UK SHARI’AH COURTS EMPOWERED

Britain’s Shari`ah courts, which have operated for years in solving the Muslim community’s legal disputes, have finally been given the powers to rule on civil cases. “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts,” Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, head of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal,…

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June 22, 2022
Britain’s Shari`ah courts, which have operated for years in solving the Muslim community’s legal disputes, have finally been given the powers to rule on civil cases. “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts,” Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, head of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said on September 14. The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for Shari`ah courts to rule on cases ranging from marital and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence. Previously, the rulings were not recognized by the law and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims, estimated at nearly 2 million.
Sheikh Siddiqi, whose tribunal was formed last year to help Muslims resolve their disputes in accordance with their faith, said the new powers were given under the Arbitration Act of the 1996. Under the act, the courts are classified as arbitration tribunals, whose rulings are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to the process. “The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals.

“This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the Shari`ah courts are,” added Siddiqi, himself a commercial law barrister. Rulings issued by Shari`ah courts are now enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. Five Shari`ah courts with the new powers have been set up across Britain and two more are being planned. Shari`ah courts have been operating in Britain for over two decades. The Islamic Shari`ah Council, a panel of Britain’s top Muslim scholars, has decided on thousands of Muslim legal discords not only in Britain but in other European countries since its establishments 25 years ago.