What does the recent advert on a government website tell us about sharia law in the United Kingdom? Public Policy Researcher Carys Moseley explores
Last month the alarm was raised about an advert for a “Sharia Law administrator” posted on the Department for Work and Pensions’ ‘Find a Job’ website.
It has since been removed and the mosque behind the advert issued a press statement. News outlets subsequently published ‘fact-checking’ articles on the advert which quoted this press statement without question.
The evidence surrounding this story suggests that it requires further investigation.
Manchester Sharia Council
The advert was put up by a charity called Manchester Community Centre, advertising a post for an administrator listing as essential requirements “A Diploma/Degree in Shariah Law; Previous working experience in Shariah Law related fields and/or Shariah Courts in Muslim countries. Familiarity with UK Law and/or Common Law”.
That person would interview individuals and families to assess their needs, inform and support ‘clients’ and provide administrative assistance for Manchester Sharia Council. This Council was set up in 2018 as part of Islamic and Family Services CIC, a company that this week received notice of compulsory strike-off. The website has a section entitled ‘Supporting the Rights of Our Community’, which says this:
“In situations where rights are abused, involving both physical and psychological abuse, and domestic life becomes unbearable, a Qadhi (Islamic Judge) can decide on separation according to Shariah. However, in non-Muslim countries, the judgment of a non-Muslim judge may not align with Islamic Shariah law. Thus, individuals often require the judgment of an Islamic Council to legally annul their marriage, allowing them to remarry and move forward in their lives.”
This looks as if the judgment of an Islamic Sharia Council is deemed to be legally binding and also required for an Islamic divorce, with UK law being deemed irrelevant for this purpose.
Link to Didsbury Mosque
Manchester Community Centre Ltd, registered as a charity and incorporated with Companies House, is or represents Didsbury Mosque, according to the Manchester Evening News. This is known from a dispute around the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry, on which more below. The charity operates throughout England and Wales, suggesting a desire for influence well beyond Manchester.
A conference programme from 2022 says that the head of Manchester Sharia Council is Hammadur Rahman Fahim. This is a programme found on the Didsbury Mosque website via a Google search. There is a page entitled ‘Sharia Department’ on the Didsbury Mosque website.
Earliest Christian church in the UK to become a mosque
Significantly, Didsbury Mosque is in the earliest known former Christian church in the UK to be converted into a mosque. Albert Park Methodist Church closed in 1965 and was bought by Syrian Arabs in 1967 to be turned into a mosque.
The fact that sixty years after its closure as a church it has become a centre of Sharia activities in the UK should give Christians pause for thought.
Head of Manchester Sharia Council trained in Muslim Brotherhood-linked seminary
Hammadur Fahim’s bio on the Oak Tree Initiative website says he studied Sharia Law at the European Institute for Human Sciences in France. This is a well-known seminary that is deemed by the authorities to be a front group of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that has had branches in Birmingham and Llanybydder in west Wales. Fahim then studied in the Faculty of Sharia in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
Importantly, Hammadur Rahman Fahim was among a list of imams who condemned the Manchester and London bombings of 2017 and refused to provide Islamic burials for the bombers. We can therefore rule out a direct terrorist link with Manchester Sharia Council.
Assessing Didsbury Mosque’s statement responding to furore over job ad
Didsbury Mosque responded to the job ad furore by putting out a press statement.
“We do not operate outside UK law or operate a parallel legal system which would be unlawful. We operate within UK law and all our policies reflect respect for UK laws. Under the law, some different faith communities operate a religious arbitration and counselling service within the law.”
If they do not operate outside UK law, why put up a job advert for a ‘Sharia Law’ administrator?
The statement went on to say:
“The term Sharia law is misleading; it is not a legal court. Instead, it offers members of the Muslim communities two separate services – civil arbitration and religious guidance on numerous religious matters – neither of which constitutes a parallel legal system.
“Under the Arbitration Act (1996), all British citizens have the right to resolve civil – and not criminal or family – disputes through arbitration. They cannot provide rulings contrary to the law, but can resolve disputes.”
If the term Sharia Law is deemed by Didsbury Mosque to be misleading, why did it use it in the first place? And why did its charity put up a job ad for Manchester Sharia Council which does use the term to describe its own work?
Didsbury Mosque’s press statement is misleading.
Deflection on mosques registered for lawful marriages
Didsbury Mosque then said this:
“Some mosques in Manchester are registered to provide lawful civil marriages and perform a religious marriage as part of a lawfully conducted marriage service.”
This suggests the job’s purpose would be to assist these mosques. However, Didsbury Mosque itself is not one of the Manchester mosques listed on the government web page in this respect, nor is it on Manchester City Council’s list.
The website Muslims in Britain lists 67 mosques in Manchester. Only twenty-five of those are also listed on the government web page as registered for marriages. Given that Didsbury Mosque isn’t registered, why does it purport to speak for those mosques that are registered? Were these mosques consulted beforehand about the press statement?
Charity Commission issued prior warning on Sharia Council judgments
Didsbury Mosque has previously attracted criticism by the Charity Commission for the operation of its Sharia Council, in an Action Plan castigating it for its failure to handle Islamist extremism in relation to the Manchester Arena bombing. It isn’t known whether this is identical to the Manchester Sharia Council. The Action Plan is mentioned in Volume 3 of the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry report conducted by Sir John Saunders and published in 2023. This is how the survivors got to know of it and why the Manchester Evening News asked the Charity Commission to release it rather than keep it secret. The Manchester Evening News (MEN) asked the Charity Commission to release a copy under the Freedom of Information Act, but it refused, so the MEN took the case to the Information Commissioner, who issued a decision notice against the Charity Commission. A copy was given to the Manchester Evening News.
This Action Plan was reported to warn the mosque to tell people that its Sharia Council decisions are not legally binding. This suggests that the Mosque was leading people to believe that its rulings are legally binding. Since this Action Plan isn’t available online, it is very difficult to assess whether the charity and the mosque have made the required improvements.
Parallel legal system or acceptable Sharia?
The UK government’s Counter-Extremism Strategy published in 2015 said this:
“Alternative systems of law
17. Many people in this country of different faiths follow religious codes and practices, and benefit from the guidance they offer. Religious communities also operate arbitration councils and boards to resolve disputes. The overriding principle is that these rules, practices and bodies must operate within the rule of law in the UK. However, there is evidence some Shari’a councils may not follow this principle and that Shari’a is being misused and applied in a way which is incompatible with the law.
18. There are reports of men and women being charged different fees for using the same service, and women facing lengthier processes for divorce than men. Most concerning of all, women are unaware of their legal rights to leave violent husbands and are being pressurised to attend reconciliation sessions with their husbands despite legal injunctions in place to protect them from violence. There is only one rule of law in our country, which provides rights and security for every citizen. We will never countenance allowing an alternative, Informal system of law, informed by religious principles, to operate in competition with it.” [Emphasis mine]
The Home Office’s wording suggests that Sharia can be used and applied properly from the standpoint of UK law. In other words, there is an acceptable form of Sharia. Note how the Counter-Extremism Strategy does not call it ‘Sharia law’. By omitting the word ‘law’, it pretends that Sharia is a set of prior principles never intended to be binding law. The historical record simply does not show this to be the case.
The Siddiqui Review on Sharia Councils
The government promised to commission an independent review of the misapplication of Sharia in section 48 of the Counter-Extremism Strategy. It published the review led by Professor Mona Siddiqui of Edinburgh University in 2018.
The Siddiqui review recommended setting up a state body to set up a self-regulation system for Sharia Councils, including a Code of Practice. This body could monitor and audit compliance with the Code. No such body has been set up.
However the review did also recommend registering all religious marriages so that women in Islamic marriages would be able to access civil law remedies – a policy Christian Concern has long supported.
In December 2024 the Times found further problems with these councils. The Muslim Women’s Network, a charity, was said to be planning to draft a code of conduct for the councils, and to direct women towards those councils that were deemed to adhere to it. This would be because no state body was set up as recommended by the Siddiqui Review. Nick Timothy MP, former chief of staff to Theresa May, said the EHRC should investigate the Sharia Councils. This has not happened.
Non-violent institution of Sharia Law by stealth?
The Manchester Arena bombing inquiry found that the family of Salman Abedi was partly responsible for his radicalisation. Interviewed in prison, his brother Hashem Abedi who had helped him with the bombing
“admitted that he was a supporter of violent jihad in that he supported the institution of Sharia law through violent means. He said that he considered violence to be justified to bring about change in society. He said that he was a supporter of Islamic State.” [Manchester Arena Bombing Inquiry, Vol. 3, 23: 150]
As suggested above, there isn’t evidence that Manchester Sharia Council is intending the violent institution of Sharia Law. However, the charity that runs it did run an ad for a Sharia Law administrator, i.e. for instituting Sharia Law among Muslims in the UK. The Manchester Sharia Council clearly prioritises ‘the rights of our community’, implying that divorce involving Muslims is only legally valid if overseen by a Sharia council judge. This raises questions as to what happens if one party chooses to ignore a Sharia Council ruling and live according to UK law regardless. How would those Muslims who agree with the Manchester Sharia Council behave towards them?
Where does this leave Christians?
All these organisations named here say they serve Muslims. Missing from the picture however is the fact that the Qu’ran permits Muslim men to marry women who are ‘people of the Book’, i.e. Christians, Jews or Sabaeans.
What if Christian women want to divorce Muslim husbands and have custody of the children? What if a child of Muslim parents becomes a Christian? What happens to their inheritance if it is handled by a Sharia Council?
The dangerous policy vacuum on Sharia Law
Didsbury Mosque’s press response is thoroughly unconvincing. It is reasonable to ask whether Didsbury Mosque, its charity and Manchester Sharia Council wish to institute Sharia Law in the UK upon Muslims by non-violent means.
Dame Sara Khan warned in her report on Freedom-Restricting Harassment in spring 2024 that the Conservatives had ditched their own Counter-Extremism Strategy back in 2021. Labour has not replaced or updated it.
It is concerning that the job was allowed onto the DWP’s Find a Job platform for several days before being exposed, given the ambiguities around the meaning of ‘Sharia Law’, and the fact that Manchester Sharia Council appears to believe that it takes precedence over UK law. Given that the Department for Work and Pensions is a government department, criticisms made at the time that this looked like government endorsement are hard to dismiss.
By perpetuating a policy vacuum the UK government is effectively allowing Sharia Law advocates to operate with impunity. Muslims who do not wish to use Sharia Councils and some Christian women and their children may well be caught up in all this.
