When I first heard about the formation a council of Muslims to apply Shari'a in Ontario (and Canada), I thought of it only as an internal matter within the Muslim community.
But the opposition, especially by Muslim women, was so intense that I tried to find out more, but it was very difficult since the people who were setting up this "Shari'a court" were keeping an extremely low profile outside of the Muslim community.
I attended a panel discussion (Mar 7, 2004, 10 am to 7 pm) organized by Homa Arjomand, an extraordinary woman, who almost single handedly brought the matter to public attention. Even the Crown Counsel admitted to only learning of the problem through her activities. (Homa Arjomand, homawpi@rogers.com 416--737-9500 , International Campaign Against Shari'a Court in Canada, www.irandwr.org )
When I learned that Shari'a was being applied all the time by Mosques in Canada, alarm bells went off in my head. If Shari'a was already being applied within Muslim community, what was the purpose of forming this new organization?
The results of my research is contained in my presentation "A Canadian Objection to Shari'a Under the Arbitration Act... a Non-Muslim View" which I presented at a 3 hour meeting arranged by Homa of 9 people and John Gregory, Crown Counsel on March 24, 2004.
I am appending the presentation below, but the spacing is rather wanky. I am also sending it as a Word Perfect attachment which will have the correct formatting.
Someone who read my presentation commented, "That's how Hitler began. He was a nobody who went around quietly consolidating his power. He, too, wrote down exactly what he would do."
This is not alarmist talk. We are facing a real problem here in Canada.
I actually see a three pronged attack on this problem.
The Muslim community must educate the women especially through radio and tv ads
The government must provide funding for Muslim women's groups and must also re-evaluate Canadian and provincial laws in view of the threat of Shari'a
The non Muslim sector of society must make sure that those Muslims and apostates who do reach out get the appropriate support that they need.
While the problem tends to be stated in terms of Muslim women, it also affect Muslim men, all those who say they are no longer Muslim and of course homosexuals.
A Studio 2 program about "The Threat of Shari'a to Canadian Society" would be an extremely important contribution to dealing with this problem.