BBC: 'Growing use of sharia courts in UK'

The BBC Asian Network has reported on the ‘Growing use of Sharia by UK Muslims’. The article on the BBC explores the increase in voluntary use of Sharia courts and arbitration tribunals alongside or as an alternative to common British Law to resolve civil disputes by Muslims but also non-Muslims.

Sharia courts have been operating in the UK since 1982 and regulated by the 1996 Arbitration Act.

From the BBC:

“The use of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, is growing in Britain, with thousands of Muslims using it to settle disputes each year, but women’s groups and some others are objecting.

“Several bodies like the Islamic Sharia Council have seen a large increase in their cases in the past five years.”

Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, a representative of the Islamic Sharia Council, states that, ”On average, every month we can deal with anything from 200 to 300 cases. A few years ago it was just a small fraction of that.

”Muslims are becoming more aligned with their faith and more aware of what we are offering them.”

The report includes testimony from a woman who sought an Islamic divorce through the Sharia Council after her husband walked out on her and her children,

“For me the religious divorce, the Talak, was the first port of call, the most important. The civil divorce was something that could come later. I had to have closure in the eyes of God first.

“I felt like I wasn’t alone. They recognised my rights and they helped me move on with my life.”

Another testimony comes from Omar Hannan who used a Muslim Tribunal to resolve an ownership dispute at his industrial cleaning company. He states that ”It fulfilled my Islamic spiritual principles.”

“But it was also very quick. We resolved it in three to four months.”

”It only cost a couple of hundred pounds, and you can imagine how much it would have cost through the English legal system.”

The testimonies highlight the relief that can be granted to individuals who voluntarily take disputes to Sharia Councils, as well as their efficiency. Moreover, the accompanying video reveals that an increasing number of non-Muslims are using Sharia Councils’ services precisely for these reasons.

However, some concerns, particularly regarding women’s rights have led certain groups such as the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation to oppose the existence of the courts. Diana Nammi of IKWRO told the BBC that, ”We think there shouldn’t be any religious law practising in Britain – all Sharia bodies should be banned. That is the only way we can ensure equality of justice for all women.”

Her comments are ambiguous given that she makes no mention of other religious law operating legally under the Arbitration Act such as Jewish Beth Din courts which similarly rule in civil disputes- is she referring to all religious courts or is she singling out sharia courts? Concerns such as hers, the article highlights, have “led crossbench peer Baroness Cox to introduce a bill before the House of Lords, aimed at introducing regulation of Sharia organisations in the UK.”

The article provides an interesting insight into the complex role of sharia in the modern western context, and provides a stark contrast to the prevailing negative press which sharia receives, stemming often from uneducated Islamophobic assumptions about the term and about Islam in general.