LONDON -- Two years ago, Mahmood Khawel,
a 34-year-old financial consultant and devout Muslim from the Midlands city of
Peterborough, wanted a quickie divorce.
So he went to an Islamic court in London where he performed the divorce ritual
known as talaq. Standing before a judge, he declared
three times in succession that he was repudiating his wife. Judge Omar Bakri Muhammad, an expert in Shariah, the sacred law of Islam, granted the divorce on the spot.
But now Khawel and his wife have
changed their minds. They want to reconcile. Last week, Khawel
was back in Muhammad's courtroom, asking for an annulment of the talaq.
"OK, brother, don't worry," Muhammad told him. The judge explained
that while some schools of Islamic law accepted a triple repudiation performed
all at once, most preferred that the repudiations be spread over two or three
menstrual periods. On that technicality, Muhammad said he could release Khawel from the original talaq.
None of this would be recognized in any British civil court, according to legal
experts, but for growing numbers of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims, Shariah is the law.
During the past decade, a parallel universe of Islamic jurisprudence has
sprouted across Britain. Shariah courts can be found
in almost every large city. In London, different Muslim immigrant groups--the
Somalis in Woolwich, for example--have established ad hoc courts that cater to
their community's needs.
Most operate quietly
No one knows how many of these courts are operating in Britain. Because of
their informal nature, reliable statistics do not exist.
Most of the Shariah courts go about their business
quietly. But Muhammad, 44, a native of Syria who studied Islamic law in Egypt
and Saudi Arabia, does not shy from controversy.
His outspoken support for Osama bin Laden and his
praise for the Sept. 11 hijackers--"the magnificent 19," he calls
them--have landed him in trouble with British anti-terrorism authorities.
Earlier this year, police closed his north London office, and last month they seized
all his legal files.
But the faithful who fill the makeshift courtroom above a North London
sweatshop care little about Muhammad's politics. They come here because they
believe he is uniquely qualified to settle their marital disputes, sort out their
business partnerships and decide the amount of blood money that should be paid
to compensate the victim of a crime.
In his white gown, white skullcap and beard, Muhammad is an imposing figure
behind the cluttered table that serves as his bench. Justice is rendered with
swift certainty, and many pleadings are handled via the Internet.
Divorces form the bulk of his caseload. For men, getting a divorce is simple.
For women, it can be more problematic. Usually, women have to buy their way out
of an unhappy marriage. They also have to give up custody of their children and
forfeit their property rights.
Muhammad said he tries to be lenient with women who are the victims of physical
or psychological abuse by their husbands. These women are not required to pay
off their husbands, and they also get to keep their jewelry and dowry, which
are considered the bride's property under Islamic law.
He also said he gives the benefit of the doubt to women in cases where they
married against their will. In these instances, he said, he simply annuls the
marriage contract.
But if a woman wants a divorce "because her husband is impotent or he
smells bad or he is ugly," the woman has to pay her husband double the
value of her dowry, he said. In all cases, community property and custody of
the children go to the husband. In the case of very young children, there is
joint custody until age 7. Then the father gets full custody.
The custody laws are "quite logical," Muhammad said. "A child
comes from the seed of a man. The woman is the soil in which the seed is
planted. A man is fully entitled to the fruit of his seed."
British civil law would disagree, but Muhammad shrugs.
"I can't change God's law," he said.
As a qadi--judge--Muhammad in theory would have
authority to order the amputation of a thief's hand or the stoning of an
adulterer. He indicated that he has imposed sentences of this type but that
they were "suspended" until such time as Britain embraces Shariah.
Separate realms
Anjem Choudary, a lawyer
with a degree from a British university, represents clients in Shariah court as well as in Britain's civil court system.
He often hears the argument that when Muslims choose to live in Britain, they
should obey British law.
"They do obey British law," he said. "But the Shariah is God's law. It is a fundamental part of being a
Muslim. If you call yourself a Muslim you must put God's law ahead of man's
law."
When the two are in conflict, as in the case of child custody laws, God's law
prevails, he said. But why would a woman give up custody and surrender her
property rights when she could easily obtain a no-fault civil divorce? The
answer is usually family pressure.
A Muslim woman who ignored Islamic strictures and obtained a civil divorce
would immediately be declared an apostate. In the insular and tightly knit
immigrant communities of Britain, this would disgrace her entire family.
"The Shariah is what we live and die by,"
said Khawel, the man who was seeking to annul his
divorce. Khawel and many others in the Muslim community
have little faith in Britain's "manmade laws." This is especially
true when their main source of information about it is the tabloid press, which
tends to highlight cases of rapists escaping punishment while homeowners go to
jail for defending their property against burglars.
There also is a belief--heightened since the attacks of Sept. 11 and the war in
Iraq--that there is little justice for Muslims in Britain's judicial system.
"I came here when I was 8 years old," said Khawel,
a native of Pakistan. "I have a good job and I consider myself completely
acclimated to Western culture.
"But let's face it, in this country, at the end of the day, I am just
another Paki."