Posted on 08/09/2004 2:15:34 PM PDT by quantim
TORONTO – Their burnished domes rise high above the adjacent pizza parlors and drab strip malls, like beacons of sanctity in this largely secular country. But the peaceful facades of the dozens of mosques in Canada's most populous province belie the public rancor that has been stirred up over the use of sharia, or Islamic law, by Ontario's Muslims.
Muslims here, supported by a 1991 provincial law, have been using sharia to mediate legal disputes, such as divorce and child custody. But in the spring, after a Muslim group proposed creating a formalized tribunal, what had been going on quietly for more than a decade became front-page fodder and led to a government review of the law. A report is expected next month. While no one here expects the increasing use of sharia to lead to some of the more radical rulings associated with Islamic law - stonings or amputations - critics worry that the rights of women are being sacrificed for the sake of multiculturalism. "It's shocking to see the seeds of an Islamic republic being sown here in Canada," one young woman shouted to vociferous applause at a recent Toronto rally, organized to denounce the practice of sharia in Ontario. "Sharia doesn't work anywhere else in the world. Why does the government believe it will work here?" Sharia is a centuries-old Islamic system of justice based on the precepts of the Koran. It's legally used by religious scholars and imams in Ontario to mediate a narrow range of disputes - from clashes over property and inheritances, to matters in marriage and divorce.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Orthodox Jews have beit din (rabbinical courts) in Canada.
But neither Catholics or Jews reserve the right to inflict imprisonment or death penalties on defendants.
Catholics excommunicate. Jews will sometimes behave as if the defendant is actually dead.
But sharia courts claim authority to chop off hands and heads. In fact, sharia courts have been imposing just such penalties in Nigeria for offenses which are not contrary to Nigerian law or which are not punishable by death in Nigerian law.
this is a very scary precedent. Sounds like the death of the west to me.
we might end up with an islamic nation right along our northern border.
the candians seem to be self hating masochists.
The Canadian gov't doesn't so much think it'll work there as they think it would be "Islamophobic" and therefore unenlightened not to let them do (pretty much) whatever they please. .....Western civilization, culture, and law be damned.
What is the definition of a government anyway? Canada is giving up it's right to govern. They will live to regret this.
How can the citizens of the same country be subjected to different sets of laws?
This is mind boggling and self destructive.
In the past, we've had armies invading. But this is no less than an invasion or the change any smaller than that imposed by foreign rulers.
More precisely, death of Canada as we have known it.And a lesson of what not to do in the US.
Canada prides itself on being "tolerant." Time for them to wake up and realize that there are a good many things in this world that should not be tolerated.
isnt "tolerant" Canada the one that bans christian churchs from preaching against homosexuality?
I wonder what's going to happen when the Muslims preach against gays. They hate gays more than christians do.
This is all part of multiculturalism's over-arching agenda: to destroy western nations, culture, and law. The same Canadian leftists who are quite willing to allow Sharia courts (right now, they are forbidden to issue punishments like chopping off hands and beheading - for the time being) are more than willing to arrest a preacher in a Christian church for preaching that homosexual conduct is a sin. Once homosexual marriage is formally enshrined in Canada, it will then be used as a battering ram against any Christian church who refuses to perform the ceremony.
Here in the US, a similar item is under way. In California, a Federal judge upheld the teaching of Islam in public schools. The same leftsists who applaud this ruling (done in the name of the compelling state interest of multicultural diversity), have driven all references of Christianity from public schools, even to the point of banning the singing of Christmas Carols. (It might "offend" someone, you see).
Leftists have mastered the art of doublespeak. Conservatives often comment on leftist hypocrisy, but the double standards are quite consistent with leftism's actual (as opposed to stated) agenda. Once in a while, a leftist will slip and the mask falls off, as when Jesse Jackson shouted in a megaphone: "Ho, ho, Westerm culture's gotta go."
It will be ignored for the simple reason that Islam is a valuable ally of the left in its campaign to destroy the west. If someone points it out, there will be some sort of spin about how Islam is really tolerant, with the typical praises of Al-Andalus (Muslim controlled Spain).
Now the Arabs can RAPE all nearby Canadian girls
and then SLIT their throats for honor (and so they will never testify).
Goodbye Canada.
When this becomes reality. Make sure your border is open so that I can go through.
Say hello to the People's Republic of Canuckistan.
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