
Sharia Law @ MindSay 
Islamic sharia courts in Britain are now 'legally binding'
By Matthew Hickley
Last updated at 10:10 AM on 15th September 2008
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.
Women are likely to suffer more if sharia law, which does treat women equally to men, becomes an accepted legal avenue
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 Archbishop of Canterbury sparked controversy when suggesting recognition of sharia seemed 'unavoidable'
The issue erupted into a major controversy earlier this year after the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams claimed publicly that formal recognition of sharia law 'seemed unavoidable', and Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips gave his backing to the use of Islamic courts to deal with family, marital and financial disputes.
Sharia courts have operated unofficially for years among Britain's Muslim communities but until now their rulings could not be enforced, relying instead on parties agreeing voluntarily.
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.
Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, condemned the latest development as 'appalling.'
'I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.'
Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'These tribunals have no place in passing binding decisions in divorce or criminal justice hearings.
'Far from handling more criminal cases. They should be handling none at all.
'British law is absolute and must remain so.'
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Muslim groups pointed out that Jewish Beth Din courts have handled civil legal cases for more than 100 years in Britain on a similar basis, and now operate under the 1996 Arbitration Act.
Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: 'We support these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.'
The Ministry of Justice said: 'Sharia law is not part of the law of England and Wales, and the Government has no intention of making any change that would conflict with British laws and values.
'In all arbitrations, decisions will be enforceable by the English courts if the requirements of the 1996 Arbitration Act are satisfied. If any decisions by these Tribunals were illegal or contrary to public policy under English law, they would not be enforceable.'
A recent survey by the Centre for Social Cohesion found 40 per cent of Britain's Muslim students want the introduction of sharia law in the UK, while 33 per cent want a worldwide Islamic sharia-based government.
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Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below?
This country is doomed.
- Irene, Manchester UK, 15/9/2008 02:58
Respect and tolerance of another culture's traditions should not meant that one has to abandon one's own traditions and values. Britan is still one nation not separate, religious-based land-holdings last I checked.
- Harrie, Plymouth, USA, 15/9/2008 02:44
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Man I have to tell you Church’s Chicken is one of the best fast food franchises serving good tasting Chicken. Alas, being a confirmed Islamophobe, I may think twice before I patronize Church’s Chicken again.
JRH 5/1/08
Victor Davis Hanson busts the chops of the incipient hypocrisy of Mohammedan complaints about the West vis-a-vie so-called pure Mohammedan moral culture.
In honesty the immorality that is allowed in the West due to abused Freedom of Speech, Choice, Religion, Thought and so on; is a valid complaint. The ever growing prurient attitudes of accepted vices are truly disappointing. Some vices are pushed as relatively moral according to Secular Humanistic standards of moral relativity.
I am embarrassed that the Mohammedans accusations are often correct. On the other hand Victor Davis Hanson points out the very thing Mohammedans accuse of the West are degradations that exist in their own society; they are just hidden or ignored due the power of the elites in Mohammedan society.
Materialistic shopping sprees of decadent luxurious items by oil rich royal families or families of oil rich dictators occur frequently. Homosexuality is as rampant in the Middle East as it is in the West, it is merely hidden. If it is discovered, then the poor devils are executed. Many Middle Eastern nations (Saudi Arabia in particular) still cut off hands for thievery (unless of course you are a member of the ruling elite – royal or republican). The drug trade that destroys the lives of the addicted is booming in the Middle East and the illicit drugs are marketed by some of the most notorious supporters of Sharia Law morality – Islamist terrorists.
Incidentally it is the same Islamist terrorists that receive monetary donations from Mohammedans that live in the West (Europe and America). In the USA the most notable Mohammedan organization that supports these illicit terrorists is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (read about CAIR’s actions HERE and HERE). Iranian client Terrorist Hezbollah (yes Hezbollah has attacked Americans directly) has America-Mohammedan Shi’ite organizations in America, particularly in Dearborn Dearbornistan, Michigan.
Many of the people in America (say) under thirty years of age would have known the idea of what a Fifth Column is. Indeed, I speculate the younger side of the spectrum of the Baby Boomers may have only heard bits and pieces of a Fifth Column from their parents (in seriousness or mocking depending on their political demeanor).
So I am guessing a good chunk of my readers are thinking, “What is he blathering about – a Fifth Column?”
Here is the origin of the term “Fifth Column” from askYahoo.com:
According to Britannica.com, a fifth column refers to any clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity.
Who came up with the phrase, and what's with the columns? Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), originally coined the term. As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his "fifth column," intent on undermining the loyalist government from within.
So the fifth column is a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders.
Although it is fascinating to know who coined the term “Fifth Column” it is important to understand two words in this definition: “clandestine” and “subversive.”
Those two words are explained as “a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defensive lines or national borders.”
The Fifth Column group bent on transforming the USA in 1930’s through early 1960’s was American Communist Party members or Communist sympathizers. Communism from within America was a true Fifth Column threat that only really became neutralized in the early Sixty’s. This is where the political demeanor of your parents and grandparents come in.
As a side bar to what I am leading up to let me explain. The Administration of President FDR was infiltrated by Soviet Communists. High level Fifth Columnists were influential of the decisions of FDR, particularly as the “New Deal” progressed to end The Depression of the 1930’s in America. That highest place Soviet Agent was FDR’s personal Advisor Harry Hopkins.
Thus by the end of WWII there were a number of Soviet American sympathizers that the Secular Humanism of a Communist Utopia would solve global poverty and the inequalities of a Class society. These sympathizers had no idea that Stalin was murdering millions more than Hitler simply to maintain his personal Utopia of personal power.
Well anyway then came Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. He began a campaign to root out Communists from the government. McCarthy’s goals were worth but his means became more and more dubious. McCarthy began to intrude into Freedom of thought and choice of people who were not even part of the government. The classic example is the 1940’s Black List of Hollywood. Hollywood actors and actresses that had even a whiff of Communist sympathy (even if it was a college fling) became Black Listed from working. Thus Charlie Chaplin (one of the world’s greatest comedic actors and a Communist sympathizer) left America and finished his days in Switzerland.
The term McCarthyism became synonymous for a political witch hunt syndrome. Thus McCarthy became discredited in his day. If only McCarthy had used professional investigative methods to disclose actual subversives, he might have gone down in history as a hero. McCarthy died a broken man alcoholic man as the man that “cried wolf” too often. Ironically even today many American history books will portray Harry Hopkins as the architect of the New Deal associated with FDR to get America out of the Depression, painting Hopkins as an American hero.
Communism was an actual Fifth Column working to transform America from a Capitalist land of freedom to a Communist land State monitored despotism.
Is there a Fifth Column in America today? YES!
America’s new Fifth Column threat is Radical Islam.
In mid-June David Gaubatz published a report in InsightMag.com that there were 400 to 500 mosques in America promoting Islamist ideology (meaning death to America and the instituting of Sharia Law at any cost). These Islamofascists have convinced Leftists that in America there is freedom of religion and thus it would be Unconstitutional (ergo politically incorrect) to go after these Mosques and organizations for Conspiracy to subvert the American Government and the peace of non-Muslim (fakir) American, i.e. mostly Christians and those that stand by the Bill of Rights.
Even now Britain is experiencing the errors of accommodating their huge Mohammedan population as they are experiencing multiple al Qaeda terrorist attacks. This experience of the multiplicity of attacks is due to come to America with the huge amount of radical Islamists that get their marching orders from Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia and Islamofascist terrorist organizations like Hamas, al Qaeda and Hezbollah.
Friends this is America’s new Fifth Column. America definitely needs to change its paradigm to force this Fifth Column to disengage its potential threat to the Land of Free and Home of the Brave. Appeasement is not part of paradigm. Political Correctness is not part of that paradigm. The Left will have to choose between egalitarian Liberty and American Liberty.
Egalitarian Liberty is the problem that Europe has gotten itself hooked into; i.e. humanity is basically good and deserving of equality even if it hurts the security and freedom of others. American Liberty is a privilege that has been earned by standing up against foreign aggression including all the reasons that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. (Declaration of Independence – Excerpt)
Islamofascists, listen up! America does not want to be enslaved to Mohammedan Sharia Law in which an Allah does not view all men are created equal. Most Americans still uphold their Christian traditions and do not want to be told how believe at the penalty of death (by beheading or stoning). Americans desire Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and to have a government that exists as the result of the people’s consent not a fatwa from a deranged medieval Theo-political Mullah.
Read some detail of the Islamist Fifth Column from David Gaubatz writing in InsightMag.com.
Greg Lewis postulates in a short essay: Perhaps Terrorists Really Do Speak for Islam. I tend to agree with Lewis.
All the acts of brutality, torture and atrocity that includes men, women and children of both the Mohammedan cult and Western non-believers of Mohammed’s dubious revealed words from a demon called Allah as mediated by an angel disguised in light called Gabriel (in English).
I recently answered the propagandized accusations by a Mohammedan that did not even have the courage to use a name other than “anonymous.” His multiple posts did not one time condemn the acts of radical Islamist terrorism. Instead “anonymous” chose to deflect the heinous brutality of Mohammedans by comparing them to bad things America and Israel have perpetrated.
There is not one super power in modern history that has made mistakes in policy choices. Of those modern Super powers or regional hegemonic powers that utilize Democracy as the rule of law, not one can be accused brutal executions and unutterable torture. America’s so-called acts of torture are a mosquito bite compared to Mohammedan torture and violence.
Hitler was responsible for 12 million genocidal murders of which 6 million were Jews.
Stalin was responsible for 13 million genocidal murders.
Mao Ze-Dong was responsible for 49 million genocidal murders. China is not Western but I had to include Mao by the mere enormity of his atrocity.
All the above were managed by a rule of law that was dictatorial. Ironically Hitler is considered a hero by most Middle Eastern Mohammedans. Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is huge in the Middle East. In some Middle Eastern nations “Mein Kampf” is a best seller. Hitler was popularized by the mid-twentieth century Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – al Husseini.
I wonder what the death toll that Mohammedans have produced from the 600’s AD to the present. Why do I wonder that? Mohammed’s prime directive was conversion, dhimmitude-humiliation or death. This prime directive is the call of Jihad among Islamists in the twenty-first century. VERY few so-called moderate Mohammedans have expressed outrage at this medieval prime directive. The few that have been imprisoned, tortured, murdered or have a price on their head if they are lucky enough to live in the West.
Western Mosques tend to be dominated by Sunni-Wahhabis or Iran Revolutionary Shi’ites. That means the same people who finance Islamofascist terrorists that are enemies of America and Israel also support the indoctrination in Western Mosques. It is only a matter of time until Western Democracies will have to make a decision: eject Mohammedan civil rights or be consumed by Mohammedans transforming Western Democracy into a matter of history as defined by Mohammedans.
(I owe a huge hat tip to On the Wing Blog.)
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Please fight against Sharia law, citizens of the UK. Women aren't treated equally under it. Stand up for equal rights.
- Naeemah, Dallas, TX, USA, 15/9/2008 03:25