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Muslim scholars say Williams' Shari`ah remarks were misinterpreted and taken out of context. |
LONDON — The Islamic Shari`ah Council, a panel of Britain's top Muslim scholars, have decided on thousands of Muslim marriages and divorces not only in Britain but other European countries since its establishments 25 years ago.
"As far as marriage goes, we complement the work of the civil court," Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, the council's secretary, told Reuters on Monday, February 11.
"Even after getting a civil court decision, for some people their conscience is not clear until they have an Islamic court decision as well."
A panel of seven to 10 scholars hear about 50 divorce cases a month at the Council, formed 25 years ago, sometimes settling disputes with couples as far afield as Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany.
As well as marital disputes, the panel rules in discords over inheritance, contractual disagreements between Muslim landlords and tenants and sometimes between employees and their employer.
Hasan, a 55-year-old India-born Muslim, studied jurisprudence in Saudi Arabia before coming to Britain 31 years ago.
He is frequently called upon to give evidence in British courts as a Muslim scholar, helping the civil courts give balanced judgments in cases involving Muslims.
Lawyers often send Muslim clients to him, believing a Shari`ah court will be a better place for settling disagreements.
Under English law, people may devise their own way to settle a dispute in front of an agreed third party as long as both sides agree to the process.
Shari`ah courts and the Jewish Beth Din, which already exist in the UK, come into this category.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly two million, mostly of South Asian background.
Misunderstanding
Sheikh Hasan believes Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who sparked outrage last week after calling for some aspects of Shari`ah to be incorporated into British law, was simply misunderstood.
"I have listened to his speech and I think people are so ignorant that they cannot understand what he was saying," he said.
"Because he's been so totally misunderstood, he should try to explain himself. He should not disassociate himself from what he said if he thinks it's true."
The Archbishop of Canterbury suggested it was "unavoidable" that at some point in the future aspects of Shari`ah would be introduced in Britain.
The government was quick to make clear that British law was supreme in the land, and tabloid newspapers launched vitriolic campaigns against the spiritual leader of the 77 million strong Anglican Church, calling on him to resign.
The misunderstanding, Sheikh Hasan says, is that people immediately jump to the conclusion that Shari`ah means chopping off hands and public executions.
He insists that there is no desire to introduce Shari`ah criminal courts in Britain.
"There are 57 Muslim countries in the world and only two or three of them impose full Shari`ah criminal law," notes Hasan, a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research.
"Why on earth would we want to have that here? This is Britain, it would be totally unacceptable."
For the Muslim scholar, some melding of the two systems, especially among religious Muslims in civil cases, remains inevitable and necessary.
"Shari`ah is used widely throughout Britain every day – it should be no surprise to anyone that elements of it are inculcated into the British legal system."
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