By Sharmeen Khan
Briarpatch Magazine
November 2005
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The recent uproar over the possible inclusion of Sharia law in Ontario arbitration has raised a number of important questions concerning religious freedom and the place of religious law in a secular society. While superficially, the issue might be seen as a straightforward conflict between religious and secular practices, the fact that the religion in question just happens to be Islam has brought to the surface, in an atmosphere of increasing Islamaphobia around the world, racist and damaging stereotypes of Islam and of Canadian Muslims. We could see many of these stereotypes in evidence during this debate, but to me, the most uncomfortable was the emergence of a particular feminist response that relied largely on the serious misunderstanding and constant “othering” of Canadian-Muslim women.
