UK is booming in one area - the growth of Muslim sharia courts where 100,000 unregistered marriages have taken place - Kelvin MacKenzie

The UK first allowed the ‘’courts’’ back in 1982 and they issue religious rulings on marriage and family life. There are now 85 of them handing down their thoughts, based on the classical period of Islam - from the time of Muhammad in the 7th century until the 13th.

The investigation by The Times makes shocking reading and makes you wonder why governments of all colours have allowed these sharia courts to grow.

If a Muslim wants to divorce he should go to a court like everybody else. If a woman wants to divorce and her husband refuses that can be dealt in the same way. We do not want a parallel legal universe.

In this investigation The Times discovered the following;

+ Despite it being banned in many Muslim countries including Egypt and Pakistan British sharia courts are sanctioning disposing of their wives instantly by saying ‘’divorce’’ three times.

+ 100,000 Islamic marriages have taken place which have never been officially registered which means the bride has no recourse in English law. So a wife is trapped forever while the husband can take on new brides.

+ Muslims are encouraged by one sharia council to download a mobile phone app that creates sharia-compliant wills where daughters inherit only half as much as sons.

+ The app has a dropdown menu for men to specify how many wives they have, up to four.

+ To get a divorce, women are asked when they last had a period.

+ One of the country’s most prominent sharia councils was founded by a scholar who said men should not be questioned over why they hit their wives.

The reality is that these courts are simply empowering men. It’s true they have no legal standing, however sharia courts are used as arbitration but always with a leaning towards the male.

The UK is going through a massive growth in the Muslim population. When sharia courts first started in the 1980s there wouldn’t have been 40,000, by 2000 that number had grown to 1.5 million. Today that figure is nearly 4million.

That is a politically important number and will mean Muslims will carry a lot of weight at the ballot box therefore I can see nothing but more sharia courts in the country.

In turn, the non-muslim majority will become increasingly irritated at the idea of these religious courts creating more tensions than already exist among our people.

We should simply ban Muslims from being able to divorce by saying the word three times in sharia courts.

Grateful to The Times for opening the window on this world and hope politicians feel it is important enough to act on its findings.