Home Secretary launches UK sharia law review

A new panel has been formed by Theresa May to consider the ways in which sharia law are applied across the UK.

This comes as part of the government’s counter-extremism strategies which have been laid out by the Home Secretary, and the panel is made up of various legal figures as well as theological and religious experts in the field.

Professor Mona Siddiqui will chair the committee, assisted by retired high court judge Sir Mark Hedley, leading family solicitor Anne Marie Hutchinson QC and family law barrister Sam Motaz; as well as Imam Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi, who lectures in philosophy and theology, and Imam Qari Asim, the chief Imam at a mosque in Leeds.

May stated that the review would examine if sharia law was being misused in Britain, and, if so, to what extent it could be considered incompatible with the British legal framework. It is suggested that it will be completed by 2017.

She went on to suggest that if certain sharia councils were acting in a “discriminatory and unacceptable” manner, that this would need to be stopped.

“A number of women have reportedly been victims of what appear to be discriminatory decisions taken by sharia councils, and that is a significant concern,” she added. “There is only one rule of law in our country, which provides rights and security for every citizen.”

Professor Siddiqui stated that “At a time when there is so much focus on Muslims in the UK, this will be a wide-ranging, timely and thorough review as to what actually happens in sharia councils.”

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