"We realized that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts," said Siddiqi.

CAIRO — Britain's Shari`ah courts, which have operated for years in solving the Muslim community's legal disputes, have finally been given the powers to rule on civil cases.

"We realized that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts," Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, head of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, told the Sunday Times on September 14.

According to the daily, the government has quietly sanctioned the powers for Shari`ah courts to rule on cases ranging from marital and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Previously, the rulings were not recognized by the law and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims, estimated at nearly 2 million.

Sheikh Siddiqi, whose tribunal was formed last year to help Muslims resolve their disputes in accordance with their faith, said the new powers were given under the Arbitration Act of the 1996.

Under the act, the courts are classified as arbitration tribunals, whose rulings are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to the process.

"The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals.

"This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the Shari`ah courts are," added Siddiqi, himself a commercial law barrister.

Rulings issued by Shari`ah courts are now enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Five Shari`ah courts with the new powers have been set up across Britain and two more are being planned.

Shari`ah courts have been operating in Britain for over two decades.

The Islamic Shari`ah Council, a panel of Britain's top Muslim scholars, has decided on thousands of Muslim legal discords not only in Britain but in other European countries since its establishments 25 years ago.

Opposed

"If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the Shari`ah ones," Bunglawala said.

The Shari`ah courts' new powers drew swift rejection from several politicians.

"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," Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, told the Times.

Others claimed the new empowered Shari`ah courts could mark the beginnings of a "parallel legal system".

"I think it’s appalling," said Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion.

"I don’t think arbitration that is done by Shari`ah should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state."

This comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, recommended that British law recognize some aspects of Shari`ah to resolve Muslim civil matters.

In July, Lord Chief Justice Lord Nicholas Phillips, the most senior judge in England and Wales, also suggested that Shari`ah could play a role in the legal system.

Muslim leaders welcomed the new development as a recognition that their sizable community has equal rights like other minorities.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the umbrella Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), noted that Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision of the Arbitration Act and resolve the community's civil cases.

"The MCB supports these tribunals," he stressed.

"If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the Shari`ah ones."