An Islamic tribunal, launched in Dallas last year to settle civil disputes among the growing Muslim population, is drawing quarrels over its use of Shariah law.
Opponents fear it would open the door to extreme practices and corporal punishment linked to Shariah law in certain Muslim-majority countries. Still others argue it would replace the U.S. Constitution.
But organizers say the panel of arbitrators issues nonbinding decisions on matters such as business disputes and religious divorces. They note its parallels with Jewish rabbinical courts and Catholic tribunals.
The very word “Shariah” invokes backlash from those who don’t understand it and use it as a “catch phrase for fear-mongering against Islam and Muslims,” said Hadi Jawad, a Dallas businessman and a Muslim.
Tribunals are used in his native Pakistan. “The court system was so clogged and inefficient, it was a handy means to settle conflicts,” Jawad said. “There was usually a handful of judges experienced in Islamic law who could readily handle conflicts.”
Tea party activist Jerry Roehrig wants the North Texas tribunal disbanded.
“I am concerned about corporal punishment and how Shariah law handles women and non-Muslims,” he said. Shariah law “puts itself above our constitution. We can’t have that or we lose the country.”
Criticism also comes amid backlash blaming all Muslims for violence of the Islamic State, known as ISIS. Many U.S. Muslim groups say ISIS is “un-Islamic” and not a state.
In Irving, Mayor Beth Van Duyne jumped into the controversy after reports that the court was on the grounds of a large mosque there. In a Facebook post, she said the city had nothing to do with the tribunal and that she was trying to understand how it worked. She said if basic rights are being violated, “I will not stand idle, and will fight with every fiber of my being against this action.”
The court uses a conference room in a northeast Dallas law office, where one of the judges works. During a visit there, that judge, Taher el-Badawi, said the tribunal has settled about two dozen cases, mostly of divorcing couples.
“Our community really needs an Islamic tribunal to solve problems,” he said. “And we save money and save time for all the community.”
Managing the cultural diversity within the U.S. Muslim community can be challenging, the organizers said.
About 2 out of 3 U.S. Muslims is foreign-born, according a Pew Research Center study from 2011. No single racial or ethnic identity applies to more than 30 percent of the Muslim-American population, Pew said.
That’s reflected in the tribunal. El-Badawi has a law degree from his native Egypt and a master’s in international law from Southern Methodist University. The two other judges are Lebanon-born Imam Moujahed Bakhach of the Islamic Association of Tarrant County, and Pakistan-born, British-raised Imam Zia ul-Haque Sheikh of the Islamic Center of Irving.
Their website — Islamictribunal.org — says: “Experienced judges ready to fight for you,” and “Great advisors solve problems.”
Consultations are free, but a full panel ruling costs $600, el-Badawi said. Hearings take place at the Dallas offices or in conference rooms at some of the nearly 60 mosques in North Texas.
As the controversy has brewed, Imam Zia clarified in a written statement: “These religious tribunals ... do not attempt to impose any belief system upon any individual and work in compliance with State of Texas and U.S. law under the United States Constitution.”
In Arabic, Shariah means “path to water.” It is a personal moral code and religious law, scholars say. It covers issues ranging from dietary restrictions to divorces to punishment for stealing and killing.
Some associate Shariah law with corporal punishment, such as hand amputation for theft, which is a rare practice in other countries, said Alia Salem, executive director of the DFW chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Most scholars, especially in the West, believe such mutilation isn’t “dispensing the laws properly,” Salem said. “There is huge controversy in the Muslim world with regard to that type of punishment.”
Robert A. Hunt, director of global theological education at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, lived in Muslim-dominated Malaysia for seven years and is an Islam specialist.
Religious court rulings must be consistent with U.S. law, Hunt said. “I’ve researched this carefully, and I know of no case where the judge has ruled on Shariah, as opposed to American law,” he said.
A 2013 report from the Pew center supports that statement. “Disputes over the laws of various religious traditions have occasionally made their way into U.S. civil courts,” it says, “but the Supreme Court consistently has ruled that judges and other government officials may not interpret religious doctrine or rule on theological matters.”
In the U.S. Catholic church, there are nearly 200 diocesan tribunals that handle 15,000 to 20,000 marriage annulments yearly, Pew said. Many Orthodox Jews use rabbinical courts for religious divorces or to resolve business conflicts under Jewish law, known as halakhah, Pew noted.
The 2013 Pew study found no Shariah courts in the U.S. at that time. But imams have long served as voluntary mediators at U.S. mosques.
All the same, a bill proposed in the Texas legislature by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, would prohibit family court rulings based on foreign legal codes. The bill doesn’t target any one religion, an office staff member said. The National Conference of State Legislatures said there are now seven similar laws in other states.
In North Texas, most tribunal decisions have been done for Muslim immigrants.
El-Badawi said in one case a Christian woman considering divorce from her Muslim husband sought assistance. “They didn’t take our decision, but at least they felt secure in coming to us,” he said.
Women who are reluctant to go to a tribunal of men can meet first with a female counselor. El-Badawi said he would welcome a woman as a tribunal member if she is trained in Islamic law.
Salem said she went to Imam Moujahed, a certified mediator, a few years ago for a religious divorce. She then went to a civil court for the legal divorce under U.S. law.
Moujahed, who is one of the tribunal judges, said he counsels men to view women as equals. “In some cultures, the man is like a God and the wife has to be submissive. This is not Islamic. The wife is a partner.”
Moujahed also tells fellow Muslims: “Get out of your cocoon. Meet your neighbor.”
His own message to those of other faiths: “Please, just be fair-minded and ask if you don’t understand. We need better understanding of those of different faiths.”
AT A GLANCE: SHARIAH LAW
Robert Hunt, a theology professor at Southern Methodist University, answered questions about Islam, one of the world’s largest religions, and its religious code known as Shariah.
Q: What is one of the biggest misunderstandings about Islam and Shariah law?
A: The biggest misunderstandings are twofold: The first misunderstanding is that Shariah is a monolithic body of law that doesn’t change. In reality, Shariah is variegated, and in recent decades a growing number of Muslim scholars are arguing for new interpretations based on basic legal principles.
The second misunderstanding is that Shariah is a complete set of laws for a society. In reality, Shariah proper was always complemented by the laws made by rulers (siyyasa Shariah) and those derived from customary law. Shariah proper is limited in scope, despite the claims of both some proponents and opponents.
Q: What does Shariah law say regarding women’s equality?
A: In Shariah, women are spiritually equal to men but have distinctive roles and social domains. The general assumption of Shariah is that women are dependent on and subservient to men in both public and private domains, even if they do have distinctive rights that men must respect.
Q: What does Shariah law say about corporal punishment?
A: Shariah law prescribes a variety of forms of corporal punishment and relates them in complex ways to specific crimes and mitigating circumstances. The approved forms of corporal punishment range from mild to permanent maiming, to death. The extent and harshness to which they have been applied has varied among different Islamic cultures and social/historical settings.
Q: Local, state and federal laws would override decisions by the Islamic Tribunal, correct? But what would happen in complicated cases where a woman has a physically abusive husband?
A: Texas state law requires that anyone, including religious professionals, lawyers, and doctors, immediately report any known criminal behavior, which would include physical abuse of a spouse or child. In such cases, the tribunal would be obliged to report the abuse to the police for further investigation. Or they would face criminal charges.
Q: How is the Islamic State affecting the perception of Islam?
A: ISIS/ISIL has greatly increased the perception that Islam provides a religious motivation for brutality, terrorism and war. This is not because ISIS/ISIL is either conceptually new or more widespread than other such movements, but because it has captured the public imagination in a way that no such movement has since 9/11. In short, its PR managers have been brilliant in co-opting the western media to exponentially multiply its efforts to co-opt the concept of Islam to its political ends.