A U.K. mosque pulled a job advertisement for “Shariah Law Administrator” from a government website after it sparked a backlash on social media and opposition from conservative lawmakers.
The advert, posted on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) jobs portal, which is open to employers in England, Scotland and Wales, was placed by the Didsbury Mosque in Manchester, the mosque attended by the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi, and three other jihadis who killed 23 and injured 113 in the 2017 attack.
The position offered an annual salary of £23,500 and required the selected candidate to handle administrative work for the Manchester Sharia Council, which provides guidance in matrimonial disputes. “In non-Muslim countries, the judgment of a non-Muslim judge may not align with Islamic Shariah law,” it explains.
On July 28, a day after the advertisement was deleted, the Didsbury Mosque issued a statement acknowledging that the Manchester Islamic Centre (MIC)—the working name for the mosque listed on the Charity Commission’s website—had placed the advertisement for an administration role within its Shariah section.
“Some individuals on the far right and politicians have maliciously misinformed the public about this post to incite hate and for political gain, or out of ignorance,” it complained. “We intend to pursue those who spread false information under the Malicious Communications Act and the Online Safety Act.”
The mosque, which did not respond to an inquiry from Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), declared in its statement that it had asked the DWP to remove the advert from its website and would reword it to avoid future misunderstanding. It also clarified that it was not a government-funded post and that the mosque pays for it using community donations.
Lawmakers Slam Shariah Law Advert
Several politicians lashed out at the job advert. “There should only be one law in the United Kingdom: British law,” Ben Habib, head of Advance UK, tweeted. “All other ‘law’ is illegitimate. Why is the Department of Work and Pensions advertising for a Shariah Law Administrator?”
In a letter to the secretary of state for work and pensions, expressing “absolute alarm and disgust,” Rupert Lowe, member of Parliament for Reform UK, warned that the DWP was “promoting and facilitating the embedding of a parallel legal system” in the U.K.
“Shariah law has no place operating as a recognised legal framework within our country. It is fundamentally incompatible with British law, and our very way of life,” Lowe emphasized. “For a government department to effectively endorse and promote such a role raises serious questions.”
“Our country and its values are being destroyed,” Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, tweeted.
“We ended the jurisdiction of church courts for non-ecclesiastical matters well over 100 years ago. It should not return via the back door for other religions,” Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, noted. “The only law that should apply in this country is the law passed by our democratically elected Parliament, applied by the properly constituted national courts.”
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “As I’ve said before, sharia courts should be banned. The only laws are the laws of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It’s as simple as that.”
Several Muslims expressed support for the advert. Mohammad Hijab, co-founder of the Sapience Institute, asked Farage: “Is your next post going to be about Halakha of the Jews? Didn’t think so, coward.” Politician Javed Bashir accused “Beth Din (Jewish) and Ecclesiastical (Christian) courts” of doing the “same thing.”
Controversial Mosque Warned by Charity Commission
Speaking to FWI, Director of Public Policy at Christian Concern, Tim Dieppe, warned that “Shariah law is discriminatory against both women and non-Muslims. The government should be closing down Shariah courts, not advertising jobs working in them.”
Dieppe, an Islamic scholar who explores the spread of Shariah law in Britain in his book The Challenge of Islam: Understanding and Responding to Islam’s Increasing Influence in the UK, continued:
It is extraordinary that a government website should advertise a Shariah law job. This appears to be a government endorsement of a parallel legal system. This country has operated for centuries on the biblical principle of one law for all. The government should be closing down sharia courts, not advertising jobs working in them.
Dieppe also slammed the mosque’s Islamist links, noting that “the government should be ashamed of its role in advertising a Shariah law job at the notorious Didsbury Mosque, the very mosque which the Manchester Arena bomber attended.”
He explained:
Didsbury Mosque runs a Shariah Council, which has formally been warned by the Charity Commission about misrepresenting its legal status. The mosque is not registered for legal weddings, most likely because it wants to govern its marriages by Shariah law. The Charity Commission should force the closure of this and other Shariah Councils, which seek to operate a parallel legal system.
Britain has been referred to as the “Western capital” for Shariah law, with over 85 Shariah courts operating across the country since the Islamic Sharia Council based in East London was established in 1982.
While the government has consistently rejected the idea that Shariah law or Shariah courts possess any legal authority, the National Secular Society (NSS) has warned that there are ways in which Shariah might enter the U.K. legal system through the back door.
“Shariah law represents an inherently discriminatory outlook that must never form any part of the law in England and Wales,” Stephen Evans, chief executive of the NSS, told FWI. “Increasing demand for Shariah councils in the U.K. undermines the principle of one law for all—and will inevitably have a negative impact on the rights of women and children.”
“Shariah councils primarily exist to allow Muslim women to obtain a religious divorce. Muslim men do not need them because they can unilaterally divorce their wives,” Evans added.
A briefing paper for a non-legislative parliamentary debate in 2019 cited Amin Al-Astewani, a law lecturer at Lancaster University, who found that “the law does provide some avenues for decisions made by Sharia councils to accrue legal status.”
