Islamic Sharia Council repay the dower to receive an Islamically recognized divorce. The Islamic Sharia Council must recognise a British divorce, by virtue of the law of the land, if the petitioner shows them a decree absolute. However, the Islamic Sharia Council is displeased if the dower remains unpaid. Writer, broadcaster and academic Myriam Francois-Cerrah has pointed to "serious problems" with the councils, citing a case in which a Muslim woman seeking advice was reportedly directed to a "controversial cleric" who urged her to give up her custody dispute with her husband and "hand over full custody of her seven year old child"
Ban on sharia law submit cases to Islamic arbitration panels were (according to Ali) not “good Muslims.” In 2005, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stated, "There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." This referred to McGuinty's plan to rescind the 1991 Arbitration Act, which made arbitration decisions according to religious laws enforceable in Ontario courts. Opposing Ali were "anti-tribunal" forces of "politically savvy women’s groups, some of them composed of Muslim women", who feared women’s equality rights being violated. In 2006, the province of Ontario banned arbitration of