I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Premier Dalton McGuinty’s decision not to provide for Shariah tribunals to settle disputes among Muslim families. Having said this, I am also not entirely comfortable with his intention of abolishing all religious tribunals in Ontario, period.
McGuinty was faced with the sticky problem of satisfying the majority of Ontario voters who were opposed to allowing Shariah to take root here, while at the same time trying to avoid the perception that he was picking on Muslims. Hence his decision to abolish all religious based arbitration tribunals, which are comprised primarily of Christians and Jews.
Upon learning of McGuinty’s decision, one Montreal based Rabbi said that he approved of the premier’s decision, although he felt that McGuinty was “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. Eloquently put when considering that Christian and Jewish family tribunals have successfully functioned in Ontario since 1991. But then treating women as lesser humans is not one of the religious tenets that christianity or judaism seems to embrace.
Understanding that Islam with its over 1 billion adherents isn’t one gigantic monolithic religion, just like Christianity is comprised of different sects, such as Catholics and Protestants and Jews fall into Orthodox and liberals sects, neither Jews nor Christians systematically accord their women second class citizen status. Fundamentalist Muslims, on the other hand have a substantial and documented bias against women. For example, in islamic countries such as pakistan, to name one, it is not uncommon to kill a woman who has been raped because she has been defiled or the rape has brought shame unto her family. The taliban was famous for mistreating women, as abundant film footage exists of burka-clad females being herded like sheep down the street, all the while being beaten and kicked by the men who were herding them because they were unaccompanied by a male family member.<
Then there is the stoning of adulteresses. While this is yet another extreme example of Shariah law at work, it does exist today in many Muslim countries.
Shariah law is not consistent with the cultural norms of civilized Western society, particularly when in some Islamic nations a divorce can be obtained by the husband simply telling his wife “I divorce thee” three times and then throwing her out the door. Canadian family law has over the past two decades provided for no-fault divorces that called for the equal division of all matrimonial property. Some interpretations of Shariah law are not that generous toward women.
There is also the matter of the extreme violence to which a large number of young fundamentalist Muslims have subscribed. The idea that if a young man dies while engaged in Jihad he will go to heaven and immediately be rewarded with 72 virgins is a classic example of how much of Islam views women. Presumably the 72 virgins do not have a choice of whether or not they wish to be deflowered by the man in question, nor does anyone wonder just whose daughters these 72 pure young women are and how their families might feel about having them deflowered.
In Stewart Bell’s brilliant new book, The Martyr’s Oath, he writes about Sulayman abu Gaith, a Kuwaiti schoolteacher and radical Sunni cleric who indoctrinated two young Canadian boys from St. Catharines to become Jihadists. abu gaith is quoted as saying “carrying out terrorism against the oppressors is one of the tenets of our religion and shariah. there are thousands of the islamic nations’ youths who are eager to die, just as the americans are eager to live.”
I believe that attempting to introduce Shariah into Canada is the beginning of a long campaign to islamicize this country- one way or another. While the basic tenets of fundamentalist islam lie somewhere in the 12th century, our society with all its foibles and faults is rooted in the here and now.
It’s too bad that McGuinty did not have the moral clarity or gumption to do the right thing. as a result of his cowardly decision Jews and Christians will no longer be able to resolve their family disputes through their religious community as they have done for the past 15 years. But then, the achilles heel of multiculturalism lies in its acceptance of all cultures as being morally equal, and that’s just not true.