Sharia Law

The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent comments on Sharia law have attracted a lot of mainstream media attention, mostly negative. In fairness to the Archbishop most of the negative coverage is remarkably uninformed. What he proposes is not the imposition of a criminal or civil code but rather the voluntary assumption of Sharia law in family disputes. Such an imposition is consistent with the general world wide trend towards resolving family disputes in an amicable fashion. Difficulties arise, however, because of the involvment of children and, sometimes, power imbalances between spouses. That said, with proper supervisory power by courts to ensure that unreasonable results are barred there seems little reason to stop the voluntary resolution of family disputes by Sharia (or any other) legal process.