Zeinab Huq makes a crucial point on institutionalised Shari’a law in Britain:
“Contrary to popular belief, there is no central network, no supreme sharia judge, no sharia bar, no sharia AGM, no sharia ombudsman, no sharia HQ and no torts.”
She should know. She writes of her first-hand experiences with the issues of family inheritance under the dispensation of a Shari’a “court” as a Muslim woman:
When my father died, my mother decided that, although under British law she was entitled to everything, she wanted to settle things according to Islamic law so she could “die with a clear conscience”. She asked my brother to call an imam. The imam said my brothers would get twice the share of my sister and I and so on. On learning that my father had a son by a previous marriage, the imam said my half brother must also have a share in my dad’s estate. So, a man who is a stranger to us tells us that another man who is a stranger to us is entitled to a stake in our family home, where we have lived for 25 years and he has never set foot in.
