British government sees room for minimal Islamic law

LONDON — The British government has ruled that some aspects of Islamic sharia law can be accepted into the country's legal framework, provided they comply with standard practices of jurisprudence.
Bridget Prentice, a justice minister in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government, told Parliament that family courts in England and Wales could "rubber stamp" sharia decisions if they decide the Islamic rulings are fair.

Sharia is a set of principles governing the lives of Muslims, 1.6 million of whom live in Britain, and has occasionally come into conflict with traditional British law.

But Prentice said a sharia decision dealing with money or children could be submitted in the form of a consent order that a formal court could consider.

"This," she said, "allows English judges to scrutinize it to ensure that it complies with English legal tenets," and likewise in Wales, and that if they rule it is fair, it would constitute a legal contract.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Britain | Islam | Muslim | England | Parliament | Prime Minister Gordon Brown | Wales | Conservative Party | Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Earlier this year, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams fueled the debate over Muslim law in Britain when he suggested that some aspects of sharia incorporated into civil law seemed "unavoidable" in the future.

But the government's major opposition, the Conservative Party, argues that the proposal smacks of setting up a parallel legal system that does not belong in Britain.

"There can be no place for parallel legal systems in our country," said Conservative justice spokesman Nick Herbert. "It is right that agreements decided privately in family cases must be authorized by a judge applying English law if they are to have any legal effect

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