Enforce Islamic Law in Canada?

Submitted by David H Kligman (Canada), Sep 27, 2005 at 13:25

I found your article intersting but, as an Ontarian who wrote to the premier urging that he take the action he eventually took, I disagree with ...your conclusion. It is true that the Shari'a issue brought the question of faith-based arbitration of family law matters to a head here in Ontario, but it and the other examples you cite of Islam impacting Western culture are all instances of the failure to keep state and religion separate. In a truly democratic society, one in which there is no vestige of state or "established" religion, faith and observance are purely matters of individual conscience and nobody has to be inconvenienced by others' religious scruples. Predictably, the real test will come if and when Muslims demand that public institutions respect their customs (e.g., separate swimming pools for males and females, or dress codes) in areas where they constitute a majority. That is when the Canadian love affair with multi-culturalism will face a difficult test. But probably only for a while. The lesson of history here in North America has been that, after a generation or two, the children and grand-children of immigrants find the mainstream more attractive that their ancestors' vision of what is good.

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