Saturday, September 03, 2005

Islam: It's a Man's World

In the world of Islam there are those who submit, and there are those who submit and are beaten anyway. The latter are women.

Some Muslim women are stupid, some are timid. Some are desperately poor, insanely acculturated, or simply locked up and unable to escape from those who beat, rape, sexually mutilate, and murder them. They don't need sharia law. They need protection. They need their own rights protected by the government, not given away to those who would beat them further.

A man who hits a woman is a coward and a bully and a piece of garbage. But those who stand back and excuse that behavior on the grounds that it's Islamic culture, that it's racist to interfere in other people's customs that might differ from ours: those men are evil. When dhimmitude becomes whimmitude the line is crossed into a moral wilderness where a man is no longer a man at all. The man who won't stand up against a woman-beater is filth. There is no excuse. There can be no forgiveness. There is only punishment.

This Thursday you can make a stand for those who can't stand up for themselves. You can say no to sharia in Canada. You can say yes to universal Human rights. Human rights for everyone. Human rights for women. No Sharia.

Toronto: Queen's Park, Ontario Legislature, (time, 12–2 Pm)

Contact: Homa Arjomand, 416-737-9500

Ottawa: Parliament, (time, 12-2 PM)
Contact: Soheila Bayani (soheila_d@hotmail.com)

Vancouver: 800 Hornby (in front of Family Court) downtown
Contact: Zari Asli, 604-727-8986

Victoria: Parliament

Contact: Abass Mohammdadi (vicc22@hotmail.com

Montreal: devant le complex Guy Favreau Bd Rene Levesque O Montreal

Date: September 8th , time: 12 – 1 PM

organisee par L,Association des Femmes Iraniennes de Montreal

Appuyee par : La Federation des Femmes du Quebec.

Contact: Elahe Machouf, elahem@sympatico.ca

Waterloo: 100 Rittenhouse Dr. Kitchener (time, 7-9 PM)

Contact: Heidy Schmidt, heha@porchlight.ca at 518-291-5480

England: London , Canadian High Commission, 38 Grosvenor Street , ( Bond Street Tube)

Contact: Sohaila Sharifi at 447719111738,


Germany: Dusseldorf In front of Canadian Consulate

Contact: Mina Ahadi, at 4917775692413, minaAhadi@aol.com

Sweden: Stockholm, In front of Canadian Embassy,

Contact: Mahin Alipour at 0046707777313,


mahin_alipour@yahoo.se

Sweden: Gutenberg: Brunnsparken K1

Contact: Shahla Nori at 0046737262622, shahla.n@bredband.net

Holland: Canadian Embassy, Sophialaan 7, 2514 JPS-Gravenhage, ( DENHAAG)

Contact: Sorosh Ebrahimi, at 0031-(0) 61324331, soroshebi@yahoo.com


France: Canadian Embassy, 35 avenue Montaigne 75008, Paris


Contact: Michèle Vianès, at 06 10 39 94 87, michelevianes@chello.fr


www.nosharia.com

homa wpi@rogers.com


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Woman Holding a Balance

Women are not defenceless idiots dependent upon men for their lives and well-being. Nor are women stupid or frail or childlike. Women do not need suffer under the fascist ideology of Islam just because they happen to live in Muslim households.

And yet, if the Muslim communities of western Europe and northern America have their way with local politicians, women of all political and religious persuasions will eventually be subject to the misogynist rule of sharia.

In this ongoing battle for the spread of Human rights for all people, women and men, children and outsiders, ingroups and outgroups, for all everywhere always, it is women who must take up the lead for the defence of their sisters who suffer at the hands of Islamic oppression daily, and whose oppression will spread into the greater communities to your daughters.

It's not good enough to support the rights of some while turning a blind eye to the rights of others, not seeing or acknowledging the abuse of others that happens within our daily scope of life. Wrong is wrong, and the abuse of women is wrong without exception. There cannot be any special pleading allowed. No exceptions. Rights for you means rights for her.

This Thursday, Sept. 8, there will be demonstrations against sharia law in Canada. We urge you to find the time rallies in your cmmunities to attend to lend your support to women suffering under sharia now and to stop the spread of this evil in the future in your communities, a spread that will in time envelope if not you then your children.
***

Second Annual International Demonstration against Sharia Court in Canada, Toronto, ON, September 8, 2005 2005-08-29

Queen's Park, September 8, 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm
International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada

It has been a year since the International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada, called for a day of protest, nationally and internationally, against faith based courts in Ontario. The protestors wanted the Ontario to remove family law from the 1991
Arbitration Act.

The Campaign worked hard to inform the general public and the ministries in charge about the high risks of permitting Sharia courts in Ontario. Unfortunately, despite all the warnings, the government of Ontario has not taken a clear position to prevent the interference of religious institutions in the judicial system.

We call upon all concerned individuals and progressive organizations to join us in opposing the Ontario Arbitration Act 1991 which allows religion to interfere in the Canadian judicial system. This Act allows family law disputes to be resolved outside
the law courts by arbitrators according to their own religious and cultural beliefs. This act allows Islamic groups to legalize the suppression of women by implementing the proposed Sharia Court.

Join us! Together, let us raise our collective voice for progressive change! We can and must make a difference! Contact Homa Arjomand 416-737-9500
www.nosharia.com
homawpi@rogers.com
***

Islamism & Multi-culturalism
A United Camp against Universal Human Rights in Canada

By Azam Kamguian

In my speech, I will argue against the Islamic tribunals and will discuss how the Islamic Sharia law brutally violates human and women's rights. I will try to demonstrate how Islamism and multi - culturalism are a united camp against universal human rights in Canada. At the end, I will emphasise the urgency of stopping the Islamic tribunals in Canada.

As we all know, Islamists in Canada have recently set up an Islamic Institute of Civil Justice to oversee tribunals that would arbitrate family disputes and other civil matters between people from Muslim origin on the basis of the Islamic Sharia law. This is the first time in any western country that the medieval precepts of the Sharia have been given any validity. One can imagine that the Islamists will use this as a lever to work for similar recognition in many other western countries. After all, if Canada is prepared to recognise Sharia law in this way why not every other country in the west.

This move is yet another effort by Islamists to impose the barbaric Sharia law, but this time on the people in the west. This move belongs to political Islam, a major force that has brutally suppressed people's rights and freedom in general and women's rights in particular in the Middle East. It is a political movement that came to the fore against the secular and progressive movements for liberation and egalitarianism in the Middle East. In Iran, the Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Islamic regimes proceeded to transform women's homes into prison houses, where confinement of women, their exclusion from many fields of work and education, and their brutal treatment became the law of the land.

Sadly and unfortunately, the setting up of the Sharia tribunals in Canada will be given validity, due to the reactionary politics of multi-culturalism. This is yet another fruit of a policy that causes fragmentation; apartheid based legal system and racism. Of course, this politics of fragmentation and apartheid suits the purpose of Islamists best. Mr. Mohamed El Masry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, has argued that Canada needs "a multiplicity of laws" to accommodate different groups when their moral standards clash. Mr. El Masry says the tribunals, which would include imams, elders and lawyers, will provide Muslims with the means to settle civil disputes out of court according to their beliefs.

Advocates for the Islamic tribunals have argued that one of the beauties of free and open societies in the west is their flexibility. But the very same 'flexibility" provides the Islamists with the opportunity to impose their own rigid and oppressive rules on a specific community in the society. Mr. Momtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, and a leading proponent of the Islamic tribunals has said: "It - the Islamic tribunal - offers not only a variety of choices, but shows the real spirit of our multicultural society," The very same Mr. Ali also says: "…On religious grounds, a Muslim who would choose to opt out … would be guilty of a far greater crime than a mere breach of contract – and this would be tantamount to blasphemy or apostasy". You are aware that blasphemy and apostasy are among the worst crimes in Islam, in many countries punishable by death.

This project is against the equality of all citizens before the law, regardless of race, religion or gender. Such equality does not exist under the Islamic Sharia law. Sharia tribunals effectively establish a parallel legal system based on religion, which I believe will lead to an apartheid-based legal system. The principles of individual freedom and equality before the law should take precedence over any collective goals that members of a particular group might claim for themselves.

Many people from Muslim origin will be pressured into accepting arbitration by the Islamic Institute on matters of civil and family law. This presents a serious problem for the rights of particularly women living in Canada. The decisions of the tribunal will be final and binding and will be upheld by the Canadian courts. The Institute will be applying Islamic Sharia law which is totally against impartiality of the legal systems. For example, a woman's testimony under the Sharia counts only as half that of a man. So in straight disagreements between husband and wife, the husband's testimony will normally prevail. In questions of inheritance, whilst under Canadian law sons and daughters would be treated equally, under the Sharia daughters receive only half the portion of sons. If the Institute were to have jurisdiction in custody cases, the man will automatically be awarded custody once the children have reached an age of between seven and nine years. Given this inequality it is particularly worrying that there will be no right of appeal to the Canadian courts. The principle being that if both parties in a dispute willingly submit to Islamic arbitration, they can't complain when they lose.

The problem here is the word "willing". Too many women from Muslin origin living in the west still live in Islamic and patriarchal environments where the man's word and pressure from the community is law. It will take a brave woman to defy her husband, and to refuse to have her dispute settled under Islamic law when her refusal could be equated with hostility to the religion and apostasy. To this is added the problem that going to a Canadian court will take longer and cost more. There is no reason however why arbitration service under Canadian law could not be used instead. The danger is that once these tribunals are set up people from Muslim origin will be pressured to use them, thereby being deprived of many of the rights that people in the west have fought for centuries.

In virtually every western country with a sizeable Muslim minority there is pressure from Islamists for a separate civil and criminal law. They seek to establish their own state to oppress people, legally and officially. There must be no state within a state. Yet this is precisely the objective that the Islamic advocates are pursuing. They argue that it is their duty as good Muslims to work for precisely this end. And this end precisely leads to more forced marriages, more honour killings, more Islamic schools, more FGM-s done secretly, and more harassment and intimidation towards women and girls in ghettos.

In Islam, as Mr. Momtaz Ali has said, there is no separation between religion and the law. But in the contemporary civilisation, laws are seen as the work of man and as such can be changed in the light of changing circumstances. In Islam, the law is against universal women and human rights, but is God's law, and change is impossible.

Islamic Sharia law should be opposed by everyone who believes in universal human rights, women's civil rights and individual freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and belief and freedom from religion. Islamic law developed in the first few centuries of Islam and incorporated Middle Eastern pre - Islamic misogynist and tribal customs and traditions. We may ask how a law whose elements were first laid down over 1000 years ago can be relevant in the 21st century. The Sharia only reflects the social and economic conditions of the time of Abbasid and has grown out of touch with all the human's social, economic, cultural and moral developments. The principles of the Sharia are inimical to human's moral progress and civilised values.

Islamic law forcefully opposes free thought, freedom of expression and freedom of action. Accusations of impurity, of apostasy are waiting to silence any voice of dissent. Suppression and injustice shapes the lives of all free minded people. One is borne and labelled Muslim, and one is forced to stay Muslim to the end of their life. Islamic law denies the rights of women and non- - Muslim religious minorities. Non -believers are shown no tolerance: death or conversion. Jews and Christians are treated as second - class citizens.

Under the Sharia, for over two decades, millions around the world have fallen victim: countless people have been executed, beheaded, stoned to death, had their limbs cut off, flogged and maimed, bombed to pieces and routed. In countries which have proclaimed an Islamic state, such as Iran, the Sudan, Pakistan, some states in Northern Nigeria, and Afghanistan, we have already seen the pernicious effects of the Sharia.

Human rights and the Sharia are definitely and irremediably irreconcilable and antagonistic. Universal human rights are essential to ensure a certain standard of living for people across the globe. It is not acceptable to let governments and authorities away with many of the abuses by using multi - culturalism as an excuse. We cannot let multi-culturalism becomes the last refuge of repression. To accept religion as a justification for human rights abuses is to discriminate against the abused and to send the message that they are un-deserving of human rights protection.

Multi-culturalism is a cover to create a comprehensive social, legal, intellectual, emotional, and civil apartheid based on distinctions of race, ethnicity, religion and gender. This complete system of apartheid attacks women's basic rights and freedom and justifies misogynist rule inflicted on women by Islamists. Any attempt to restrict human and women rights in the name of religion and culture, or defining freedom and equality according to different cultures and religions is racist.

Our contemporary society is far larger, diverse and complex than the small primitive tribal society in Arabia, 1400 years ago, from which Islam emerged. It is time to abandon the idea that anyone should live under the Sharia. More than ever before, people need a secular state as well as a secular society that respects freedom from and of religion, and human rights founded on the principle that power belongs to the people and not to God. It is crucial to oppose the Islamic Sharia law and to subordinate Islam to secularism and secular states.

I call upon all secularist forces and freedom-lovers to stand up and protest against the setting up of Islamic tribunals in Canada. All progressive people should make a joint effort to stop Islamism and multi – cultural politics of the Canadian authorities from violating the universal human rights and our civilised values.

Adapted from a speech delivered by Azam Kamguian at a panel discussion and debate on "The Sharia Courts & Women's Rights in Canada", on 7th March 2004 in Toronto – Canada, and also at a seminar in the commemoration of the International women's day on March 14 2004, in Birmingham – U.K.



info@SecularIslam.org
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Friday, September 02, 2005

First They Beat Her....


International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada.

It has been a year since the International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada, called for a day of protest, nationally and internationally, against faith based courts in Ontario. The protestors wanted the Ontario to remove family law from the 1991 Arbitration Act.

The Campaign worked hard to inform the general public and the ministries in charge about the high risks of permitting Sharia courts in Ontario. Unfortunately, despite all the warnings, the government of Ontario has not taken a clear position to prevent the interference of religious institutions in the judicial system.

We call upon all concerned individuals and progressive organizations to join us in opposing the Ontario Arbitration Act 1991 which allows religion to interfere in the Canadian judicial system. This Act allows family law disputes to be resolved outside the law courts by arbitrators according to their own religious and cultural beliefs. This act allows Islamic groups to legalize the suppression of women by implementing the proposed Sharia Court.

Join us! Together, let us raise our collective voice for progressive change! We can and must make a difference!

Toronto: Queen's Park , Ontario Legislature, (time, 12–2 Pm)

Speakers:

Homa Arjomand, Coordinator of International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada, www.nosharia.com
June Callwood, Writer, journalist and founder /co-founder of over 50 social action organizations
Sally Armstrong, Journalist, an Amnesty International award winner, human rights activist
Irshad Manji, The author of The Trouble with Islam,. www.muslim-refusenik.comt
Mahmood Ahmadi, human right activist, spokesperson of federation of Iranian refugee
Tarek FatahElka Enola , women's right activist, representative of The Humanist Association of Canada , Spokesperson of Canadian Muslim Congress

Issam Shukri, Head of "the Defense of Secularism and Civil Rights in Iraq - DSCRI"

Bonnie Dimond, Executive Director National Association of Women and the Law

Khayal Ibrahim, Spokesperson from Women's liberation in Iraq, activist for women's rights in Iraq, counselor for abused women


Samira Mohyeddin, Women's right activist, MA candidate at the Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies and the Middle Eastern Studies department at the University of Toronto.

Rita Smith, President of the Toronto-Danforth Progressive Conservative riding

Association.

Justin Trottier, President of The Secular Alliance of Toronto University

Bev LeFrancois, Peace/ Women's Rights Activist

contact: Homa Arjomand, 416-737-9500

Ottawa: Parliament, (time, 12-2 PM)

Speakers:

Soheila Bayani, Women's Rights activist, Event coordinator of International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada-Ottawa

Elizabeth Cuddy, Human rights activist
David Aram, Spokesperson of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees- Ottawa

Maryam Abdola; Women's Rights activist spokesperson of Women's liberation in Iraq
David Bleakney; Representative of the National Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Sheila Ayala; women's right activist, representative of The Humanist Association of Canada-Ottawa
Anu Bose; PhD , Executive Director & Project Mgr. NOIVMWC
Josiane Juegouo ; from the Mouvement ontarien des femmes immigrantes francophones (MOFIF)

Mila Younes ; Fédération nationale des femmes canadiennes françaises (FNFCF)

Denise Veilleux ; Union des forces progressistes

Contact: Soheila Bayani (soheila_d@hotmail.com)

Vancouver: 800 Hornby (in front of Family Court) downtown
Contact: Zari Asli, 604-727-8986

Victoria: Parliament
Contact: Abass Mohammdadi (vicc22@hotmail.com

Montreal: devant le complex Guy Favreau Bd Rene Levesque O Montreal

Date: September 8th , time: 12 – 1 PM

organisee par L,Association des Femmes Iraniennes de Montreal

Appuyee par : La Federation des Femmes du Quebec.
Contact: Elahe Machouf, elahem@sympatico.ca

Waterloo:100 Rittenhouse Dr. Kitchener (time, 7-9 PM)
contact: Heidy Schmidt, heha@porchlight.ca at 518-291-5480

England : London , Canadian High Commission, 38 Grosvenor Street , ( Bond Street Tube)

Contact: Sohaila Sharifi at 447719111738, sohailasharifi@yahoo.co.uk


Germany: Dusseldorf In front of Canadian Consulate

Contact: Mina Ahadi, at 4917775692413, minaAhadi@aol.com

Sweden: Stockholm, In front of Canadian Embassy.

Contact: Mahin Alipour at 0046707777313, mahin_alipour@yahoo.se

Sweden: Gutenberg: Brunnsparken K1

Contact: Shahla Nori at 0046737262622, shahla.n@bredband.net

Holland: Canadian Embassy, Sophialaan 7, 2514 JP `S-Gravenhage ,( DENHAAG)
contact: Sorosh Ebrahimi, at 0031-(0) 61324331, soroshebi@yahoo.com

France: Canadian Embassy, 35 avenue Montaigne 75008, Paris

Contact: Michèle Vianès, at 06 10 39 94 87, michelevianes@chello.fr

www.nosharia.com

homa wpi@rogers.com

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

International Anti-Sharia Protests Sept. 8


Canada's diplomatic missions in London and Paris are being targeted by

anti-Sharia law protestors next week. Nearly 100 international groups denouncing the province of Ontario's decision to allow faith-based arbitration, saying that is suppresses women's rights and sets a bad example for those lobbying for Sharia law in Europe. "A lot of French people cannot believe it, because for us, Canada is a country with very good rights for women. It is unbelievable," Michèle Vianès, president of French NGO Regard de femmes told the Globe and Mail yesterday. Ms. Vianès will protest outside the Canadian Embassy in Paris alongside high-profile French activists, politicians, and representatives from human rights and women's movements. Similar action is set to take place outside the Canadian High Commission in London, and in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf.
http://www.embassymag.ca
***

The following story provides more details on times and places one might assemble to lend support to the universal implementation of women's rights. In the area of Human rights there are no exceptions for religious bigots. Rights for women cross all religious boundardies. Universal Human rights are for everyone. No exceptions.
***

By MARINA JIMÉNEZ

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Updated at 5:09 AM EDT

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

A campaign against Ontario allowing sharia tribunals to resolve family disputes has spread to Europe, where protests are planned for Sept. 8 in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.

As many as 89 international groups have spoken out against an Ontario law allowing faith-based arbitration, saying it will create a precedent for religious fundamentalists working to suppress women's rights, and give fodder to political Islamists in Europe who are also lobbying for sharia law to be used to settle family matters.

"A lot of French people cannot believe it, because for us Canada is a country with very good rights for women. It is unbelievable," said Michèle Vianès, president of Regards de femmes, a non-governmental organization in France. "Under sharia, women do not have the same rights as men. Sharia is a bad idea. How is it possible that Canada would back it?"

Ms. Vianès will demonstrate outside the Canadian Embassy in Paris next Tuesday, alongside a number of high-profile French activists and politicians, including two former government ministers, the vice-president of the municipality of Lyon-Grand, dozens of writers, and representatives of human rights and women's groups.

Similar protests will take place outside the Canadian High Commission in London (in an event organized by the British Humanist Association, a human rights group whose international branch has consultative status with the United Nations), in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, as well as in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, Montreal and Waterloo, Ont., said Homa Arjomand, co-ordinator for the International Campaign Against Sharia in Ontario.

The issue of sharia-based tribunals in Ontario is causing alarm in Europe, where Muslim feminists fighting for greater equality clash with conservative Muslim groups lobbying for faith-based family law.

"It is a battle to control the discourse of the religion. In Canada, political Islamists are using the tool of multiculturalism and freedom of culture and religion to oppress women. The introduction of sharia courts in Ontario would send the wrong message to the world," said Ms. Arjomand, who fled Iran in 1989 and settled in Toronto.

Rights and Democracy, a Montreal-based non-governmental organization, has also lobbied against faith-based tribunals, and won backing from 80 national organizations including the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Canadian Council for Muslim Women and the YWCA. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Women Living under Muslim Laws and dozens of other international groups have joined the global campaign.

Ontario's Arbitration Act from 1991 provides for voluntary faith-based arbitration to resolve civil and family-law disputes. This allows Muslims, Jews and other religious groups to use the principles of their faith to settle matters such as divorce, inheritance and custody outside the court system.

In 2003, Syed Mumtaz Ali, a retired Muslim lawyer, established the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice, with an aim to train imams and religious scholars to resolve civil dispute in the community, a process already under way informally.

His announcement prompted the Ontario government to appoint former NDP attorney general Marion Boyd to review the Arbitration Act. She concluded there was no evidence women were being discriminated against in faith-based arbitration and recommended the existing arbitration system be strengthened. The Ontario government has not yet responded to the report; a spokesman for the Attorney-General did not comment on the growing international outcry.

Sharia, a body of law based on religious principles, is interpreted differently even among Muslim nations. However, critics say it is inherently discriminatory toward women. Male heirs receive a greater share of an inheritance than female heirs; husbands, not wives, may initiate divorce proceedings; and in divorce cases, fathers are generally awarded custody of daughters who have reached the age of puberty.

While in theory, faith-based arbitration must comply with Canadian civil law and decisions may be appealed, in reality, many Muslim women are isolated, with no idea what their rights are under Canadian law, Ms. Arjomand said.

"These international demonstrations reflect the concern that Ontario's approval of faith-based arbitration of family law will have serious consequences for women's rights beyond Canada, and that's a responsibility we urge the Ontario government to consider," said Gisèle Eva Côté, of Rights and Democracy.
***

We urge you to lend your support to women oppressed by whimmitude. We urge that you demonstrate against sharia in Canada.

Support Mulsim women's rights in support of the rights of all people everywhere.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Rachel Corrie was not a Beslan Child


Every man's death diminishes me.

Sometimes I just don't care.
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