Are there sharia courts in britain

She took out an injunction against him, began civil divorce proceedings, and finally approached a sharia council.

Her voice shakes as she remembers how the three panel judges — all elderly men — reacted. Amara dropped the case, but later approached the Muslim College in Ealing. Her case was dealt with in writing, professionally, and resolved within a few months. One pressing problem is the increasing number of Muslim couples who are at the mercy of sharia councils because they have had religious ceremonies to mark their marriage but are not legally married under UK law.

There is no central registry of Islamic marriages marriages do not have to take place in a mosque, and you do not need an imam , so it is impossible to know how many couples have had only religious services — Aina Khan, a lawyer and campaigner, has estimated that there could be , couples in Britain under the current Marriage Act, only Anglicans, Quakers and Jews are obliged to register their marriage.

Some couples intend to have a civil service at a later date, others do not realise an Islamic marriage undertaken in the UK is not legally recognised; some feel it is only a religious marriage that is important to them.

Khan says she has also seen an increase in men wanting to avoid losing money or property in a divorce. Muslim women who have civil marriages will need a civil divorce too. But those with no civil marriage have to turn to sharia councils and risk being left in limbo for years.

Khan says one of her clients had started a new relationship and was pregnant with a child with still no sign of her Islamic divorce from the sharia council she applied to. Khan fears councils are becoming increasingly misogynistic and inefficient.

The Salafi [ultra-conservative] influence on religion has brought in a real misogyny. They have become more hardline and anti-female. This can be seen in the most frightening complaint against sharia councils — that with divorce permissible but discouraged by Islam, women are pressured into mediation with violent partners — or even reconciliation. She says cultural concepts such as honour are used to manipulate women. Even marital rape can be ignored.

One woman was told it was her duty — and she should pray while her husband has sex with her — basically while he raped her. It has set up a board of sharia councils — 18 so far — with a code of conduct. He says many Muslims do not understand their marriage rights under Islamic law and that they are putting together a manual to rectify this.

There are certainly good experiences amid the horror stories. Something had stirred in her. She had rediscovered her self-esteem, despite his best efforts to thrash it into tiny pieces over the years. He took her rejection of him in his stride and remarried after the separation. Not a civil ceremony, mind, but an Islamic one. Due to his refusal to grant her an Islamic divorce, she was left hanging in limbo while he was free to build a new relationship with another woman and have more children.

Why did she need a religious person or certificate to tell her that her marriage was over? Surely his lack of financial contributions to their children and her household proved that he has ended his relationship with her.

It was the Nikah and in the eyes of her faith and her community she was married to him. In order to be free from him, she needed to be granted that divorce. Not undergoing a civil ceremony had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life. She had given up her own rights willingly.

She fully understood how she had allowed herself to become a victim, but she still wanted a religious end to her religious wedding. Legally this meant nothing, but spiritually and culturally she believed she would be committing a sin if she married another man without obtaining a divorce first.

According to the thinktank Civitas, there are about 85 in existence. The administration is overseen by volunteers from the community.

Most sharia councils report that their services are open to all Muslims irrespective of their background although, in practice, ethnic diversity and different schools of thought mean that different courts interpret Islamic law in different ways.

Depending on the sharia council, one or more meetings are arranged to obtain testimonies and information from the person applying for a divorce, as well as with the other people involved in the case. Sometimes meetings are arranged to attempt reconciliation between the couple. The final decision is usually taken in an independent meeting between the council scholars, who then issue the Islamic divorce.

This Islamic divorce is not an alternative to civil divorce. Research shows that where a couple have had an English marriage, the sharia council usually requires or encourages them to seek a dissolution of their civil marriage as well. Sharia councils have been widely criticised and there is documented evidence of bad practice and discrimination against women. However, academic research into sharia councils tells us that despite the criticisms and the many shortcomings of sharia councils, the mechanisms still provide an important service to Muslim communities.

UKIP told us that he got his number from the Telegraph article. But the Civitas estimate includes online forums and admits that the actual number is "indeterminate". The coalition government had said that the courts have the powers they need to protect people from coercion and unequal treatment. But campaigners like Baroness Cox reply that whatever about the strict legal position, "the power of Sharia councils lies in how they are perceived by their communities".

Academics tend to be more relaxed, saying that "fears that councils are forming a parallel legal system appear to be unfounded". A new book by a Dutch researcher is reportedly more critical about how women in particular are treated. Researchers also stress that we need more information to work out how important Sharia councils are on the ground, and the experiences of people using them.

Similarly, the government now says that "there is evidence of a problem, but we have an inadequate understanding of all the issues involved". It has commissioned a review into whether Sharia is being "misused or applied in a way which is incompatible with the law", to report in News this year has fractured communities, and caused confusion and panic for many of us. No one can control what will happen next. But you can support a debate based on fair, accurate and transparent information.

As independent, impartial fact checkers, we rely on individuals like you to ensure the most dangerously false inaccuracies can be called out and challenged.