WUNRN
UK - ISLAMIC LAW ADOPTED BY
BRITISH LAW SOCIETY FOR SHARIA COMPLIANT WILLS
Solicitors told how to draw up Sharia-style wills
potentially penalising widows and non-believers
Under ground-breaking guidance, produced by The Law Society, High Street
solicitors will be able to write Islamic wills Photo:
ALAMY
Islamic law is to be effectively
enshrined in the British legal system for the first time under guidelines for
solicitors on drawing up “Sharia compliant” wills.
Under ground-breaking guidance,
produced by The Law Society, High Street solicitors will be able to write
Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude
unbelievers altogether.
The documents, which would be
recognised by
Anyone married in a church, or in
a civil ceremony, could be excluded from succession under Sharia principles,
which recognise only Muslim weddings for inheritance purposes.
Nicholas Fluck, president of The
Law Society, said the guidance would promote “good practice” in applying
Islamic principles in the British legal system.
Some lawyers, however, described
the guidance as “astonishing”, while campaigners warned it represented a major
step on the road to a “parallel legal system” for
Baroness Cox, a cross-bench peer
leading a Parliamentary campaign to protect women from religiously sanctioned
discrimination, including from unofficial Sharia courts in
“This violates everything that we
stand for,” she said. “It would make the Suffragettes turn in their graves.”
The guidance, quietly published
this month and distributed to solicitors in
It suggests deleting or amending
standard legal terms and even words such as “children” to ensure that those
deemed “illegitimate” are denied any claim over the inheritance.
It recommends that some wills
include a declaration of faith in Allah which would be drafted at a local
mosque, and hands responsibility for drawing up some papers to Sharia courts.
The guidance goes on to suggest
that Sharia principles could potentially overrule British practices in some
disputes, giving examples of areas that would need to be tested in English
courts.
Currently, Sharia principles are
not formally addressed by or included in
However, a network of Sharia
courts has grown up in Islamic communities to deal with disputes between Muslim
families.
A few are officially recognised
tribunals, operating under the Arbitration Act.
They have powers to set contracts
between parties, mainly in commercial disputes, but also to deal with issues
such as domestic violence, family disputes and inheritance battles.
But many more unofficial Sharia
courts are also in operation.
Parliament has been told of a
significant network of more informal Sharia tribunals and “councils”, often based
in mosques, dealing with religious divorces and even child custody matters in
line with religious teaching.
They offer “mediation” rather
than adjudication, although some hearings are laid out like courts with
religious scholars or legal experts sitting in a manner more akin to judges
than counsellors.
One study estimated that there
were now around 85 Sharia bodies operating in
It opens the way for non-Muslim
lawyers in High Street firms to offer Sharia will drafting services. The
document sets out crucial differences between Sharia inheritance laws and
Western traditions.
It explains how, in Islamic
custom, inheritances are divided among a set list of heirs determined by ties
of kinship rather than named individuals. It acknowledges the possibility of
people having multiple marriages.
“The male heirs in most cases
receive double the amount inherited by a female heir of the same class,” the
guidance says. “Non-Muslims may not inherit at all, and only Muslim marriages
are recognised.
Similarly, a divorced spouse is
no longer a Sharia heir, as the entitlement depends on a valid Muslim marriage
existing at the date of death. This means you should amend or delete some
standard will clauses.”
It advises lawyers to draft
special exclusions from the Wills Act 1837, which allows gifts to pass to the
children of an heir who has died, because this is not recognised in Islamic
law.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive
director of the National Secular Society, said: “This guidance marks a further
stage in the British legal establishment’s undermining of democratically
determined human rights-compliant law in favour of religious law from another
era and another culture. British equality law is more comprehensive in scope
and remedies than any elsewhere in the world. Instead of protecting it, The Law
Society seems determined to sacrifice the progress made in the last 500 years.”
Lady Cox said: “Everyone has
freedom to make their own will and everyone has freedom to let those wills
reflect their religious beliefs. But to have an organisation such as The Law
Society seeming to promote or encourage a policy which is inherently gender
discriminatory in a way which will have very serious implications for women and
possibly for children is a matter of deep concern.”