September 8, 2005
Homa Arjomand
Coordinator of the International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada
Speech at the Second Annual International Demonstration against Sharia/ Faith Based Court in Canada
Hello and thank you for being here today. We are gathering here in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, England, Sweden,
Germany, the Netherlands, and France to raise our collective voice against faith-based arbitration. This is our second demonstration in this respect, and I really hope for it to be the last one.
I prepared a short speech focusing on how a bad piece of legislation in Ontario with the help of the policy of multiculturalism allowed the Islamists to penetrate the secular justice system. But the statement of Premier Dalton McGinty on Tuesday the 6th made me so angry that I changed my speech.
I am sure you all have heard about his statement “Sharia wouldn’t harm women’s rights”. Either he is naive, or he thinks people are stupid. I wonder where he got the basis for his statement. Could it have been from Ayatollah Khomeini, the creator of Islamic state, or was it from Mumtaz Ali the initiator of Sharia court in Canada? If not from these two, then we want to know, if he has ever studied Sharia? If he ever lived under the Sharia law? If he has ever talked to a woman living in a community under the control of leaders of Islam (Mulla and Imams) in Toronto, Hamilton or anywhere in Canada?
Mr. McGinty, I want to know how many more children as young as 13 should be forced to marry in Ontario. How many women should give away their right of custody by these Imams? How many women should please their husbands and pay him a big sum of the money while they are jobless through these arbitrators to get their faith (Sharia divorce)? How many women should suffer and become the maid of second and third wives in Ontario simply because she has no way out of her forced miserable marriage?
Mr. Mcguinty how many more facts and reasons do you need?
If Sharia court doesn’t harm women’s rights, then why did you appoint Mrs. Boyd to review the Ontario Arbitration Act? Why did Mrs. Boyd come up with 46 safeguards?
I wonder if we the defender of women’s rights had not opposed it strongly, would you and Mrs. Boyd have performed such a mocking show?
Doesn’t today’s demonstration ring a bell for you? Doesn’t the fact that over 100 organizations nationally and internationally have joined in a coalition to oppose faith-based arbitration mean nothing for you. Mr. Mcguinty, don’t tell me that all these 100 organizations that are directly working with these women are all bunch of man hater feminists who do nothing but make a fuss over imaginary threats?
The rise of Sharia court in Canada is not coincident. It is part of a global move, and it is a serious threat. It is pushed forward by the leaders of political Islam. They need validation, recognition, and power from the government of the West. They used to have it all during the cold war. They will do anything to regain their powerWhat Mr. Mcguinty is doing is simply flirting with them. And that dangerous game is putting the life and safety of women and children more in danger.
We are here today to let Mr. Mcguinty know that women’s rights are not negotiable. We will not tolerate the interference of religion in our justice system. We will never accept religious aggression towards women and children. Religion is, and must remain, a private matter for individuals.
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