Homa Arjomand
"An abuse of multiculturalism"! Or maybe a manifestation of the flaws that are inherent in the idea. A courageous column on Homa Arjomand and Sharia in Canada, from Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat and Keith Cassidy:
Homa Arjomand knows what it's like to live under sharia law. In Iran, she endured it until someone tipped her off that she was about to be arrested and imprisoned. Many of her activist friends had already been tried and executed. She, her husband and two small children (the youngest was barely one) escaped on a gruelling trip by horseback through the mountains. That was in 1989.Today, she lives in a suburb northeast of Toronto. Her job is helping immigrant Muslim women in distress. And now she is battling the arrival of sharia law in
Canada."We must separate religion from the state," she says emotionally. "We're living in Canada. We want Canadian secular law."
Sharia law in Canada? Yes. The province of Ontario has authorized the use of sharia law in civil arbitrations, if both parties consent. The arbitrations will deal with such matters as property, marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. The arbitrators can be imams, Muslim elders or lawyers. In theory, their decisions aren't supposed to conflict with Canadian civil law. But because there is no third-party oversight, and no duty to report decisions, no outsider will ever know if they do. These decisions can be appealed to the regular courts. But for Muslim women, the pressures to abide by the precepts of sharia are overwhelming. To reject sharia is, quite simply, to be a bad Muslim.
Ms. Arjomand's cellphone is constantly ringing -- with calls of support, or calls for help, or updates on various crises. A client of hers has just that day died of cancer, leaving behind a nine-year-old daughter. The husband was brutally abusive, and now the dead woman's family is terrified that he's going to take the daughter, who was born in Canada, and go back to Iran. Ms. Arjomand has been trying to get Children's Aid to intervene.
In the burgeoning Muslim communities around Toronto, it's customary to settle family disputes internally, by appealing to an imam or an older person in the family. "I have a client from Pakistan who works for a bank," Ms. Arjomand tells me. "She's educated. She used to give all her money to her husband. She had to beg him for money to buy a cup of coffee. Then she decided to keep $50 a month for herself, but he said no."
They took the matter to an uncle, who decreed that because the wife had not been obedient, her husband could stop sleeping with her. (This is a traditional penalty for disobedient wives.) He could also acquire a temporary wife to take care of his sexual needs, which he proceeded to do. Now the woman wants a separation. She's fighting for custody of the children, which, according to sharia, belong to the father.
The law permitting a sharia court was passed in 1991, when Ontario sought to streamline the overloaded court system (and save money) by diverting certain civil cases to arbitration, including arbitration conducted on religious principles. Jewish courts have operated in the province this way for many years. "People can agree to resolve disputes in any way acceptable," said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario attorney-general. "If they decide to resolve disputes using principles of sharia and using an imam as an arbitrator, that is perfectly acceptable under the arbitration act."
Promoters of Islamic law in Canada have been working toward this goal for years. Last fall, they created the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice, which has already chosen arbitrators who have undergone training in sharia and Canadian civil law. The driving force behind the court is a lawyer and scholar named Syed Mumtaz Ali, who was quoted last week saying "to be a good Muslim," all Muslims must use these sharia courts.
Many Muslims, including many women, are enthusiastic about giving Islamic law an official place in Canada, and they emphatically deny that it will harm women's interests. On the contrary. They insist that under Islam, a woman's rights are protected. "We follow the Islamic law, secure with a perfect sense of equality between the sexes," wrote Khansa Muhaseen and Nabila Haque in a letter to the Toronto Star, where the sharia debate has been raging fiercely.
Opponents of the new tribunals argue that the government's imprimatur will give sharia law even greater legitimacy. Sharia law is based on the Koran, which, according to Muslim belief, provides the divine rules for behaviour. What is called sharia varies widely (in Nigeria, for example, it has been invoked to justify death by stoning). The one common denominator is that it is strongly patriarchal.
Alia Hogben is president of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, a pro-faith group with members from every Muslim culture. But the council was never consulted about the new sharia courts, and it strongly opposes them.
"This is a very difficult position for us to be in because we are believing women," says Ms. Hogben. "But to apply Muslim family law in Canada is not appropriate." In Britain, she adds, the government has flatly rejected councils for sharia law.
Both Ms. Hogben and Ms. Arjomand -- the former an observant Muslim, the latter not -- are lobbying hard for Ontario to change the arbitration law.
(Ms. Arjomand has launched a petition, which you can find through a web search for "International Campaign Against Sharia Courts in Canada.")
When Ms. Hogben's family came to Canada 50 years ago, the Muslim population was tiny. In the 1970s, she and her husband started a tiny mosque in Toronto that they shared with Albanians and Bosnians. Today, Canada's Muslim population numbers more than 600,000, and many Muslims live in self-contained enclaves where there is little interaction with the outside world. Ms. Hogben welcomes the stronger sense of identity among Muslims now. But she warns that many of the new arrivals have brought with them a far more rigid version of Islam. "A lot of money is being poured into North America from very traditional groups from Saudi Arabia and Libya," she points out. These groups are not known for their tolerance of other versions of Islam, or for their progressive attitudes toward women.
Immigrant women are among the most vulnerable people in Canada. Many don't speak English, are poorly educated, and are isolated from the broader culture. They may live here for decades without learning the language, and stay utterly dependent on their families. They have no idea of their rights under Canadian law.
Both Ms. Hogben and Ms. Arjomand say that we are sacrificing these women on the altar of multiculturalism.
"This is an abuse of multiculturalism, says Ms. Hogben. "There is a lack of courage [on the part of governments], and also a fear of offending Muslim sensitivities."
"I chose to come to Canada because of multiculturalism," says Ms. Arjomand, who gave up a career in medical science to work with women who are victims of abuse. "But when I came here, I realized how much damage multiculturalism is doing to women. I'm against it strongly now. It has become a barrier to women's rights."
The Wente article in the Toronto Globe and Mail and the comments of the courageous Muslim Canadian women, as did the commentary of Ibn Warraq at DhimmiWatch on the topic of adoption of Sharia under the Provincial arbitration rules in Ontario fault Canada for being a slave to multiculturism and permitting the insinuation of Islamist creeds and "law" in our neighbor to the north.
As I indicated in an email communique late last week to Walid Phares, Secretary General of the WLCU, their political officer in Canada, Alain Ayache, Messrs. Frank Dimant and Joseph Ben-Ami of B'nai Brith Canada that adoption by the other Canadian provinces may not be far behind unless stopped at the federal level by the Martin government. You may recall that famed Canadian human rights lawyer, Dr. Irwin Kotler was appointed as Canada's Justice Minister earlier this year. Notwithstanding that, any reconsideration of appropriate actions at the federal level in Canada appear unlikely in the near future given the snap election called by the Liberal party Leader in the Ottawa parliament, P.M. Paul Martin.
As I have indicated to all of these concerned groups in Canada and the US of A, that CAIR and other Islamist advocacy groups could do the same thing here in the US by pushing for the American Arbitration Association to establish a separate panel of clerical authorities to settle Muslim communal disputes using Sharia law. A most frightening prospect.
She was on a chaincast (Cjob/qr77 Calgary) afternoon talkshow yesterday (Peter Warren). At 2pm central. As well were some ignorant of Islam callers, and one Muslim from Vancover who says honor killing is because muslims read the koran wrong. Yea right.
Regardless, this issue is getting more and more play, That was broadcast right across Canada and any northern states in range yesterday, and any others who sydicate the program.
a frightning prospect indeed. multicultureism is a total failure, something i will never understand why are these people here?if there own country is so awful ,why bring it here with you,and to live amongst the infadels,what is the reasoning,, i wish sombody could give me an answer. ......my fear is a more sinister purpose, perhaps its a way of trying to make north america a muslem state. somebody help this irish-canadian understand.
yvette:
"perhaps its a way of trying to make north america a muslem state"
NOW you're getting it. Read the posts from Reza about the "inevitable" establishment of the Islamic Caliphate. They are trying to infiltrate and undermine us from within - all part of their plan for worldwide dominance.
yvette:
The majority of Reza's posts are on Jihad Watch.
Why should a separate system of law be established which then has to be monitored to ensure that it complies with the general law.
If the law complies with Canadian law then use Canadian courts. If the law is different than Canadian law then how can it comply with Canadian law.
Makes no sense.
Yes the Arbitration Angle is very clever and very dangerous, indeed. Legal academics are thoroughly corrupt, they do not defend our Anglo-Roman-Judeo tradition. They are very happy to see it destroyed. This is some kind of psychological insanity.
Somebody cheer me up.
Let us join the muslim women
and help them in their plight.
How? Educate other women,
our friends, family, the media, your peers.
Tell them what the sharia
means to our hard earned rights,
pull articles off the web,
e-mail them to everyone under the sun.
Educate, educate, educate.
Its the best weapon to combat our fears.
Have faith and courage,and draw strength
from that inspiration
which led you to choose your name, Athena.
So writes the poetess of the Free.
Athena:
If enough people become informed and upset, then something will be done. Slavery was abolished in this way. Prohibition was put in place in this way. Democracy was brought to Europe in this way. Universal suffrage was established by mass movements.
Another way something will happen is if Islam becomes bad for business. If the interests of the business and political elites become threatened by Islam, then something will be done. Money always talks. It pays for think tanks, political pundits and buys politicians. If big money begins to dislike Islam, believe me, we will hear it about in spades. I have hope for this latter angle as Islamists attack oil installations in Saudi Arabia. The economy of the whole world is very much threatened by attacks on Saudi oil. Don't be surprised if French troops are "invited" to assist the Saudis with their problems, just as they were when radicals took control of the Grand Mosque at Mecca in the 80s.
Canada is whack!.......Something has to be done up there....The cold has damaged their thought process. Sharia law....Give everyone a break, Muslims....I saw in Nathan's comments that a Muslim claimed that the Koran was midread (regarding an honor killing ....Isn't most of the Islamic world illiterate?
That tells me that the Koran wasn't "read" at all...."Kill kill kill"......unbelievable, and pathetic.
Correction: Misread...
I think this is the Nazi party being elected in by the majority like it was in '33. Could we be seeing the WWII-2?
As I have asked on numerous occasions when writing about Sharia in Canada, or anywhere in North America, when does voluntary arbitration cease to be voluntary and become the law of the land? It will be so if enough influential Muslims and their obtuse or, even willing, dhimmis push this forward in the guise of anti-hate legislation, or multiculturalism, or special favors for special peoples legislation, or any other guise.
Islam has taken over hundreds of cultures throughout the world in the last 1400 years using guile and then blunt force. If we don't want to go under, we had better get moving against this NOW!!!!
I wasn't concerned when this issue first surfaced several months ago. Was I ever wrong and for that I apologize. This morning CBC radio had a long segment dealing with just this issue and with the same conclusions.
Canada, which would penalize Christians for simply speaking their conscience on homosexuality (ever seen paunchy, ponytailed, middle-aged Western men prowling places like Bangkok and Patthaya for young teen boys?) will have a lot of fun with its legal system when it incorporates Sharia. Good luck, neighbors!
By the way, in Brooklyn, a Hasidic Beis Din once ordered a man to go to the police station and personally apologize to the [gentile] policeman he sassed while getting a traffic ticket. The man did so.
Anybody know what are the positions of the political parties in regards to this matter (particularly the Conservatives, Christian Heritage, etc. - thanks to the homosexual-orientation belittling of us by the Liberals, I don't want to vote for either them or, worse yet, the NDP)?
yippeee
when do we get to see the religous police with there big sticks?
"Big sticks". Haha!
We are already suffering from the effects of not being allowed to speak out minds. I have personal experience of this in fact.
Sasha, vote conservative. Why? reason#1. the gay bill dies.
Reason#2. The sharia issue dies.
Reason #3. the liberals are dictators and crooks.
Reason#4. I'm tired of getting taxed to death.
Don't vote NDP. Why? Because they are worse than liberals and all for a communist style government, If you think taxes are high now, look out if they ever get in national power.
You really don't have much choice but to vote conservative, and retire all those left wing idiots. Then they can rebuild their parties with hopefully fresh, more realisticly minded people.
demandbetter-cestassez@demandbetter-cestassez.ca
that will get you the Stephan harper campaign office if you want to know who is running in your area, just email and ask. Or, If your interested and qualified to run in a area where there is no candidate, you might just get lucky and become a politician, LOL!
I am guardedly optimistic that our anti-jihadist concerns "may" be coming into focus at the Toronto Red Star. This leftist paper, generally in thrall to the multi-culti agenda, appears to be coming more skeptical in this editorial. Time will tell (it's Canada's largest circulation daily, a fact of unending shame to me ;) )
http://www.torontostar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1085782210390&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
While one must question the naivete of the first assumption, this is a quite succinct delineation of the islamist threat, as found in a 01.06.04 Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail:
By DAGMAR GONTARD-ZELINKOVA
Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - Page A20
Highland Grove, Ont. -- Re Life Under Sharia, In Canada? (May 29): Muslims all over the world are fighting against the evil of fundamentalism within Islam. By opening the door to sharia, we are undermining their efforts