it can be voluntary," said Shahira Hafez, 53, an Egyptian-born anesthesiologist and treasurer of the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, "when all these women from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are kept isolated in their own communities, do not learn English and only deal with the outer society through their husband and their husband's family." ... "Here in Canada, girls are segregated from boys at private Islamic elementary schools, then forced into arranged marriages through Shariah at the age of 13, 14 or 15 to men over twice their age," said Homa Arjomand, 52, an Iranian-born counselor for battered women. "How much choice do these women have?"
Multiculturalism is a fine thing, but not all cultures value equality and liberty — thus, you can’t always uphold secular Western values without trampling upon others’ culture. Of course, that’s the price others pay for living in the West. Equality, including equality before the law, must be upheld as the standard. The traditions of other cultures may be respected, but only to the extent that those traditions also respect equality. If the groups cannot guarantee genuine freedom of choice, they shouldn’t have the freedom to treat members unequally.
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Canada has neither a history nor a necessity to enshrine Shahira Law. The Canadian Constitution and its’ Bill of Rights are sufficient to secure equality for ALL its’ citizenry. There’s no need to rethink,re-identify or re-invent the Canadian landscape for the sake of satisfying outside interests.