The U. K. government has officially recognized sharia law
and civil tribunals in Britain, including inheritance matters.
The government has quietly approved the powers for sharia
judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those
involving domestic violence. Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts
are now enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the
county courts or High Court. Sharia courts with these powers are functioning in
London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in
Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The government plans to set up two more courts for
Glasgow and Edinburgh. Sheikh Faiz‑ul‑Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration
Tribunal administers the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the
Arbitration Act 1996. For more than a century, Jewish Beth Din courts have been
operating under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and adjudicate civil
cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. Under the authority of the
Act, the government classifies the sharia courts as arbitration tribunals. The
rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties
in the dispute agree. Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act
we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The Act
allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method
is called Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which for Muslims is what the
sharia courts are. In a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in
Nuneaton, the tribunal divided the estate of a Midlands man among his three
daughters and two sons. The judges awarded the sons twice as much as the
daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a traditional
British court, the daughters would have received equal shares. Citation:
The Sunday Times (online), London, September 14, 2008 (byline of Abu Tamer,
assisted by Ms. Helen Brooks).
