I saw a documentary on quite a benign little Muslim village where they practised Sharia Law on alcoholics - they were given 100 lashes. The town functioned quite well and was very industrious because everyone was sober. One magistrate only dished out all the sentences and they ran an informal Court. Surprisingly the community was very happy with this arrangement (except for the alcoholics of course).
AUSTRALIA'S Muslims would not move towards a parallel legal system if some Islamic practices were better integrated into the existing legal framework, a University of Sydney academic said.
The Sydney law school lecturer Ghena Krayem said extensive interviews with NSW Muslim leaders and community members found they were not seeking a recognition of sharia in areas where it was contrary to existing Australian law, such as polygamy.
But where in practice both systems overlapped - such as marriage and divorce - they sought a better integration of Islamic principles, enhancing social cohesion without legislative change.
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Dr Krayem, whose doctoral thesis on the topic is the first empirical study of its kind, said ad hoc mediation of marriage breakdowns by imams - a practice which already operated in the shadow of the law - would benefit from procedural safeguards such as the transparency and accountability of the dispute resolution system of the Family Law Act.
''Whilst these informal community processes at the moment, they're meeting a need, there are aspects that need to be improved - and even our community leaders and religious leaders acknowledged that,'' she said.
Dr Krayem said the financial rights of women, often negotiated differently within the religion if a wife initiated the divorce, could also be better protected if the contract typically drafted in Islamic marriages was treated as if were a legal pre-nuptial agreement.
''The most valuable thing for Muslim women is they need to know what they can add into that contract because it's the most powerful path for them to ensure they've safeguarded their rights under Islamic law,'' she said.
Dr Krayem, a Muslim who trained as a family dispute resolution practitioner, said the approach could also take the sting out of the public debate surrounding sharia in Australia.
''I also think to not do anything about it at all, to dismiss this whole argument, is actually pushing the community towards setting up a parallel legal system.''
It was a question of improving access to existing legal avenues for dispute resolution for people of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, not just Muslims.
She said an argument could be made for legislative change to allow those certified to marry people, such as religious leaders, to also legally divorce them, when issues of property settlements or custody could be excluded.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sharia-a-good ... z1gdlnWxxS
