Sharia court

Israel

The Shariah court is a religious court examining the personal status of Muslims in Israel. According to article 52 of the King’s Decree in the Council regarding Eretz Yisrael ^[1] , the exclusive jurisdiction of the Sharia court includes issues of marriage and divorce, as well as some other issues ^[2] . On other matters of personal status, the Sharia court has parallel jurisdiction with the family court. The Sharia court consists of two instances: the first is the Sharia district court, and the second is the Sharia court of appeal. The competence of the Sharia Court of Appeal includes consideration of appeals against decisions of the Sharia district court. The Shariah Court of Appeal is located in Jerusalem and can also sit in Baq al-Gharbiyah. In Israel, there are 8 Shariah district courts, which are located in the following cities: Acre , Baqa al-Gharbiya , Be'er Sheva , Jerusalem , Nazareth , Taibe , Haifa , Jaffa ^[3] . The procedure for the appointment of judges ( kadi ) and the expiration of their term of office is established by the Law on Kadiy ^[4] . Sharia courts are managed by the Sharia Courts Administration, which until 2001 operated under the Ministry of Religious Affairs , and then it was transferred to the Ministry of Justice ^[5] .

The Supreme Court is not an appeal court in relation to religious courts and the BAGAC intervenes in the decisions of the Sharia court only in a few cases ^[6] . In the early 90s of the last century, the Shariah court of Israel significantly expanded the rights of Muslim women to receive a divorce . This was achieved by appointing spouses' family representatives as arbitrators in accordance with Section 130 of the Ottoman Family Law of 1917, which applies in Israel to Muslim families ^[7] . The situation with the question of the place of residence of children after the divorce of parents is more complicated. The Shariah court prefers Islamic sources of law that differ from the Law on Legal Capacity and Guardianship in force in the state. According to the provisions of the Hanafi madhhab , the Sharia law adopted in Israel, a boy under 7 years old and a girl under 9 years old must be with his mother (or another woman, for example, grandmother), and then they go to his father. On the other hand, the BAGAC’s decisions oblige religious courts to comply with the Law on Legal Capacity and Guardianship (and its principle “the benefit of the child”). Recently, the Shariah court ruled that the principle of “the good of the child” is recognized by the Shariah ^[8] .

Pakistan

The Shariah Federal Court of Pakistan was established in 1980 by Decree No. 1 of President Mohammed Ziya-ul-Haq. The decree was incorporated into the Pakistan Constitution of 1973 in accordance with chapter 3-A. The court is a unique institution that has no analogues in the entire Muslim world . The preamble to the constitution of Pakistan states that sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Almighty Allah. Article 227 says that all existing laws must be brought into line with the canons of Islamic law set forth in the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet . Chapter 3-A says what functions the Federal Sharia Court has, what cases it is entitled to consider by jurisdiction. The federal sharia court decides whether the laws of the country comply with the requirements of Islam.

Russia

One of the main slogans of the 1917 revolution in the North Caucasus was the restoration of the Islamic legal system in full. In May 1917, at the First Congress of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus in Vladikavkaz, a decision was made to create the first Sharia courts (abbr. "Sharsud"). City Sharia courts opened in Vladikavkaz, Nalchik, Grozny, Temir-Khan-Shur (now Buinaksk ) and other large cities, rural courts - in separate villages. The functions of the so-called verbal and people's courts passed to the Sharia courts. In the west of the North Caucasus, the courts followed the Hanafi madhhab, in the east - the Shafiite (among the Sunnis) and the Jafarite (among the Shiites) ^[9] .

During the years of the Civil War, these Sharia courts were transformed into Sharia courts, which played the role of military field tribunals. In January 1919, the Council of Ministers of the Mountain Republic approved the "Regulation on the Sharia Military Court." The courts continued to operate under the Turkish occupation authorities, under the authority of Colonel L. F. Bicherahov and the Volunteer Army General A. I. Denikin. Independently of them, from September 1919 to March 1920, courts of the North Caucasus Emirate of Shaikhul-Islam Uzun-Haji operated in some Chechen and Dagestan villages. In territories controlled by the Bolsheviks, revolutionary Sharia courts worked ^[9] .

After the end of the civil war in the Adygea, Kabardino-Balkarian, Karachay-Cherkess, North Ossetian, Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Regions, laws on Sharia courts were developed. Every year, Sharia courts dealt with from 30-50 (in the North-West Caucasus) to 70-80% (in Dagestan and Chechnya) of all court cases ^[9] .

On the eve of collectivization, the stronger Soviet state decided to destroy the Shariah legal proceedings. In August-December 1922, the Sharia courts of the Mountain ASSR were liquidated. In January 1925, the courts in Kabardino-Balkaria and Adygea were canceled, in January 1926 in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and in April-October 1927 in Dagestan. According to the chapter “On crimes constituting the remnants of everyday life” introduced in 1928 in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, those convicted of participation in Sharia courts were sent to a concentration camp for a year. The forcible unification of Muslim peasants into collective farms and the persecution of Sharia courts caused a wave of long-term peasant unrest, one of the main goals of which was the restoration of Sharia courts. The uprisings were brutally crushed by the Soviet authorities. In 1944, Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Balkars were deported to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. However, despite the repressions in the 1930s and 1950s, Sharia courts continued to operate secretly in many rural areas of the North Caucasus and even in Central Asian exile ^[9] .

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the restoration of Sharia courts began in the wake of the Muslim revival movement. In the rural and urban Muslim communities of the North Caucasus, several dozen courts were established. In 1996, Articles 212 and 235 were removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which equated the application of Sharia law to a serious crime, but Sharia courts were never recognized in the Russian Federation. In 1996, Sharia courts began to operate in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and in Ingushetia, where in December 1997 a law was passed that obliged justices of the peace to “be governed by the norms of the Adat and Sharia.” In the 21st century, the Sharia court most often represents the imam (dibir / effendi) of the cathedral mosque, which on Fridays performs the duties of the local Kadi and presides over meetings of the council of elders of the community ^[9] .

• Islamic Courts Union

• Mahkama Sharia (Sharia court) (neopr.) . Caucasian Knot (March 29, 2009). Date of treatment September 29, 2015.