Britain's Sharia Courts: "You Cannot Go Against What Islam Says"
"There are some who are putting women at risk. And doing so for ridiculous reasons, namely that they are somehow responsible for the abuse they are suffering." — Nazir Afzal, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, northwest England.
A
new documentary secretly filmed inside several of the 85 Islamic Sharia Law
courts operating in Britain has exposed the systematic discrimination that many
women are suffering at the hands of Muslim jurists.
The
documentary, Secrets of Britain's Sharia Courts , was filmed by the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and was first aired on BBC Panorama, a
long-running current affairs program, on April 8.
The
undercover investigation proves what has long been suspected: namely, that
Sharia courts, which operate in mosques and houses across Britain, routinely
issue rulings on domestic and marital issues according to Islamic Sharia law
that are at odds with British law. Although Sharia rulings are not legally
binding, those subject to the rulings often feel obliged to obey them as a
matter of religious belief, or because of pressure from family and community
members to do so.
The
documentary contends that the Sharia courts, run by Muslim judges known as qadi, are putting women at risk of violence from abusive
husbands by pressuring them to stay in abusive marriages.
In
one case, the BBC secretly filmed proceedings at the Islamic Sharia Council in
Leyton , a heavily Islamized area in east London.
While there, a BBC reporter met Sonia, a Muslim woman from Leeds who has
suffered extreme physical abuse from her husband. When Sonia obtained a civil
divorce, the courts allowed her husband only indirect access to the children.
Islamic divorce Sharia style in London. |
After
Sonia threatened to contact the police, the Leyton Sharia Council dropped its
demand.
Reflecting on the court case, Sonia said,
"I could not bear the thought of such a violent person having my children.
What was shocking was when I explained to them why he should not have that
access to the children, their reaction was, well, you cannot go against what
Islam says."
In
another case, a Muslim convert from Bristol named Cara contacted the Leyton
Sharia Council for a divorce. Cara, who met her husband at university, had been
persuaded to have only a Sharia marriage. After the wedding, she was abused by
her husband, who allegedly controlled her by taking all of her earnings. After
he brought prostitutes to their home, Cara ran away to a shelter.
The
Leyton Sharia Council told Cara she would have be accompanied by her estranged
husband for arbitration. "I was shocked," says Cara. "Surely
they can see that women who have been through this cannot be forced to meet up
with someone who is abusing them."
The
BBC then sent an undercover reporter to the Leyton Sharia Council to see what
advice its members would give a vulnerable female client. Her story was that
her husband was hitting her.
"If you cook, clean, and let him fuck you --- you'll become a good wife not needing a divorce," |
Hasan
suggested that she ask herself if the violence was due to her own actions, then
urged her to redouble her efforts to be a good wife by cooking and cleaning for
her husband.
The
BBC also filmed proceedings at Sharia Council of Dewsbury, a city in West
Yorkshire that is a magnet for Muslim immigration. (Islamists have promised to
turn Dewsbury into an
independent Islamic state ruled by
Sharia law, and entirely apart from British jurisprudence.)
The
documentary also shows a woman named Ayesha who has been physically abused by
her estranged husband and then went to the Dewsbury Sharia Council to get a
divorce. Although her husband has been imprisoned for violence, Ayesha was told
she would have to go to mediation with him. The advice ignored injunctions
issued by a British court and which Ayesha and her children hold against her
husband due to his abuse.
According
to Ayesha, "I cannot do that because he is not even allowed near my house,
and because I am frightened. I cannot face him... but they did not take any
notice."
After
an outside lawyer became involved in Ayesha's case, the Dewsbury Sharia Council
eventually agreed to see Ayesha on her own. It took Ayesha two years for her
divorce to be granted by the council, by which time her husband had re-married
in Pakistan.
Sharia thugs in London. |
Referring
to the Sharia courts, Afzal said, "Most of them are fine, are absolutely
fine, but there are some who are putting women at risk. And doing so for
ridiculous reasons, namely that they are somehow responsible for the abuse they
are suffering."
Under
the Arbitration Act 1996 , Sharia courts in Britain -- home to a sizable Muslim
population of nearly 3 million -- are legally recognized as providing a form of
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). In addition to marital disputes, Sharia
courts rule in conflicts over inheritance, contractual disagreements between
Muslim landlords and tenants and sometimes between employees and their
employer.
But
Sharia courts have long been accused of discriminating against women. In the
case of divorce, for example, men and women are treated differently. When a man
has initiated a divorce, the procedure is called talaq;
when a woman has initiated a divorce, it is called khula.
With
an Islamic marriage, a man can initiate the divorce from his wife by
pronouncing the so-called triple-talaq ["I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce
you."]. By contrast, the only way for women to divorce their husbands is
through the use of Sharia councils. Women are required to produce two male
witnesses, and, while a man pays nothing, an Islamic divorce costs a woman at
least £400 ($600).
Sharia chopping manual from an East-London Sharia court. |
The
British Parliament held its first-ever
full parliamentary debate on the
issue of Sharia courts in October 2012, after the Baroness Cox , who has long campaigned against the spread of Islamic
law in Britain, presented a bill in the House of Lords that would specifically
limit the activities of Sharia courts and explicitly require them to uphold
equality laws including women's rights.
The
so-called Arbitration and
Mediation Services (Equality) Bill --
currently moving through the legislative process -- would also make it a
criminal offense punishable by five years in prison for anyone falsely to claim
or imply that Sharia courts or councils have legal jurisdiction over British
family or criminal law.
Baroness
Cox told the House of Lord about Sharia law cases she had encountered,
including that of a woman who had been admitted to hospital by her violent
husband -- who had left her for another woman but still denied her a religious
divorce so she could remarry.
Another
woman was forced to travel to Jordan to seek permission to remarry from a
seven-year-old boy she had never met because she had no other male relatives. A
third woman who came to see her was so afraid of being seen going into the
Sharia court that she hid behind a tree.
Another
woman told Baroness Cox: "I feel betrayed by Britain, I came to this
country to get away from all this but the situation is worse here than in my
country of origin."
At the same hearing, Baroness Donaghy , a Labour Party peer, said: "The definition of
mutuality is sometimes being stretched to such limits that a women is said to
consent to a process when in practice, because of a language barrier, huge
cultural or family pressure, ignorance of the law, a misplaced faith in the
system or a threat of complete isolation, that mutuality is as consensual as
rape."
Will this be the future of English criminals? |
The
Leyton Sharia Council -- the oldest Islamic council in Britain and one of the
most active in the country -- is also hoping to draw a line in the sand: to
establish the full recognition of Islamic Sharia law.
On
its website, the Leyton
Sharia Council writes : "Though the Council is
not yet legally recognized by the authorities in the UK, the fact that it is
already established, and is gradually gaining ground among the Muslim
community, and the satisfaction attained by those who seek its ruling, are all
preparatory steps towards the final goal of gaining the confidence of the host
community in the soundness of the Islamic legal system and the help and insight
they could gain from it. The experience gained by the scholars taking part in
its procedures make them more prepared for the eventuality of recognition for
Islamic law."
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MUSLIM
women in Britain are being forced to “live in fear” because of the spread of
unofficial and unregulated sharia courts enforcing Islamic rules, the House of
Lords was told.
One
study estimated that there are around 85 Sharia bodies operating in Britain. Rulings
by informal religious “councils” and tribunals are sometimes no more
“consensual” than rape, peers were told.
The
warnings came in the first ever full Parliamentary debate on the subject in the
UK.
Baroness
Cox, the independent peer and Third World campaigner, last year tabled a
private member’s bill in the Lords setting out plans to rein in a network of
unofficial self-styled “courts” which apply Islamic principles.
One
study estimated that there are around 85 Sharia bodies operating in Britain,
although there is no official estimate. They include legally recognised
arbitration tribunals, set up primarily to resolve financial disputes using
Islamic legal principles but which have taken on a wider range of cases.
There
is also a network of informal Sharia “councils”, often operating out of
mosques, dealing with religious divorces and even child custody matters in line
with Islamic teaching.
Virtual Sharia prison of England. |
Another
woman was forced to travel to Jordan to seek permission to remarry from a
seven-year-old boy whom she had never met because she had no other male
relatives, she said.
A third who came to see her was so scared
of being seen going in that she hid behind a tree while another told her: “I
feel betrayed by Britain, I came to this country to get away from all this but
the situation is worse here than in my country of origin."
Baroness
Cox said: “These examples are just the tip of an iceberg as many women live in
fear, so intimidated by family and community that they dare not speak out or
ask for help.”
Meanwhile
Baroness Donaghy added: “The definition of mutuality is sometimes being
stretched to such limits that a women is said to consent to a process when in
practice, because of a language barrier, huge cultural or family pressure,
ignorance of the law, a misplaced faith in the system or a threat of complete
isolation, that mutuality is as consensual as rape.”
Future Sharia marriage in England? |
And
Baroness Uddin, the first female Muslim peer, said it would be viewed as
“another assault on Muslims”.
Lord Kalms, the businessman, claimed that
self-styled Sharia courts had already reached far beyond mediation to areas
such as criminal law. “To
my knowledge, none of these cases has ever received police attention or investigation,
and this is a scandal for which the police, among other authorities, must be
held responsible,” he said.