THE BARRIE EXAMINER – EDITORIAL: Canadians should be concerned about a recent survey that found 62% of Muslims living in this country want some form of Shariah law here.
And that 15% of Muslims say Shariah law should be mandatory.
The study was conducted by the MacDonald Laurier Institute and involved phone interviews with 455 Muslims in Ottawa, between May and July 2008, with a margin of error of five percentage points.
A small sample, done more than three years ago, but of concern nonetheless.
Shariah means an Islamic way of life, not just a system of criminal justice. It is a code of living that most Muslims adopt as part of their faith. Some countries formally institute it as the law of the land, enforced by the courts.
Because many Muslims believe Canada is a secular country, they feel our secular legal system makes it difficult for them to govern themselves by the personal rules of their own religion. Canada's marriage and divorce laws differ from Muslim law, for example.
But there is considerable opposition to Shariah law in Canada, as there should be.
The National Association of Women and the Law, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada have all argued that under Shariah law, men and women are not treated equally.
These groups argue that women fare much worse in divorce, child custody and inheritance matters under Shariah law.
This flies in the face of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our Constitution, which guarantees that women and men are treated equally under Canadian law.
Two of Canada's largest provinces have already rejected Shariah law. » | The Barrie Examiner | Thursday, November 03, 2011
