I think the Iraqis will grope along reasonably well on this debate and at worst will certainly improve on what Saddam did. I still think we can help create a democracy in Iraq even if it doesn't look like ours. Germany, Japan, Italy, and Britain certainly have democracy that looks different but they are still democracies.
Heck, how good is Canada's unity looking these days? Quebec is already a province recognized by the country as a distinct society (that it looks suspiciously French is irrelevant). This recognition of their distinction hasn't kept many Quebeckers from wanting out of Canada. Indeed, Canadians in the west resentful of the attention, money, and power that noisy discontent has brought to Quebec have their own grievances to voice. I wouldn't bet on who leaves who.
So separatist tendencies are nothing unique to Iraq. Canada displays the same problem though the French Triangle is hardly aflame in gunfire thank goodness.
Sadly, however, Sharia appears more advanced in Canada than in Iraq (HT: Belmont Club):
Protesters will take to the streets this week in cities from Amsterdam to Victoria, all because of a bureaucratic proposal that would allow Islamic law to be used in Ontario family arbitration cases.
The long-delayed decision on whether to formally include - and regulate - Shariah religious arbitration in the province has raised alarms among Canadian and European women's groups, dissidents from hardline Islamic states such as Iran, human-rights activists, writers and humanist advocates.
A bureaucratic proposal, eh? One would think such a momentous decision would require public debate and vote. But not when one is dealing with an organized grievance group that can claim victim status, apparently.
If this goes through, how long will it be before Islamists demand the expansion of this privilege to non-family law? (As if its use in family law isn't bad enough) How long will it be before any question involving a Moslem must be resolved using Sharia even when the other party is non-Moslem? I'm not calmed by the notion that this will be limited to only one province. After all, bilingualism is the law whether you are in Montreal or Winnepeg. Having no French speakers is no excuse for having no French signs. Perhaps having no Moslems will be no excuse for having no Sharia. So don't laugh too hard in Alberta over Ontario's move.
I'm glad to see protesters out for this. One day, the usual grievance enablers might see that Sharia is as bad for foreign Moslems as it is for Canadians.
Iraq is looking pretty good by comparison. One day, if we have to free Ontario from the grips of Islamofascists, Iraqi troops in a new Coalition of the Willing will be valuable cultural translators.
I really am kidding about the last paragraph. I hope.
UPDATE: Sharia will not be coming to Ontario after all. It's nice to see that sanity can prevail in this day and age.
