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September 15, 2008
UK’s First Official Sharia Courts
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
- Winston Churchill
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Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.
The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.
Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.
It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.
Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.
Siddiqi said: “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.”
The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.
In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.
In fact, 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.
Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.
Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.
Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “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. British law is absolute and must remain so.”
Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”
There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.
Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.
The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.
In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.
In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.
Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”
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Wild Thing's comment.............
This is a bad, bad thing. Rule Britannia. Not. Rue Britannia. Adios, England. It was jolly good while it lasted. Good Bye to a once great nation, and may the chains of enslavement rest lightly. However once the chains are about your shoulders, the master without fail will tighten the chains of power and your great nation will cease to exist.
"The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case."
A person would have to be a serious moron to submit to Sharia rather than British law.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
-Kipling
Posted by Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 01:55 AM
Comments
This is what happens when liberals are in charge.
You have to "feel" for everyone. That's not always a good thing.
I do not want Sharia laws here. They are despicable and disgusting. I doubt any God who would allow his own people to hurt his own people. That's not a God, that's a demon.
And why do they have to hide their faces? Are they that ashamed of being Moslem?
Posted by: Lynn at September 15, 2008 04:14 AM
I have seen a few pictures and videos of Sharia Law executions in Iran. Gruesome, primitive. This is what is eventually in store for Britain if the British continue to yield bit by bit to the moslem demands.
At some point Sharia would eventually replace British Common Law. First in the unassimilating muslim communities. Honor killings would be legal and approved by the imans. Then at some point, British citizens other than muslims would be accountable to Sharia Law. Little by little, yard by yard, muslims want to enforce their religious cult and will on their host nations throughout the non-muslim world.
Posted by: TomR at September 15, 2008 08:38 AM
How soon before it starts to happen here in the United States? I would bet in one for or another it's already taking place in the Detroit area.
Posted by: BobF at September 15, 2008 09:21 AM
So now they are living under two legal systems. this is crazy. They are giving their sovereignty away and nobody can see it.
Posted by: Mark at September 15, 2008 11:19 AM
Shortly after this relinquishing of it's national civil law authority regards consenting Muslims, the UK will be the first country to sanction mandatory use of Sharia courts where only one party in a dispute is a Muslim. Non-Muslim UK citizens will be subject to Sharia law whether they like it or not.
Would a Democrat dominated Congress and a President Barack Hussein Obama appointing judges who will allow and encourage this to become the law in the United States too be something to worry about when you vote on November 4th? You bet!
Posted by: Les at September 15, 2008 11:23 AM
A strong case for vigilante justice beginning with our feckless judiciary.
Posted by: Jack at September 15, 2008 02:04 PM
Lynn, your right....."This is what happens when liberals are in charge."
And this too is huge and it sure is from Satan.
"That's not a God, that's a demon"
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 02:59 PM
Tom, it sure is horrible it is such a nightmare of the things they do to people.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 03:02 PM
BobF, see I worry about that too. It is not far fetched to think about this now, before it is too late for us here in America. We have two Muslims in power that we know of and they will have their say about this kind of thing for sure.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 03:04 PM
Mark, yes it is totally crazy. This is so scary that they are not even thinking of like you said, their sovereignty.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 03:06 PM
Les, I agree, this is something that every voter should think about when voting here in America.
I was talking to a democrat the other day and she said no way does she believe anything negative about Obama, she said it is all a bunch of lies from Republicans.
( rolling my eyes)
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 03:22 PM
Jack yes that very well could happen if this happens here.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 15, 2008 03:25 PM
A really really really bad turn of events that only provides jobs for the lowest in society - lawyers, and now Muslim-lawyers.
Posted by: DirtCrashr at September 15, 2008 05:20 PM
