The United Kingdom is now home to at least 85 Islamic sharia courts. It has become a capital in the Western world for the Islamic legal system, with Muslims across Europe and North America increasingly looking to the informal courts for rulings.
Sharia courts began operating in Britain in 1982 and have grown to 85 courts, or councils, nationwide. They rule on issues of marriage and other family matters like inheritance.
At least 100,000 Islamic marriages have been conducted in these sharia courts, which also practice polygamy and allow men to divorce their wives by simply saying the word ‘talaq’ three times over.
Radical Islamist preacher Haitham al-Haddad founded one of the most prominent Sharia courts in the UK, has not only been labeled an extremist but was among several British Muslims to visit the Taliban after they captured Afghanistan. He once stated in a lecture that a man should be allowed to hit his wife physically and that others should not interfere and mind their own business.
Sharia courts do not have any legal jurisdiction in Britain but are still used by Muslims to work out issues of divorce, marriage, and more. Some have expressed concern that the courts are forming a parallel legal system within the country.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, stated, “It should be remembered that sharia councils only exist because Muslim women need them to obtain a religious divorce. Muslim men do not need them because they can unilaterally divorce their wife.”
“That’s why any regulation or accommodation of such a body would legitimize this inherently discriminatory outlook on divorce and gender relations,” Evans said.
