Sharia Law in the UK - Now it’s Official

The alleged leading Christian in Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told us that it was “unavoidable.” The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, thought it was a smashing idea. So with these pillars of the establishment lining up to extol the virtues of sharia Law in the UK, it was only a matter of time until it became an official part of the British way of life. And that time has now come.

With barely a whisper, the government has sanctioned sharia judges to have the power
to rule on such cases as financial disputes, divorce and even domestic violence.

Sharia courts that have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester and Nuneaton can now enforce their rulings with the full power of the judicial system, through either the country courts or the High Court. Sharia courts in Britain had previously depended upon voluntary agreement between Muslims.

This latest encroachment of Islam into the British way of life is the result of a clause in the Arbitration Act of 1996 which the leader of the sharia courts, Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, has exploited:

“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.”

Siddiqi went on to say, “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases.”

In what should be a worrying development for liberal feminists (but of course won’t be), the new sharia courts can also rule on such matters as divorce and even domestic violence. With women’s’ low status in Islam, there are real fears that judgements will be biased towards men.

There is already evidence of this happening. In a recent inheritance case heard in the Nuneaton court, the ruling on the estate of a Muslim in the Midlands gave the two sons twice as much as the three daughters. Under British law, the daughters would have received equal payment.

And in a sinister development, there are fears that Muslim women are being frightened into silence over domestic violence cases. Of the six cases the courts have handled, all the husbands were simply ordered to take anger management training and advice from “community elders” and in every case, the women withdrew their accusations of violence they had lodged with the police, forcing the investigations into the cases to be halted.

Despite outrage from indigenous Britons that Islam was setting up a parallel legal system in Britain, flying in the face of the absolute nature of British law, the Muslim Council of Britain, the much publicised “moderate” face of British Islam, fully supported this significant milestone in British history. Inyat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the groups said that “the MCB supports these tribunals.”

As, it would seem, do many of Britain’s Muslims in general. A recent study carried out by the Centre for Social Cohesion revealed that 40% of British Muslims were in favour of the introduction of sharia law into Britain while 33% of them wanted to go a step further and have a worldwide Islamic sharia-based government.

BNP NEWS TEAM