Libya Liberated? Sharia Won't Like it.

One day after the reported demise of Libya's iconic dictator, Canada's Prime Minister spoke about the landmark occurrence. Eager to put a positive spin on Canada's leading role in the conflict, Stephen Harper praised the Libyan people for their tenacity claiming, "the Libyan people can finally turn the page on 42 years of vicious oppression and continue their journey toward a better future." (as reported in the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/10/20/gaddafi-death-harper-libya-mission_n_1023154.html)

However, it would seem that the future may not be as rosy as Harper predicted. A recent report indicates that the new Libyan government will be instituting Muslim Sharia Law as the basis of its new democratic constitution. Among other things, Sharia Law permits stoning and other violent forms of retribution as well as polygamy. Sharia Law is outlawed in Canada partly for these reasons. And while Libyan officials have been reassuring Western observers that their version of Sharia will be moderate, it is still too early to tell what kind of effect this will have on Libyan society. Certainly, as many argue, anything is better than the zany and erratic dictatorship of Moammar Gaddafi.

But this move poses a dilemma for Harper. He has already earned the reputation for being mostly indifferent to the issue of women's rights by leaving abortion out of the Maternal and Child Health Initiative. And many questioned Canada's seemingly blind and unconditional support of the rebels, without asking what their agenda was or what their post-Gaddafi plan was (or if they even had one).

Now, the question is, can Canada support a nation governed by Sharia Law? And if so, how can it justify this? In the end, one is forced to wonder whether the situation would have been different, whether the rebels would have had such loyal NATO support, if there was no oil under Libyan soil. To be fair, there is no guarantee that Sharia Law spells disaster for Libya's women. And, Sharia also prevents the collecting of interest (known in the Bible as 'usury' and one of the reasons people were kicked out of the temple), which is, in light of the Occupy Wall Street protests, a pretty progressive idea.

The real issue here is that we have, on one hand, a Prime Minister bragging about a military success (indeed a PM desperate for such an occasion) and, on the other hand, a newly minted democratic nation, voting for a system of law that Canada has actively and publicly decried. Not to mention, the vigilante-style killing of the former dictator. Say what you will about the man, and whether or not he deserved it (he probably did), it is troublesome that a country like Canada, founded on the principles of Habeas Corpus and "Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat" (innocent until proven guilty),could be so proud of moment when these basic legal tenets were so blatantly ignored.