Britain has seen yet another landmark step that deepens and expands the growing influence of Islamic religious law over the people who live in that country. The UK’s highly prestigious Law Society has issued guidelines for attorneys on how to draw up Sharia-compliant legal documents, shockingly setting a precedent for sanctioning the implementation of legal discrimination against both women and non-Muslims. Up until now those concerned with trying to resist the growing inertia of Sharia law in British society have been mostly focused on the matter of the expanding network of unauthorized Sharia courts that exist throughout Britain. Now, for the first time, Sharia practices will in effect be recognized at the level of the British court system.
Law Society President Nicholas Fluck spoke as if completely blind to the devastating damage that these guidelines will do to civil liberties in Britain. Fluck said that this new guidance would promote “good practice” in applying Islamic principles to the British legal system. The guidelines specifically advise on how to draft wills that comply with Islamic dictates while still appearing valid under British law. Indeed, these guidelines even suggest how Sharia principles could be used to overrule British practices in certain disputes, providing examples of areas that could be tested in English courts. It is astonishing to see how the Law Society blandly outlines how female heirs are to receive half what is to be allotted to male heirs while also acknowledging both the likelihood of multiple wives and ways in which widows can be penalized.
The Law Society’s guidance recommends to attorneys how they might delete or amend accepted legal terms to ensure that Islamic practices on inheritance are followed. For instance, the guidelines suggest removing the word “children” so as to prevent anyone considered illegitimate by Islamic law from having a claim to inheritance. In this way non-Muslims and non-Islamic marriages are disqualified from being considered valid for the purposes of inheritance and the children from any such unions are also classified as illegitimate.
What is most troubling about these guidelines is the way in which they are clearly intended for use by non-Muslim attorneys bringing cases to British courts, meaning that Britain’s legal system will effectively be able to function in such a way as to discriminate against those born out of Muslim wedlock, anyone who has been adopted, non-Muslims, and women generally. It is simply bizarre that at precisely the same time that British society and politicians have been pursuing programs for attempting to guarantee greater rights for women and minorities, now we also see parallel moves to implement other kinds of discrimination.
The principle of equality before the law is a foundational value of Western civilization, never mind liberal democracy. While clearly everyone has the right to draw up their will however they choose, it is simply unacceptable for legal guidelines to be issued that openly advise on how to systemically implement this type of discrimination. It is unthinkable that, after all the progress that has been made in the name of greater freedom and civil rights, we would witness in a country like Britain the imposition of religiously based legal practices for discriminating against people on such grounds as gender. Once again, in the name of attempting to accommodate and show tolerance toward its Muslim minority, Britain appears to be prepared to sacrifice some of the most fundamental rights that the majority of its citizenry has long believed in.
Some years ago, a Muslim friend of mine who lives in England confided in me that his greatest concern was not the threat of Islamist terror, but rather the onset of Islamic practices permeating civil life. It seems his worst fears are continuing to be borne out.
