Finally, some good news

As if the heavens were intuned to my blog posts, just after I wrote about how there shouldn't be Sharia Tribunals in Canada and urged canadians not to let that happen, the Canadian Prime-Minister announced that he will not only not allow Sharia arbitration courts to come in existance, he will ban religious courts all together from Canada. Ontario will not become the first Western jurisdiction to allow the use of a set of centuries' old religious rules called Shariah law to settle Muslim family disputes, and will ban all religious arbitrations in the province, Premier Dalton McGuinty told The Canadian Press on Sunday. In a telephone interview with the national news agency, McGuinty announced his government would move quickly to outlaw existing religious tribunals used for years by Christians and Jews under Ontario's Arbitration Act. "I've come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough," he said. "There will be no Shariah law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." The way it always should be, because.... McGuinty said religious arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and promised his Liberal government would introduce legislation "as soon as possible" to outlaw them in Ontario. The muslim women of Canada are happy with the results, naturally.. Homa Arjomand, the women's rights activist who organized a series of protests across Canada and Europe last Thursday to convince McGuinty to abandon Shariah, was elated when she heard the news late Sunday. "I think our voice got heard loud and clear, and I thank the government for coming out with no faith-based arbitrations," said Arjomand. "Oh, I am so happy. That was the best news I have ever heard for the past five years." And the muslim men, or at least one man, the head of the muslim canadian congress, doesn't seem to mind it at all either. Tarek Fatah, head of the Muslim Canadian Congress, which has called for reforms within Canada's more traditional Muslim organizations, called McGuinty's surprise announcement "a great victory for all Canadians, but particularly Muslims in Canada, and a defeat for Islamic fundamentalists and those who are preaching it in Canada." Oh, me loves happy endings!