The Province of Ontario has apparently all but officially announced it will be sanctioning the operation of Sharia law here. Defenders of this say it poses no problems since it will obviously be a watered-down version – women won’t be stoned to death for their “crimes” for example, and women and others will be safe since, if they do not like the ruling against them under Sharia, they will be able to appeal to Ontario law.
Watering down evil does not make it non-evil, and if those convicted under Sharia can appeal to Ontario law and have their sentence voided anyway, then there’s no valid purpose in sanctioning it in the first place.
Some defenders also claim that Muslims have the right to practice Sharia here under freedom of religion protections. That is wrong; freedom of religion does not include the right to set up your own laws, laws are a function of a government. To allow Sharia to be sanctioned is to allow the creation of a theocracy running parallel to our secular government.
A theocracy, by definition, is opposed to individual rights and freedoms. To tolerate any part of a theocracy to any degree is to violate those principles and further erode all our rights. It directly violates equality before the law.
The majority of those who will be judged under Sharia will not appeal to secular law, if that were so then the Muslim groups advocating this would have nothing to gain by it. They want to practice Sharia precisely to retain the power over others, particularly women, which they had in the theocratic nations they came from. Victims of this law will be under great pressure from their families (read: husbands and fathers) and from their community to submit and not go outside to appeal rulings. For them to appeal would, in most cases, also require them to leave their families and friends as life would become even more intolerable for them to stay after “dishonouring” their faith and their families.
This action must be stopped.
