Some Canadian Muslims will soon be able to use an Islamic...

Some Canadian Muslims will soon be able to use an Islamic tribunal to arbitrate civil disputes, bringing Muslim sharia law to a largely secular society and raising concerns about the extent to which it might be applied.
Canada's Islamic Institute of Civil Justice was formed in October and plans to begin arbitrating family and business disputes early in 2004 using Muslim personal law in Ontario. Eventually, operations will be expanded across Canada. Since arbitrators' rulings can be enforced by the courts, the development has raised eyebrows that sharia will in effect be endorsed by Canada's secular courts.
While Muslim leaders insist decisions are binding only if all parties agreed to the arbitration, critics say people may be pressured to take part in the process.
"It involves inheritance, divorces and family matters and the sharia law is a distinct disadvantage to Muslim women and they will be pressured. There's no doubt about this," said Sheila Ayala of the Humanist Association of Canada, which advocates separating church and state.
Sharia is a code of law based primarily on the Koran as well as the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad and is meant to govern all aspects of Muslim life including prayer, fasting and even finance, in which interest payments are banned.
Individual Muslims adopt sharia to varying degrees according to personal belief, and many Muslim countries have instituted elements of sharia as law.
In Canada, where the new plan would not cover criminal offences, objections have ranged from concerns about institutionalising sharia to the more radical perception that women might be stoned in the streets for adultery.
"Sharia law is known in the West mainly by its more extreme clauses, which recommend brutal punishments and authorise the unequal treatment of women," said a recent newspaper editorial. "Perhaps this is an unfair image. But no country can have two competing codes of law." (to be continued)