One law for all?

Canada is experimenting with allowing Muslims to resolve civil disputes through voluntary arbitration under Sharia law.

It's an intersting idea, and certainly not a bad thing if it takes off. Voluntary arbitration is nothing new, and is already encouraged as a way of relieving pressure on the court system. If Canadian Muslims are happier using Sharia rather than suing one another, who am I to argue?

(There's a nice irony here too: the hallmark of Islamic states was the existence of different legal codes for different religious communities. So the Christians were subject to one law, the Jews another, and Muslims a third. In the case of the Ottoman Empire, the French managed to get their own citizens covered by their own legal code, at least with respect to one another. OTOH, this is not a case of different laws, but of a parallel voluntary system of dispute resolution which must abide by Canadian law.)

On the down side, divorce cases are included, and the freedom to refuse arbitration and use the Candian courts (and Canadian family law) instead may not mean much in a social group with strong prohibitions against apostasy. That may be an area better left to the State, I think (especially since its marriages granted and recognised by the State which would be being dissolved...)