Sharia comes to Canada;

Check out this news piece about attempts to set up Sharia courts in Canada. Pay attention to the way the supporter of Sharia treats the women who disagree with him. Notice the overbearing attitude. Notice the utter lack of respect. Notice the lack of compassion for the suffering of a vulnerable women.

Why should I allow oppressive legal systems from socially underdeveloped parts of the world where authoritarian theocracy is par for the course into my secular democracy? This is a legal system where women who are raped face lashes. Where girls of 17 are hung for defending themselves from violent gang rape. If immigrants to my nation want to reap the benefits of a secular, democratic society with equal rights for people of all faiths, then they damn well better adapt to my secular legal system. If they would rather enjoy the kind of society that "political Islam" brings then they can stay in Pakistan. They can stay in Saudi Arabia. They can stay in their poverty stricken, violent and oppressive nations.

I'm not anti-immigrant. I'm not "Islamophobic". Far from it. This nation was built by immigrants from all around the world. I see Muslims as another part of the pluralist culture that is central to the prosperity and security we enjoy in Canada. What I hate is political Islam. I hate how people with authoritarian political agendas use religion and accusations of persecution to obscure their true intentions, particularly when these intentions constitute a direct attack on the foundation of my democratic institutions - the secular legal system with equal rights for men and women.

These Sharia courts represent the worst elements from the wider Muslim world. These Sharia courts represent an attack on the separation between church and state that forms one of the pillars of western democracy. These courts represent an attack on civil rights in Canada. These courts have no place in Canada, or this century, for that matter.

I have no tolerance for attacks on my democratic society. This doesn't make me anti-Islam. This makes me pro-democracy, pro-civil rights, pro-free speech, pro-secular society. When somebody attacks the foundation of the best society on the face of the earth where people of all different races and religions live in peace, where free speech is a *right* and all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law we have an obligation to our fellow citizens, to ourselves, and to future generations to protect it.

These freedoms aren't set in stone. People from all over the world struggle and suffer in unimaginable ways just to get here. Have we become so spoiled we don't value our basic freedoms? Are we really willing to sacrifice our democratic institutions to "political correctness"? We won't have these rights and freedoms forever if we are unwilling to protect them from anyone who seeks to undermine them.

Political correctness be damned.

Oh yeah, on an interesting side note the Muslims who are working to preserve the democracy they value so much are receiving death threats from fundamentalists (pdf format). The Muslim Canadian Congress is working to keep sharia courts out of Canada, and in many cases are risking their lives to do so. You can check them out right here.

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Enjoy! Comment! and fucking pay attention....