Sharia protest gets personal
Demonstrators criticize McGuinty Threat to women’s rights feared
Protestors who oppose the use of sharia law in family arbitration have accused Premier Dalton McGuinty of being naive, desperate for votes and of putting the lives of Muslim women in danger. “You do not deserve to be called a leader or a statesman. All you want to do is win the next election,” Tarek Fatah shouted outside Queen’s Park yesterday.
“ You support sharia and . . . it’s my daughter who will suffer,” said Fatah, a member of the international campaign against sharia court in Canada, which organized the event that drew 300 people.
Smaller protests opposing a proposal to formalize the use of sharia law in Ontario took place in cities across Canada and European cities including Amsterdam, Paris and London. In Montreal, about 100 people turned out in the rain. Most of the protestors want sharia, and other religiousbased legally binding arbitration used by Jews and Catholics, banned.
Since December, the government has been sitting on a report by former NDP attorney general Marion Boyd. It recommends keeping religious arbitration, including sharia, as an option to resolve family matters, such as divorce and child custody.
Earlier this week, McGuinty said: “ Whatever we do, it will be in keeping with the values of Ontarians and Canadians,” and that women’s rights “ will not be compromised.”
Protestors called his words naive. “ You have to live there to understand,” said a woman who spent 30 years in Iran where sharia law is used. “ Women are miserable . . . it will be the same here.” Attorney General Michael Bryant said he knows women are worried, but says it is unnecessary.
“ There will be no binding family arbitration in Ontario that uses a set of rules or laws that discriminate against women,” Bryant said in a statement yesterday. The government has not given a date for a decision, beyond saying it will be “ shortly.”
Sharia is already legal in Ontario, as long as both parties agree to it and the arbitrators’ decisions don’t violate Canadian law, said a spokesperson for the attorney general’s ministry.
Sharia and other religiousbased arbitration has been covered by Ontario’s Arbitration Act since 1991, he said.
Because of concerns over the expanding use of sharia law, Boyd made recommendations for some changes to protect the rights of vulnerable women. But critics say it’s not enough.
Writer and activist June Callwood said talk of legitimizing sharia law is respect for multiculturalism gone wrong.
“ Stoning women is outside the limit of respecting multiculturalism and sharia law also ought to be outside the limit of respecting multiculturalism,” Callwood said.
There are many different interpretations of sharia, but most people agree it favours fathers for custody of children and men over women in matters of divorce and inheritance.