The continued crumbling of the Western World goes on unabated:
Islamic sharia law courts in Britain are exploiting a little-known legal clause to make their verdicts officially binding under UK law in cases including divorce, financial disputes and even domestic violence.
A new network of courts in five major cities is hearing cases where Muslims involved agree to be bound by traditional sharia law, and under the 1996 Arbitration Act the court’s decisions can then be enforced by the county courts or the High Court.
Officials behind the new system claim to have dealt with more than 100 cases since last summer, including six involving domestic violence which is a criminal rather than civil offence, and said they hoped to take over growing numbers of ‘smaller’ criminal cases in future.
The revelations sparked uproar yesterday, with warnings that the fundamental principle of equal treatment for all – the bedrock of British justice – was being gravely undermined.
Critics fear Britain’s Islamic hard-liners will now try to make sharia law the dominant legal system in Muslim neighbourhoods, and warn that women often receive less favourable treatment at the hands of the traditional Islamic courts.
The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal panels, set up by lawyer Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, are now operating in London, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham and Nuneaton, with more planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Mr 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.’
Cases handled by the courts so far include Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours, he said.
But as well as civil disputes they have also handled six cases of domestic violence.
In all six cases, he said, sharia judges ordered husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders, but issued no further punishment.
All the women subsequently withdrew their complaints to the police, who halted investigations.
Mr Siddiqi claimed the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.
But critics fear Muslim women victims will be pressured into accepting a sharia court settlement, and husbands will escape with lighter punishments than in a mainstream criminal court.
In one recent inheritance dispute in Nuneaton, a Muslim man’s estate was spit was between three daughters and two sons with each son receiving twice as much as each daughter – in keeping with sharia law.
In a mainstream court all siblings would have been treated equally.
Needless to say feminists are keeping silent on this development, which allows England to turn a blind eye toward the abused and subjected women in Militant Islam. But that’s what feminism is isn’t it? Rich White girls pretending that they’re the victims while other women who really need their activism aren’t?
The Brits have already given the go-ahead to eco-terrorists and admit that anarchy in the streets is coming soon; now we find out that Militant Muslims are the going to be able to have the state enforce their rulings. What else can they do to destroy their country?
Rob Taylor,
Most of today’s so called feminists would make Elizabeth Caty Stanton roll over in her grave. Women in America had it better before they had the right to vote, than they have in any Islam-o-Fascist country. They don’t know real oppression. They seem to think that we live in an oppressive patriarchal society if men judge a women by her looks or question the notion of her “right to choose.” They have no idea what real oppression looks like. America is ranks among the least sexist societies to ever exist.
In the mean time, in Muslim societies women are often punished for adultery if they are raped, and they see modern western culture as sexist. To prove a rape under sharia, you need four male witnesses, for all intense and purposes completely legalizing rape. Even if western culture is sexist, why isn’t a society like Saudi Arabia far more sexist? Some one need to get groups like NOW and its British equivalent to understand that equality of the sexes and sharia law are incompatible.
Sharia is completely incompatible with human rights. In fact if I had my way, every free country on Earth would pass anti Sharia constitutional amendments.
The archbishop should be chained to a load of like minded ravers and be made to walk along the rows of thousends of graves in Normandy where
young GI´s from 17years and more died in the most awful asault in modern history. He should list all the names and write to the parents of these superb young men and explain why he wishes to give away the freedom they died
for.
ohhh gooody I suppose we can bring back the ol’ brehon laws to England as well!! cheep beer for everyone!!!