Home > Stephen Pollard

Friday 9 January 2009

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Peter Hoskin

Pete suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Two laws for all

Tuesday, 16th September 2008

So Lehman Bros has collapsed and David Cairns has perhaps opened the floodgates.

But I'd venture to suggest that this story is, in the long run, of far greater importance:

Five sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. Previously, the rulings were not binding and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

...Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said that sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals under a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

So the government now no longer believes in one law for all. If you're a Muslim woman, UK law is now prepared to see your rights to equality under the law removed.

What comes next?

Previous Back to Stephen Pollard Next

Blogs: Clive Davis | Melanie Phillips | Americano | Coffee House | Trading Floor

Actions: Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (11)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Saleema

September 16th, 2008 5:50pm

Your obviously very slow in your head and seem like someone who is too occupied with reading the Sun news paper.

Can you substantiate where you get your theory that women loose there rights when I have used the Muslim arbitration court and it gave me more rights as a Muslim women

Jacko

September 16th, 2008 6:20pm

After reading 'Londonistan', I can see that the UK will become an Islamic country at some point in the future.

I wonder just how long it will take? 30 years? 20 years? 15 years?

Hell, it scares me even to think about it...

True Bred Pomponian

September 16th, 2008 6:51pm

What next? Sharia law for all, mate.

Pete, Scotland

September 16th, 2008 7:06pm

Exactly, what comes next?

One thing is for sure, this is only the sharp edge of the wedge.

Problem is, now that the genie is out of the bottle I don't know how it can be put back in.

This is only going to cause resentment and extremism on all sides.

The UK is falling.

Tiberius

September 16th, 2008 9:27pm

The answer to that final question is that either the politicians will stop this or the people will.

Furthermore, the first post shows that (rather like some beaten wives) some people who you'd think would welcome liberation, actually use their situation to lure the outsider into a trap.

Ben

September 17th, 2008 1:58am

Is accepting the jurisdiction of these courts voluntary? If so, one real issue is how to prevent people from being unwillingly coerced into "agreeing" to submit to the court.

Since the court's jurisdiction applies only to Moslems (I assume only a Moslem appears before the court as a plaintiff or defendent) a possible problem arises when there is a dispute concerning the Islamic identity of an individual. Who is a Moslem? Who decides? Can one be a Moslem and also, say, a Jew? I believe Jewish and Islamic law are such that this is possible. If Imams are to decide who is a Moslem, then that leads to the question of who is an Imam. Will the British State too have to decide such matters?

Dave Clemo

September 17th, 2008 11:54am

next stop dhimmitude

Mark

September 17th, 2008 1:15pm

Isn't this the same as orthodox Jewish courts that can be used for arbitration?

Dan

September 17th, 2008 2:04pm

This story is horrific. Muslims living here should adhere to the rule of law in the UK only. Parallel religious courts are a very worrying process.

Michael

September 18th, 2008 9:31am

How long before the squeals start as British Muslims find that the system they came here to escape has followed them?

Andrew Forbes

September 19th, 2008 5:16pm

So many questions:

1) Law is made by a body entitled to make laws, and as far as I knew, that's only a democratically elected Parliament. Even EU law has to go through the formality of parliamentary approval (via a pathetic committee, but that's another debate). So which body drafted Sharia law?

2)Where was the consent of the people (and which people?) to be governed by this?

3) And by what instrument was this quiet decision taken? Was it that awful blandly named Regulatory Reform Bill (or similar), which gave ministers the right to do nearly anything without parliamentary scrutiny. Who had the power with a stroke of the pen, to decide a group of people were now subject to new laws?

It's one of those stories that makes you check the date, and then think it's a pretty poor taste April fool anyway.