From the Montreal Gazette, with thanks to Tom and RB:
Islamic law has no place in Quebec or the rest of Canada, a provincial cabinet minister and several MNAs said yesterday.
With the Ontario government expected to decide shortly on whether to allow the Islamic legal code, known as sharia, to be applied to settle family disputes among Muslims, Liberal and Parti Quebecois MNAs warned yesterday that using sharia would lead to blatant violations of women’s rights.
“I think all political parties in Quebec must say loud and clear that not only do we not want it in Quebec, we don’t want it in Ontario and we don’t want it in Canada,” International Relations Minister Monique Gagnon-Tremblay said at a conference.
Why, Monique, how un-multicultural of you.
The former immigration minister said Quebec should refuse immigrants who believe the Islamic system should be applied.
“We must rework the social contract (for immigrants) so that the people – Muslims who want to come to Quebec and who do not respect women’s rights or who do not respect whatever rights may be in our Civil Code – stay in their country and not come to Quebec, because that’s unacceptable.”
“On the other hand, if people want to come to Quebec and accept our way of doing things and our rights, in that instance they will be welcome and we will help them integrate.”…
Monique Gagnon-Tremblay should be Prime Minister of Canada.
“We’ve seen sharia at work in Iran. We’ve seen it at work in Afghanistan, with the odious Taliban regime. We’ve seen it in Sudan, where the hands of hundreds of innocent people were cut off. We’ve seen it in Nigeria with attempts at stoning,” she said.
Salam Elmenyawi, chairperson of the Muslim Council of Montreal, was outraged when told about the comments made at the conference.
“When you talk like that, you are attacking me and my faith,” he said in a phone interview. “This is total ignorance. Bigotry and ignorance have no limits.”…
OK, Salam. So please explain how Sharia as you see it is different from what Gagnon-Tremblay pointed out about Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Nigeria.
Liberal MNA Fatima Houda-Pepin [who was born Muslim] argued Islamic law would infringe on women’s rights and open the door to polygamy.
“One of the strengths of Islamists is that they know you very well. They know our history, they know our culture, they know our justice system, the Charter of Rights,” she said.
She said those lobbyists are trying to impose a political agenda, not necessarily a religious one.
Elmenyawi suggested Houda-Pepin was posing as a representative of the Muslim community when she does not speak for it.
He said the Islamic community in Montreal is looking at creating family tribunals, independent of the courts, to settle religious issues and to protect the rights of both women and men. It is an internal debate that has nothing to do with Quebec’s Civil Code, he said….
Nothing to worry about, just little family tribunals settling family matters….no, nothing to worry about…Move along…Nothing to see here…Time to catch up on the Michael Jackson trial…