Challenging Identities by Akbarzadeh Shahram;

Author:Akbarzadeh, Shahram;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

The Family Law Council, however, stood by its earlier 1998 decision that because the difficulties in gaining a religious divorce were a result of religious practices and not any shortcomings in the Family Law Act, religious practices and not the Act should be amended or reformed.56

Representatives of various Muslim organisations in Western countries are involved in ongoing debates regarding these religious authority bodies. In terms of public media statements, representatives of WLUML in Britain have expressed concerns about community pressures on Muslim women.57 Meanwhile, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) in conjunction with the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) initiated an active public campaign against proposed Shari’ah arbitration in Ontario, and were constantly quoted in the media.58 The CCMW were dismayed when Attorney-General Marion Boyd produced her report in 2004, based upon widespread consultations, supporting religious arbitration.59 It came as no surprise, then, that they were overjoyed when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty publicly announced his intention in 2005 to prohibit religiously based tribunals from settling family disputes. In Australia, the Muslim Women’s National Network of Australia (MWNNA) supports the establishment of Shari’ah Councils,60 while the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria (IWWCV) has rejected the idea.

The concern of groups like WLUML, the CCMW and IWWCV is that Muslim women as a vulnerable group within the Muslim community will inevitably be caught between the two systems of civil and Islamic law, and their loyalty may be questioned by their fellow community members if they choose to pursue divorce procedures solely through the civil system. They feel that such bodies may serve to restrict Muslim women’s choices and their ability to pursue avenues within either the civil legal system or the Islamic process, according to their particular needs and circumstances.

The problem with using the term Shari’ah to describe these religious authority bodies in Western countries is that Shari’ah very easily conjures up graphic images of stoning, public executions and the severe oppression of women that are claimed to be the Islamic practices of hardline Muslim rulers. Public debate and discussions in the media on the relevance of religious laws in secular Western societies are usually based upon theoretical assumptions of the inability of Islamic and secular legal systems to coexist. However, other religious groups such as the Jewish community have observed their religious laws harmoniously alongside the civil processes in Western countries for centuries without much opposition. Additionally, many other religious or faith-based claims by Muslims and Jews have not been interpreted as a threat to Western cultural practices. Requests such as support for religious schools, special conditions regarding the ritual slaughter of animals used for food, providing for medically sound male circumcision, allowing headscarves and kippahs to be worn in public places, and alternatives to Sunday as

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