Great britain`s 'shari`a' courts: Between religion and secularism

• Author: Stefania Codruta Jucan - Calin-Stefan Georgia Calin
• Position: Lecturer Ph.D. 'Dimitrie Cantemir' Christian University, Faculty of Laws, Cluj-Napoca - M.A. student 'Babes-Bolyai' University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Cluj-Napoca
• Pages: 114-117

GREAT BRITAIN`S “SHARI`A” COURTS: BETWEEN RELIGION AND SECULARISM

Codrua-Ştefania Jucan*

Clin-Ştefan Georgia**

Abstract

The present paper aims at offering a brief view over the British Shari’a Muslim Arbitration Tribunals

from a perspective that dr aws on both the Islamic cultura l environment and the British legal framework within

which these British institutions operate.

Key Words: Shari’a, Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, Islam, Multiculturalism, Legal Harmonization .

Introduction

As the Global society is becoming evermore multicultural, along with its obvious benefits, this tr ait

increases the complexity of the social intera ctions exponentially, leading to an evermore complex fabric of

society. The technological advances an d economic factors that a nimate the Globa lization process also impose its

specific dynamism, one which seems to increa se from year to year, setting the rhythm for our very existence. In

this context, where communication is an analogue to b oth a functional a nd stylistic crescendo a t the same time,

the importance of an efficient communication process has never ha d this proportion, especially when economical

and politica l goals stand in the bala nce of inter-cultura l dialogue.

In case interactional inconsistencies appear in a multicultural eco nomical dialogue or one of another

nature, one of the most common reasons would be a failure of communication, meaning that either the emitter

has not properly coded his message for the common interactional denominator and/or that the receiver has not

properly decoded the message.

Usually, in case a communication failure o ccurs in an interaction and the parties mistakenly agree on

something, the communication error will resurface later on, manifesting itself in an unpredictable behavior

exhibited by one or all of the parties. Of course, this type of incident and its consequences can be undone by the

judiciary power of a state, which can issue its judgment based on consecrated legal principles and its legal

framework. However, because things are not always this simple, there are two problems that could occur in such

a situation. One of them, which we will be relating to but will not insist on is international interactions between

entities of different cultures and the other one, which makes up the main theme of the present paper is the

relation of a country’s citizen with other citizens or civic entities in a cultural context where the society relies on

democracy, multiculturalis m, religious freedom and other similar values as general guidelines for good

governance.

In this regard, the main issues that we are referring to are the incompatibilities bet ween the Islamic

Civilization and the Western one and the need to harmonize today’s multicultural society fro m a j uridical point

of view, taking in account some i mportant econo mic and social consequences, referring to the example of the

British Shari’a Courts, functioning under the 1996 Arbitration Act. Because of the limited space of the paper, we

will not be relating to the multitude of Islamic doctrines like the Sufi, Wahhabi, Salaf i or to all of the recognized

Islamic jurisprudence schools as we will also not be referring to the different western legal systems, mainl y the

French-inspired and Anglo-Saxon one. Instead, we will adopt a holistic approach, making use of the general

cultural and juridical environment characteristics to these two cultures.

The Context

In order to further build our arguments, it is necessary to briefly take into account the importance of the

harmonization of the interactions between the statel y secular authority and the Islamic cultural mechanisms of

representation and expression. According to the PEW research forum, there are currently 1. 6 billion Muslims in

the world, making up 1/5 of the total world population

1, the greatest European Muslim demographic rates bei ng

in France, Germany and Great Britain, making Muslim population a very important part of the European

Community.

We have c hosen the ca se of the British “ Shari’a” Courts as an example because Great Britain is in our

opinion a great example of the current European Muslim demographic trend. In this regard, there are two

important aspec ts one must consider. The first one is that there has been a significant increase in the Muslim

population in Britain since the 2001 census (74%)2, leading to an afflux of young peop le in a country which

* Lecturer Ph.D. “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Faculty of Laws, Cluj-Napoca. ijjs@univagora.ro

** M.A. student “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Cluj-Napoca, ijjs@univagora.ro.

1 The Pew Forum on Religion a Public Life, “Mapping the Global Muslim Population”, 2009, accessed on 15.01.2011at:

http://pewforum.org/.

2 Idem.