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Keeping the faith?
By Roi Ben-Yehuda
Tags: sharia, Rowan Williams

Last week, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams set off a firestorm of debate when he stated in an interview that the partial introduction of sharia (Muslim law) into the British legal system was both "unavoidable" and desirable, as it would aid "social cohesion." While preliminary and vague, Williams' proposal would allow Muslims to have the option of using sharia and its court system for civil matters such as marriage, divorce and financial disputes.

Under English law, civil disputes can be arbitrated privately by a third party, provided that the process is chosen freely by both sides and the conclusion reached is reasonable (even if not necessarily based on English law). This, in effect, makes room for faith-based arbitrations of family law disputes.

In explaining his proposition, Williams, the head of the Anglican Church, noted that the Jewish community in Britain already enjoys such legal privileges. Referring to the beit din, the Orthodox Jewish court, which the state recognizes as a voluntary court of arbitration whose rulings on civil matters are valid, Williams said: "We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognized by the law of the land ... We have Orthodox Jewish courts operating in this country legally and in a regulated way because there are modes of dispute resolution and customary provisions which apply there in the light of Talmud."
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Following the archbishop's lead, Muslim groups and individuals who support the proposal to give standing to sharia have invoked the Jewish example in calling for equality. The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Islamic organization, issued a statement suggesting that "British Muslims would wish to seek parity with other faiths, in particular the followers of the Jewish faith in the United Kingdom, in facilitating choices for those who wish, as Muslims, for their personal relationships to be governed by a sharia civil code."

In using the Jewish example, advocates of the proposal make a compelling argument. After all, if the Jews have such rights, on what grounds can they be denied to the Muslims? And if you deny them to the Muslims, should you not also deny them to the Jews?

Some have said that the Jewish case is different, that the archbishop's original comparison of sharia courts with the Jewish batei din is flawed. Sharia, according to this position, in contrast to Jewish law, represents a legal system that is incompatible with the values of democracy. But that argument doesn't hold up under scrutiny. After all, when was the last time a woman served as a judge or witness in an Orthodox beit din? Primitive is primitive.

Make no mistake about it: If the sharia proposal gets rejected, as it is bound to, recognition of the beit din will surely follow. And arguments against the recognition of sharia are already piling up. Government officials, public intellectuals and others have made a strong case against the idea, in each case centering on the principle that there should be one law for all without exception. The very identity of a nation, they say, is bound up in the law, and if separate legal systems are allowed to operate, the thread that unites British citizens will be sundered.

To see how this may effect the beit din, one need only look at Canada for a case in point. In 1991, the province of Ontario implemented the Arbitration Act, which allowed for arbitration of civil disputes by a third party. This made room for faith-based adjudication as a substitute for secular family law. However, when in 2003 the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice announced its intention to begin offering arbitration services based on Islamic family law, a great debate ensued. Many people (particularly Muslim women) feared that having the state recognize the decisions of a sharia tribunal would undermine the equal rights guaranteed Muslim women under Canadian law.

In the end, the province's premier, Dalton McGuinty, declared: "There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." In 2005, the Arbitration Act was amended so that private arbitration was permitted to rely on Ontario law alone - and not religious-based law - for settling civil disputes. It is hard to imagine why the case in Britain would end any differently.

The debate over the sharia proposal is really a debate over the status and role of communal rights in a multicultural society. Britain, like the rest of Europe, is experiencing profound anxieties over the place of a growing Muslim minority in its midst. It is clear that a great deal of the backlash against this proposal stems from that very anxiety. But the rules of democracy have no room for double standards. The bottom line is that the future of the beit din is intimately tied to whether or not sharia is able to get some legal footing in Britain. A decision against the sharia proposal will ultimately be a decision against the beit din.

Roi Ben-Yehuda is an Israeli-American writer living in Spain. His work has appeared in such publications as Jewcy, Tikkun and Zeek, and he blogs at http://roiword.wordpress.com.
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  1.   Relativism 07:28  |  Todd 15/02/08
  2.   And when was the last time a Hareidi served... 09:18  |  Ilan 15/02/08
  3.   ignorance, ingorance, ignorance 09:27  |  Londonger 15/02/08
  4.   Of course, laws for Jews should always be different 09:37  |  Candida 15/02/08
  5.   Hypocrisy what are the British shouting 10:02  |  Gil 15/02/08
  6.   Hypocrisy what are the British shouting 10:03  |  Gil 15/02/08
  7.   to Todd,what do you guys know about Sharia 10:31  |  Zaki 15/02/08
  8.   Belgium 11:04  |  Serge 15/02/08
  9.   The materialist dialectic in action? 11:30  |  Rowan Berkeley 15/02/08
  10.   Small Price to Pay 11:34  |  Slibovitz 15/02/08
  11.   to Gil 11:52  |  J.C. 15/02/08
  12.   Response to ignorance, ingorance, ignorance 11:56  |  liberal european 15/02/08
  13.   Oh Get A Life 12:34  |  Yosemite 15/02/08
  14.   Common sense - and respect 12:59  |  Uri 15/02/08
  15.   # 7 Sharia sanctions behading, polygamy, patriachy etc 13:12  |  Marco 15/02/08
  16.   Sharia 13:41  |  nina 15/02/08
  17.   For Mr Ignorance 14:01  |  Perspective Please 15/02/08
  18.   What is compatible and what isn`t 14:07  |  Derek Eretz 15/02/08
  19.   #9 Rowan Berkeley - for once I agree with you 14:13  |  Yonatan 15/02/08
  20.   Rowan Berkeley,not clear whether this disallows any religious 14:30  |  lakshmi 15/02/08
  21.   4 Candida,you already have our own self appointed laws for the 14:32  |  lakshmi 15/02/08
  22.   "If UK rejects shari`a law, beit din wil share the same fate"l 15:11  |  Yonatan 15/02/08
  23.   Ilan on Sharia in Britain 15:15  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/02/08
  24.   # 3 LONDONER 15:42  |  Petra 15/02/08
  25.   Britian should join the Arab League ASAP. 15:45  |  Stephen. 15/02/08
  26.   CHURCHILL HATED SHARIA LAW AND MUSLIMS! 15:47  |  Petra 15/02/08
  27.   Keeping the faith. 16:15  |  David Nigel Braham 15/02/08
  28.   "Primitive is primitive" - but it?s worse than that! 16:16  |  Eyal 15/02/08
  29.   LONDONISTANER #3 using Takyia until Sharia is in full force in UK 16:29  |  Genuine Tosefta 15/02/08
  30.   Shmaki #7 Sharia is definitely not the answer to West`s faults 16:39  |  Genuine Tosefta 15/02/08
  31.   Another row is brewing in the UK..!!! 16:46  |  Stephen. 15/02/08
  32.   Roi Ben-Yehuda,primitive is one thing,murderous Sharia is another 16:50  |  Genuine Tosefta 15/02/08
  33.   The writer obviously didnt do any prep work for this article 16:53  |  smarter then Roi 15/02/08
  34.   British and Jewish Law co-exist but....... 17:08  |  manny.b 15/02/08
  35.   there is no such thing as british law 17:15  |  v hardman 15/02/08
  36.   Islam May Be Superior To Democracy? 17:26  |  St dorge 15/02/08
  37.   #9 Rowan Berkeley: Secular Personal Law 17:30  |  St. Hele 15/02/08
  38.   A decision against the sharia proposal will ultimately be a decis 17:44  |  Judith Cohen 15/02/08
  39.   # 3 Londoner...if they are in accordance, 18:39  |  Lynn 15/02/08
  40.   Apples and Poison 18:40  |  Yechiel your Hero 15/02/08
  41.   Halacha: Darchie Noam on Perfomance Enhancers 18:44  |  Moshe Cohen 15/02/08
  42.   What a pity. And Britain used to be a great nation. Too bad... 18:46  |  bat yam 15/02/08
  43.   # 23 Judith Cohen... 18:47  |  Lynn 15/02/08
  44.   3 Londonger misses the point entirely. 18:53  |  common sense 15/02/08
  45.   to #24 St dorge,you may be right,it`s a religious war 19:13  |  Zaki 15/02/08
  46.   to #22 Genuine Tosefta,the truth is 19:27  |  Zaki 15/02/08
  47.   #23 - smarter then Roi ? go and study your own religion 19:29  |  Eyal 15/02/08
  48.   #25 - smarter then Roi ? go and study your own religion 19:36  |  Eyal 15/02/08
  49.   Great article 19:36  |  Tal 15/02/08
  50.   smarter than roi #25, not entirely correct 20:09  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/02/08
  51.   it`s so true 20:20  |  R. Kozik 15/02/08
  52.   Excellent Analysis 20:22  |  Schalit 15/02/08
  53.   Jewish Law prohibits polygamy, Shari`a does not 20:22  |  Großbritannien ist 15/02/08
  54.   Bigger Picture 20:43  |  Terry 15/02/08
  55.   idiots out there 20:46  |  Zody 15/02/08
  56.   Apples and oranges.... 20:47  |  Webster 15/02/08
  57.   TO MOSLEMS 21:24  |  JOJO (USA) 15/02/08
  58.   Gro #40 on Polygamy 21:44  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/02/08
  59.   Roi Ben-Yehuda Misrepresents the Situation 21:55  |  nacl 15/02/08
  60.   Ignorance and arrogance 21:56  |  Believer 15/02/08
  61.   YONATAN (#14) What do you mean if only it would? 22:05  |  Gil 15/02/08
  62.   Fantastic analysis 22:23  |  Ben-Ami 15/02/08
  63.   Sharia & Beit din in secular or christian countries should not be 23:51  |  Aaron 15/02/08
  64.   What God has kept apart, let no man put together! 00:01  |  Israel G. 16/02/08
  65.   Longdonger @#3 00:04  |  akiva (zionist) 16/02/08
  66.   A fair assessment 00:05  |  Paul Wood 16/02/08
  67.   Zaki, the essence of islam is very evident, globally! 00:14  |  akiva (zionist) 16/02/08
  68.   Gil of Haifa @#48 00:30  |  akiva (zionist) 16/02/08
  69.   About polygamy, by another name. 01:06  |  Maureen Ann 16/02/08
  70.   Gee, Maureen, that`s an astute and meaningless observation! 02:06  |  akiva (zionist) 16/02/08