Publication: Is It Feasible To Establish A "Sharia Court" In Australia? How Will It Work?
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Date
2011
Authors
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
Abstract
For Muslims living in non-Muslim majority states, professing their
religion is one thing and having religious freedom and their religious
law and institution being legally recognized is quite another. While the
former may be legally guaranteed, the mere mention let alone debate
on the latter seems to spark outrage amongst the non-Muslim local and
international communities. The absence of such recognition in those
countries leaves the minority Muslims with their endless struggle and
fight to have their religious rights and obligations legally enforced
according to the demand of their religion. This paper attempts to
analyze this issue and its implications in the context of Australia, being
a secular multi-cultural country with a rising Muslim population. The
main question to be addressed is "is it feasible to establish a Sharia
court in Australia and how will it work?" This inquiry is further
confined to the relevance of the system in tackling Muslim personal and
family laws as opposed to the overall spectrum of Sharia. The
investigation will cover a number of angles namely the feasibilities and
challenges from the legal, political, social and economic perspectives of
the country. It will then proceed to explore the alternative legal means
that could be considered by the Muslims in Australia in lieu of a Sharia
court system. This paper will conclude that the idea of having a Sharia
court could not federally materialize under the present constitutional
law in Australia. At the state level, various impediments against the
thought exist from the legal, social, political and economic
perspectives. Except for voluntary contractual agreements on settlement
of disputes between Muslim subjects, it seems that the
alternatives explored are also bound to be thwarted by similar
obstacles.
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Keywords
Sharia, court, minority