The word "Sharia"

My fellow blogger has beat me to the "blog-press" on comments about the recent announcement of no Sharia law in Ontario. But, I shall shed some additional insight on this topic.
The debate of Sharia law has been greatly misunderstood by the general population. Sharia law is not coming to Ontario. What is proposed is voluntary, consensual, arbitration between adults on civil disputes, as practiced by other religious groups. Part of the rationale is to reduce the amount of cases currently in our courts. Most people argue that Sharia law is bias against women. This bias often occurs since Sharia law is associated with human rights abuses that we hear from countries like Afghanistan and Nigeria.

When someone hears the word "Sharia", they automatically associate it to human rights abuses in Muslim countries. I think if the word "Sharia" was replaced by

Laws that 'moderate' Muslims want to follow

there would be less people giving their opinion on this debate. If you were to look up the word Sharia in the dictionary, you get the following definition:

The code of law derived from the Koran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed PBUH (Sunaah).

Last time I checked a Muslim is one that follows Islam. Islam is defined as:

A monotheistic religion characterized by the acceptance of the doctrine of submission to God and to Muhammad as the chief and last prophet of God

Since the Quran is the word of God given to the prophet Muhammad PBUH, it is clear a Muslim is one who follows the Quran and teachings of the prophet.

The actual act of following the laws in the Quran and teachings of the prophet is not as simple as the definition as there are different interpretations among Islamic scholars on various issues. But, Muslims acknowledge this fact, and we are all in agreement that we may differ in our interpretation, but to be Muslim you must principally accept that you should follow the laws of the Quran and teachings of the prophet.

One might question Sharia law by the fact that human rights abuses occur in countries that use Sharia law. However, many of the people in these countries are uneducated and live in poverty, allowing the government to interpret Sharia law in their favor. I was curious to see how Sharia law could be used to solve civil disputes in a country like Canada, with an educated population and democratic government, but I guess no more. An interesting point made by a fellow blogger states the fact that Queens park hoped Boyd's report would make their decision easier, but in-fact proved counter-productive. It seems the easiest decision for the government was to back-down, thereby avoiding world-wide attention on this issue.

An interesting consequence of no Sharia law in Ontario is that there will no longer be religious arbitration in Ontario, which means that other religious group such as Catholics, Mennonites, aboriginals and others can no longer use the Ontario Arbitration Act to solve civil disputes. It seems the result of this decision has been collective punishment for all religious groups. I just hope this does not lead to more backlash against Muslims. It seems like we are always to blame for all the problems in our lives.