Unofficial and unregulated Sharia law bodies are operating “everywhere in the country” preforming marriages and handing out divorces, the head of a body set up to standardise the administration of Islamic law in the UK has told MPs.
Dr Ahmad Al-Dubayan, chairman of UK Board of Sharia Councils, based in Regent’s Park Mosque in London, said it was impossible to know how many so-called sharia “councils” are operating in Britain.
But in some cases self-styled sharia authorities are operating out of small shops “maybe hidden in the basement or somewhere”, he said.
One widely-quoted think-tank report, published seven years ago, estimated that there are at least 85 sharia bodies in the UK but Dr Al-Dubayan said the true extent is unknown.
He was addressing members of the Commons Home Affairs Committee as it began an inquiry into the operation of bodies administering sharia law. [The Telegraph] Read more
