Muslim communities should have the right to decide their own disputes provided they are subject to our laws, one of Britain’s most senior legal figures has said.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill, who has recently stepped down as senior law lord, said he could see “no reason” why a devout Muslim, provided he or she was “acting voluntarily and without coercion”, should not choose to submit a family dispute to a Muslim cleric.
That would be no different from a Jewish family submitting their dispute to be decided by a Rabbi or a Christian to a Church of England to an Anglican priest or marriage counsellor, he said.