Quebec's rash censure of Muslim arbitration

[underdog]

Imagine a society in which individuals are ordered not to wander down to the neighbourhood church, synagogue or mosque to ask the spiritual leader to resolve a personal dispute. That couldn't happen here -- or could it? Quebec's National Assembly has declared, in effect, that Muslims in the province do not have that right. Prompted by a secular Muslim Liberal, Fatima Houda-Pepin, its members voted unanimously Thursday to condemn efforts to open Islamic tribunals in Quebec or the rest of Canada.

 

This declaration is not, thank goodness, of any legal force. Muslims may still ask their local imam to help them solve their disputes with one another. But it is a warning to observant Muslims: Discard your extreme religious notions and be Canadian. Like everyone else.

 

That's a strange and needlessly hostile message for a pluralistic society to send. "There's one rule of law in Quebec," Premier Jean Charest said. Exactly. And that rule -- shared by all freedom-loving societies -- is that there be no prior restraint of free expression, religious or otherwise.

 

What makes this whole exercise so inflammatory is that Ms. Houda-Pepin suggested there is a kind of international Muslim conspiracy at work, targeting Canada for a religious makeover. If so, it's not a very effective conspiracy. There is no concrete proposal to set up an Islamic arbitration panel in Quebec. Yet Ms. Houda-Pepin warns that Muslims in Canada will soon want their own system of criminal law. This is fear-mongering, pure and simple.

 

No legislature has the right to screen religions for extremism and pronounce on which of them may exercise their fundamental rights. Recall that Catholics are this country's biggest religious group, at 43 per cent of the population, and that they do not permit women in the priesthood. So Canadians may wish to be careful about seeking to limit religious expression to protect women's rights.

 

There's no doubt that Islamic rule in places such as Saudi Arabia, parts of Nigeria and the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan of the 1990s have been full of horrors for women. But do Quebec's legislators fear that a sharia tribunal in Canada would recommend the stoning of adulterous women, or automatic custody to fathers in divorce? The stoning would be a crime under Canadian law, and the automatic custody for fathers would have no legal validity in Canada.

 

There is a legitimate concern that vulnerable women -- those who are not aware of their rights, who do not speak English or French or who are cowed by the men around them -- will be pushed toward tribunals that will be unfair to them. That's why Ontario, where an Islamic group proposed setting up its own arbitration panel, appointed feminist Marion Boyd to consider the idea.

 

Ms. Boyd astutely recommended new safeguards for the province's 1991 arbitration law, which already required that any arbitration panel treat the parties "equally and fairly." She would add a requirement (for all parties, not just Muslims) to obtain independent legal advice, or at least sign a waiver. Further, mediators and arbitrators would need to certify that each participant entered the arbitration voluntarily. If a decision did not reflect the best interests of any children affected, it could be set aside by a court. Arbitrators in family-law and inheritance cases would have to provide summaries of every decision (without identifying information) to the government, to be made public on request. Nothing would be hidden.

 

Quebec's unanimous declaration is unfriendly to Muslim believers, is poorly thought out and lacks respect for religious faith and pluralism. It is un-Canadian. Source

[Rahima]

The noose around the neck of the ummah is tightened once again.

 

Perhaps this and similar events are signs for us to pack up and travel back to the Muslim lands before it is too late.

[underdog]

I think the most Ironic thing here is that the Sharia tribunals were not even suggested by a muslim. The idea was brought forward by Ontario attorney general Marion Boyd....and it is being fought against by so-called muslims who want to keep Islamic law out of their new, western lifes.

[Miriam1]

^yep, was watchin cbc, when they interviewed a prominent sheikh in quebec..he sounded baffled, didnt understand why a matter no one asked for would be so heatdly debated? and how a tribunal body that has no govern or control over the laws of other provinces or for that matter the federal goverment could say that Canada should not allow a muslim tribunal...Its so racist..dumb islamphobic french ehg

[Modesty]

Rahima i feel the same way. Muslims are brought from their countries to live in kufr lands and they are being oppressed systematically by the kuffar.We need to move elsewhere, even though it may be hard.