Shariah in secular legal system : the problem of parallel justice

Abstract

The urgency of the problem under study is conditioned by the strengthening of the Islamic factor in social relations at the beginning of the 21st century and by the emergence of relatively large Muslim communities in the countries with a predominantly non-Islamic culture. The purpose of the article is to analyze the conflict moments arising from the coexistence of state legislation and Shariah norms in one territory. The leading approach to the study of this problem is the method of comparative law and the method of case study. The first method makes it possible to compare existing differences between the laws of a state and religious norms, the second one allows to reveal the strategies of public relation participant behavior and to analyze specific conflict situations between the law of a state and religious rules of conduct. The main results of the article include the study of "Shariah courts" phenomenon on the territory of non-Muslim secular states, the reasons of their occurrence, the current practices and possible consequences of their activities. Attention is paid to the Shariah Councils in the Islamic banking system and the issue of official Sharia courts existence in Greece. The materials of the article can be useful for lawyers, anthropologists, religious scholars, historians in the study of a "parallel justice" problem in modern countries.