Unregulated Sharia law bodies are performing marriages in shop basements, MPs told
The unofficial ‘councils’ are operating ‘everywhere in the country’ a Parliamentary investigation was told
UNREGULATED Sharia law councils are performing Islamic marriages and divorces out of shop basements, MPs were told.
A parliamentary investigation saw the chairman of UK Board of Sharia Councils say it was impossible to know how many were currently operating.
The head of a body set up to standardise the administration of Islamic law, Dr Ahmad Al-Dubayan, based in Regent’s Park Mosque in London, said they were cropping up “everywhere in the country”.
But he told members of the Commons Home Affairs Committee some were being run out of small shops “maybe hidden in the basement or somewhere”.
The inquiry into the operation of bodies administering sharia law also heard from representatives of women’s groups, domestic violence victims’ support groups and Islamic scholars on whether it was possible for women to receive equal treatment to men in the religious “courts”.
Dr Al-Dubayan said his board could not “force” the panels to join his group, adding: “And by the way we don’t know how many councils there are.
“Some people talk about 80 or 30 or 50, I don’t know. There is no record for this and no studies unfortunately.”
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He said that properly organised bodies were essential to draw Muslims away from self-styled religious authorities.
“When they see you are well organised they will come to you,” he said.
Supporters of sharia councils said banning them would create “backstreet” panels springing up, often charging higher fees to provide a religious divorce.
And speaking about discrimination against women, he said he could think of only two or three cases which had been said to be unfair out of “hundreds” handled by sharia councils.
He added: “There are those small [bodies] who call themselves councils but we as the UK Board don’t even recognise they are councils: individuals or somebody in a small mosque somewhere and … and people come to them as sharia council.”
Labour’s Naz Shah, said many Muslim women, including some in abusive relationships, found Sharia councils a valuable source of help.
The MP for Bradford West, who was herself forced into marriage at the age of 15, warned against “throwing the baby out with the bath water” and said many Muslim communities felt that calls to ban sharia bodies had an “air of Islamophobia”.