Dhimmitude Watch -- Islamism meets Feminism in Canada

Earlier I noted an attempt by Islamists to institute Sharia in Quebec [here]. Now comes more information -- it seems that at least the Quebecois are showing some guts.

The National Post reports:

QUEBEC CITY - The Quebec National Assembly yesterday unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose "the establishment of so-called Islamic tribunals in Quebec and in Canada," making the province the first to explicitly ban the use of sharia law.

"It's important to send a very clear message that there's one rule of law in Quebec," Premier Jean Charest said. "In our case, we are very much an inclusive society, but a society that will govern itself by one set of rules."

Copies of the resolution are being sent to all other legislatures across Canada.

Islamic fundamentalists have targeted Canada to introduce sharia law -- a code of conduct based on the Koran that critics say discriminates against women -- because of this country's rights guarantees and official multiculturalism, said Quebec Liberal Fatima Houda-Pepin, who proposed the private member's resolution. [Emphasis mine]

They were encouraged to do so by liberal silliness.

In December, former Ontario attorney-general Marion Boyd opened the door for sharia in Canada by recommending "Muslim principles" for potential use in family arbitration. Custody disputes, for example, could be settled outside of the provincial family-court system using sharia principles.

Hmmm. I remember listening recently to a debate between Supreme Court Justices Breyer and Scalia about the appropriateness of using foreign legal precedents to inform SCOTUS decisions regarding American law. There is a real danger here -- let us hope that Breyer and his ilk begin to recognize it.

This is not something brand new:

Ms. Houda-Pepin said the Muslim World League, based in Saudi Arabia, held a conference in Washington in 1991, where Canada was targeted.

At the Washington meeting, the league decided to convince Canadian Muslims to eschew secular laws, she added, and at the same time, they decided to push for adoption of sharia.

If Ontario goes ahead with Ms. Boyd's recommendations, Islamic fundamentalists can point to Canada, a secular Western country, to argue against reformers in Islamic countries who want to modernize their laws, she added.

So there is a long-term campaign to Islamicize western legal codes, the success of which would compromise not only western culture, but attempts to liberalize Muslim societies. Now we get to the crux of the matter -- sharia violates the tenets of feminism.

Ms. Houda-Pepin, who was born in Morocco and is a secular Muslim, said Muslim women do not want sharia.

"The victims of sharia have a human face," she said. "They are Muslim women."

What is ironic is that the Islamists are using precisely the same tactics earlier used by feminists to shape the political and legal cultures of western democracies. Unable to gain public support for their efforts, they sought to influence the actions of unelected branches of the governments -- the courts and executive bureaucracies -- establishing precedents that would be followed in the future by functionaries unaccountable to the public. Now the shoe is on the other foot and them wot lives by the sword..., well, you get my drift.

But the issue is not so simple. Canada is committed to cultural pluralism and has traditionally allowed small, deviant groups [like the Mennonites] to arbitrate disputes within their own communities. But Sharia contains many provisions that are repugnant to and strongly opposed by influential groups in Canada's mainstream culture. Can Canadian tolerance and pluralism survive the clash?

Stay tuned.

Read it here.

RELATED:

The Chicago Tribune last year reported on the association between the Muslim American Society's (MAS) and its shadowy twin, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.

But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well.

These men are part of an underground U.S. chapter of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group and an organization with a violent past in the Middle East. But fearing persecution, they rarely identify themselves as Brotherhood members and have operated largely behind the scenes, unbeknown even to many Muslims....

This organization has increasingly become controversial in the US Muslim community.

Many Muslims believe that the Brotherhood is a noble international movement that supports the true teachings of Islam and unwaveringly defends Muslims who have come under attack around the world, from Chechens to Palestinians to Iraqis. But others view it as an extreme organization that breeds intolerance and militancy.

"They have this idea that Muslims come first, not that humans come first," says Mustafa Saied, 32, a Floridian who left the U.S. Brotherhood in 1998.

While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide.

Read the whole thing here.

This is the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that is currently promoting Islamist revolution in Egypt. They claim to be peaceful, but will use whatever legal means are available to institute Sharia in the US.

Does NOW know about this?