By IINA,
London : Leading Muslim jurists yesterday welcomed comments by Britain’s chief justice supporting a role for Shariah in resolving disputes. Chief Justice Lord Nicholas Phillips, who is Britain’s most senior judge, has suggested that Islamic Shariah could play a role in the British legal system, echoing a similar stance by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. “There is no reason why principles of Shariah law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution,” Lord Nicholas Phillips said in a speech to the London Islamic Council.
“It must be recognized however that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of the mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales.”
Phillips said parties to a dispute are free to agree to accept Shariah principles or other religious precepts if they decide to seek mediation,” the Guardian reported quoting him.
Sheikh Faiz Siddiqi, a barrister and chairman of the governing council of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said yesterday that critics of any use of Islamic law failed to recognize that both parties had to agree to any form of dispute resolution in Britain.
Shamim Qureshi, the presiding judge of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said the application of Shariah could be useful in settling disputes about forced marriages, according to a statement released by the tribunal. Qureshi, a judge in Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, is one of the few Muslims to serve as a judge in England. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, established last year, offers alternative resolution of family disputes, forced marriages, and disputes over debts, commercial matters and inheritance.
In his speech at the East London Muslim Center, Phillips said there is a widespread misunderstanding of Shariah in Britain. “Part of the misconception about Shariah law is the belief that Shariah is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hand or death for those who fail to comply with the law.
And the view of many of Shariah law is colored by violent extremists who invoke it, perversely, to justify terrorist atrocities such as suicide bombing, which I understand to be in conflict with Islamic principles,” Phillips said. He said British media in particular had misunderstood a speech in February by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who also supported a role for Shariah, specifically suggesting a role in resolving disputes.
The Lord Chief Justice said that the Islamic Shariah has been widely misunderstood. “Part of the misconception about Shari`ah law is the belief that Shariah is only about mandating sanctions such as flogging, stoning, the cutting off of hands or death for those fail to comply with the law. “In some countries the courts interpret Shari`ah law as calling for severe physical punishment. There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams recently recommended that British law should recognize some aspects of Shariah to resolve Muslim civil matters. His remarks ignited an extraordinary political and religious storm that still rages on, with politicians united in denouncing the proposal. Leading newspapers and tabloids launched vitriolic campaigns against the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, some even calling for his resignation.
The Lord Chief Justice defended Williams’ Shari`ah law comments. “It was not very radical to advocate embracing Shari`ah law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop’s suggestion. “It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.” “So a Muslim woman who divorced according to Shari`ah principles would be free to marry again, but not if she only went to a civil court.
“But as far as aspects of matrimonial law are concerned, there is a limited precedent for English law to recognize aspects of religious laws, although when it comes to divorce this can only be effected in accordance with the civil law of this country.”
Yesterday, the country’s first Muslim government minister said Muslims in Britain felt like aliens in their own society and that they were targeted like “the Jews of Europe.” International Development Minister Shahid Malik painted a bleak picture of the integration of Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims, three years after British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport system. The attacks triggered a debate on whether Britain’s policy of avoiding imposing a single British identity, and instead promoting a multicultural society, had led to segregation of ethnic minorities. Malik, who has been the target of race attacks including a firebombing of his family car, said some media coverage “makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country.” “If you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe,” he told a documentary to be shown on Channel 4 television next week.