Canada: Use of Sharia law by Muslims okay, report says

Toronto Star ^ | 12/20/04 | CANADIAN PRESS

[Pikamax]

Use of Sharia law by Muslims okay, report says

CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario Muslims should have the same rights as Roman Catholics and Jews in the province to seek arbitration based on religious law for family disputes and inheritance cases, a report by former attorney general Marion Boyd concludes.

"The Arbitration Act should continue to allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious law," Boyd recommends in her report to the Ontario government.

Boyd was appointed to study the issue after the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice requested the right to offer religious-based arbitrations for family disputes based on Sharia law.

The proposal ran into opposition from women's groups, legal organizations and the Muslim Canadian Congress, who all warned that the 1,400-year-old Sharia law does not view women as equal.

But Boyd determined that Ontario should continue to allow religious-based arbitrations and mediations, including Sharia law, and recommended strengthening protections by requiring both parties to first seek independent legal advice.

However, another of her 46 recommendations would allow people seeking mediation to waive independent legal advice.

Boyd also recommends that mediators screen each party separately about issues of power imbalance and domestic violence before they enter into an arbitration agreement.

She also said the government should work with mediators and other professional organizations to develop a standard screening process for domestic violence.

A spokesman said Attorney General Michael Bryant would not be available today to comment on the report, but added the government would study Boyd's findings "very closely

[Edgerunner]

NOTICE TO ALL CANADIAN CITIZENS:
Apply NOW for immigration to the United States, as it will take some years to process your application (there's a waiting list ya know).

[aimhigh]

I don't see a problem. It's basically communities solving disputes themselves without taking up the resources of the public court system.

You need to read up more about Islam. When they get a inch, they demand another inch. Then they claim they are under oppression if they are denied to implement their entire Sharia law. If they want to move to a western country, they should adopt western laws.

[processing please hold]

Canada has ceased to exist.

[broadsword]

Cool. All the Amerikan libs can emigrate to Cnadistan for a dutiful beheading and the good Canadian conservatives can immigrate to America. THEN we seal the borders!

[Edgerunner]

Great animation!

[broadsword]

A slight corection, if you please, FRiend: If they want to move to a western country, they should... be told to pack sand.

[processing please hold]

I agree. Any christian Canadian should apply for American citizenship.

The muslims now own Canada. How tragic.

[broadsword]

I wish I could say I made it. When I first saw it, I nearly died laughing. I couldn't help thinking of the "second" list on my about page. The sad thing is that they will get good Americans burned with them. Idiots!

[Eastbound]

It'll never play in Peoria. Maybe in Michigan.

[BobL]

"I don't see a problem. It's basically communities solving disputes themselves"

No, there is a much bigger problem. You need to put yourself in the place of these Muslim women. If you go with Sharia in a divorce case, you assured to lose everything, kids, alimony, everything. If they go with Canadian law, you would get your share (many would say more than your share, but that's for another thread).

Yes, you can opt out of Sharia Law. But what happens next, your family and entire community disowns you. You may even find yourself the victim of an "honor killing". In the end, you have no choice but to abide by Sharia Law.

That's the problem. Once you set up a parallel legal system, be it "voluntary" or not, you're basically enslaving the Muslim women and giving them no hope of freedom. In effect, they can no longer use the Canadian system, which would have treated them as something more than cattle. If everyone had to live under the Canadian system, the men would simply lose their dominance.

If anything is going to bring Islam into 19th century (you have to start somewhere) in the West, it will be their women rejecting the scam, as they see Western women given true freedom.

The Canadians have done the Muslim men a huge favor and closed off that escape path. They will soon see the results.

[monkeywrench]

This is exactly how they started 'splitting off' in other countries. Nigeria, etc. Think inccrementally.

[BobL]

You're right - it does sound a lot like Nigeria. And stoning over there is not the imagination of some Freepers - it is real and it is deadly.

[processing please hold]

It's done by piece-meal, that way, not too many notice till it's too late.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER.

[Modernman]

So, all Canadians need to do to get around spousal inheritance is to claim that it is against their religion and the family takes back the family business and the wife becomes a ward of the state.

No. Decisions by Sharia arbitrators cannot contravene Canadian law or public policy. It's the same as if you had a Rabbi handle your arbitration for you.

[Holicheese]

This is gunna get really interesting really fast.

[Holicheese]

But hockey season coencides with Ramadan.
NO HOCKEY FOR YOU

[Modernman]

You need to read up more about Islam. When they get a inch, they demand another inch. Then they claim they are under oppression if they are denied to implement their entire Sharia law. If they want to move to a western country, they should adopt western laws.

Arbitrations under Sharia law have been legal in the US for several decades. You and I can agree to have our dispute settled under Japanese, Sharia or Klingon law, if we want to.

[APFel]

This is precisely what I was thinking. The Muslim communities will probably actively dissuade the Muslim people from using the Canadian system and ostracize those who don't.

Multiculturalism does no one any good. Behind the pin-ups of children holding hands across the globe plastered inside every classroom in the Western world is a divisive inner core. Keep culture associated with geography.

Apf

[ken5050]

Well..they're just about to cancel the NHL season..now they can go ahead and cancel the whole country..

[BobL]

" No. Decisions by Sharia arbitrators cannot contravene Canadian law or public policy."

If you pardon the expression, "my rear end". If what you say were true, then it wouldn't be necessary to have Sharia law in the first place, since it simply duplicate Canadian law.

No, there won't be any stonings in Canada, for the time being, but there is no reason to believe that Sharia will exactly mimic Canadian law either. For if that were the case, the clerics (I love that term) would be wasting their time with it - when they could be doing much more useful things, like teaching marksmanship.