Sharia Courts In The UK: Londonistan & Eurabia Are Not Far Behind

Yesterday, the UK's Times Online reported that Britain has officially adopted Islamic law by giving power to a network of five sharia courts to rule on Muslim civil cases. These sharia courts will be allowed to rule on such cases as divorce, financial disputes, and domestic violence. Such rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system through the High Court.

Until now, sharia courts operated with the United Kingdom, but their rulings were unenforced, depending instead on voluntary compliance among Muslims. The courts are located in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Nuneaton and Manchester, with two more planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

How in the world did these sharia courts come about?!? The Times Online article explains it this way (emphasis added):

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

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, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

Sharia courts started passing judgments in August 2007, with more than 100 cases including such issues as divorce, inheritance, nuisance neighbors, and even settled six cases of domestic violence, working in conjunction with the police. Siddiqi anticipates that the courts will handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

In similar fashion, Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

The article continued with concerns raised by politicians and church leaders, who fear that the sharia courts could be the beginning of a "parallel legal system" for some British Muslims:

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.

Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”

I wonder if eventually some of this nitwit dhimmitude thinking will infiltrate our legal system here. A rather scary propositions, my friends!