The Washington Post yesterday reported that Canada will allow the creation of an Islamic arbitration system based upon Sharia. This is but another step toward the balkinization of our northern neighbor. Have you doubts? Consider this quote about Sharia from the Post, "It's something nobody can change and we must follow," said Almad, who came to Canada from Somalia, then engulfed by war, more than 12 years ago. "We come to Canada and we become lost . . . We need our own court and we need our own law," she said, her voice strong and certain. "That's what I believe." There is of course the option of returning to Somalia for the benefits of Islam... but then political correctness rules such suggestions out of bounds. Far better, in the name of diversity, to deprive Canadians and immigrants to Canada of fundamental human rights.
The Post does quote a number of sources who question the vulnerability of women under such a system, but Ayesha Adam, a mediator in the proposed Sharia system puts those fears to rest, "Islamic belief does not allow women to be treated badly," she said. "Islamic law is based on equality, fairness and justice." She continued, "I don't see how people just take out something from a particular part of the Koran and not look at it holistically." For a Muslim mediator, Adam is uninformed, or she is willfully overlooking Koranic teaching and Islamic tradition regarding the relationship between women and men, and their rights with respect to each other. Consider the following verses from the Koran:
"Women shall with justice have rights similar to those exercised against them, although men have a status above women. God is mighty and wise." (II.282)
"A male shall inherit twice as much as a female." (IV:11)
"Men are in charge of women because Allah has made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property. So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever high exalted, great." (IV:34)
"[Forbidden to you] are married women, except those whom you own as slaves." (IV:24)
"Women are your fields: go, then, into your fields from whichever side you please." (II:223)
It would be convenient for Adam if these verses were considered archaic under Islamic law and tradition. They are not. The current practice of Islamic law in every country where sharia is enforced applies these verses literally. Slaves are traded in the Sudan today because of sharia. Women are second class citizens in every Islamic republic because of sharia. Religious minorities have suffered under Islam for more than a thousand years, and they continue to do so in every Islamic republic because of sharia. An abritration process that derives from such verses is irreconcileable with human rights. A country that would subject it's citizens to such a process is lost.