Article Added On: August 04, 2004 - over 7 years ago
Title: When the Koran Speaks, Will Canadian Law Bend?
Author: Mark Schneider
Publication: New York Times
Publication Date: January 01, 2004 - over 8 years ago
Faith Groups: Muslim
Themes: other

Abstract: New York Times investigates the sharia controversy in Ontario

"If the kimono or chicken curry eventually join the maple leaf, the hockey stick and the beaver as Canadian icons, then so be it. Thus goes the thinking of multiculturalism, the official doctrine of the government for nearly 50 years, and by now a value ingrained on the broader society."

So begins an article in the New York Times looking at the controversy generated by the Canadian Society of Muslims, which claims a 1991 Ontario law that permits religious groups to attempt to sort out community problems without recourse to the courts.The council believes that the law allows the application of Sharia, the code of social and religious conduct laid out in the Qur'an.

"Muslim arbitrators have not made a single public decision yet, but Canada would presumably never allow the stoning of adulterous women or cutting off the hand of a thief, both allowable forms of punishment in some Muslim societies under an extreme variation of Shariah," the Times claims.

The full article can be found here