More than 300 demonstrators converged in front of the Ontario legislature Thursday in a protest against the allowance of Islamic Sharia law in the province.

"Shame! Shame!" chanted members of the crowd, angry at the prospect of Ontario becoming the first Western jurisdiction to allow the use of Sharia law to settle family disputes.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said his Liberal government will decide "shortly" on whether to permit Islamic law to be used in the province's family arbitration cases.

He has insisted that the rights of women will not be compromised if Shariah tribunals get the go-ahead to settle marital disputes for Muslims in the province.

"Whatever we do, it will be in keeping with the values of Canadians and Ontarians," he told reporters Wednesday.

But critics consider the religious rules an affront to human rights.

"What Mr. McGuinty is doing is simply flirting with political Islam," said Homa Arjomand, co-ordinator of the International Campaign Against Shariah Court on Thursday.

"And that dangerous game is putting the lives and safety of women and children in danger. Shame."

Billed as a global campaign against Sharia law, demonstrations took place in 11 cities across Canada and Europe -- including one in London, England in front of the Canadian High Commission.

"The leader of Ontario's government -- shame on you!" said Mahmoud Ahmadi, spokesperson for the Federation of Iranian Refugees. "Shame on you!"

Not everyone at the Toronto protest, however, was against the inclusion of Sharia into the province's legal fabric.

Wahida Valiante said if Jews, Catholics and others can practice faith-based arbitration to settle family disputes, so should Muslims.

"You are creating two classes of citizens: one who have certain rights and other who don't have certain rights."

Christians and Jews have been able to use faith-based arbitration to settle family disputes since 1991.

Imam Mubin Shaik in Toronto runs the Majid El-Noor Arbitration Centre -- Canada's only Sharia law arbitration centre. He contends Shariah is in line with Canadian law.

"I subscribe to Islam. I've taken Islam as my way of life," said the Imam. "It doesn't mean it goes hand in hand with oppression with women."

The McGuinty government, meanwhile, is still reviewing a report submitted nine months ago by former provincial Attorney-General Marion Boyd.

Boyd recommends that Muslims in Ontario should have the same rights as other religious groups.

If Ontario rejects Sharia, Boyd warns, then it faces the spectre of ending all religious arbitration.

Boyd claims there is no evidence women were being discriminated against in faith-based arbitration and recommends that Ontario's existing arbitration system be strengthened.

"The recommendations that I've made put a lot of safeguards in place," Boyd told CTV. "I think they have to have the political courage to recognize they're not going to satisfy everybody."

However the prospect of Sharia-based tribunals in Ontario has raised alarm bells among women's groups across Canada and Europe, as well as human-rights activists and dissidents from Islamic states such as Iran.

They argue that Sharia, even limited to family arbitration, would create a precedent for religious fundamentalists working to suppress women's rights. They say it could discriminate against Muslim women who might be pressured into it against their will.

"They are helping the Islamic groups to legalize violence against women," campaigner Shiva Mahbobi told CTV.

"It's racism to put people in different categories and define their rights based on where they come from."

"Under Sharia law if a woman has a relationship outside marriage she can be stoned to death and girls as young as nine can be made to marry," Mahbobi added.

"I am asking the government to give a choice to these women."

New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos accused the McGuinty government of burying its head in the sand. "It's regrettable that the government has simply failed to act in the matter and failed to address concerns that are raised," he told The Globe and Mail.

Even McGuinty's opponent, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, acknowledged the government is grappling with a difficult issue, one that is "hugely emotional" for both sides, Boyd's report said.