Shocking secrets of sharia 'courts' 01/12/06 By David Pilditch A SHOCKING report today exposes the grip Islamic law now has on British society. Honour killings, polygamy, child marriages and mutilation are revealed in the study by Islam expert Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. The findings come after the Daily Express told yesterday how secret courts are meting out Islamic justice and creating a two-tier legal system. The report outlines areas where hardline sharia law conflicts with Britain’s justice system and warns of attempts to include parts of Islamic law in British law. It says: “Since sharia has some regulations which relate to non-Muslims such changes in British law could impinge on non-Muslims too. They would affect individual human rights of freedom of choice and the religious freedoms of both Muslims and non-Muslims.” The study highlights how suicide rates among young Asian women are more than three times the national average and that an estimated about 12 women die every year as a result of honour killings. The gruesome crimes are carried out after relatives decide women family members have brought shame on them. The report also reveals how Muslim girls are being forced into child marriages permitted under sharia law. Dr Sookhdeo – a Muslim-born academic who is a Christian convert – said: “The drive to implement sharia in the UK, both within the Muslim community and the British legal system, must be seen as part of Islam’s impetus to dominate all societies it finds itself in.” Reacting to the study, Dr Kalim Siddiqui, director of the Iranian-backed Muslim Institute, said: “There are laws on the British statute book that are in direct conflict with the laws of Allah. We are Muslims first and last.” The Islamic Party of Britain claims the established legal system is “grossly inadequate and full of injustice”. The study also highlights how Iranian-born Medi Siadatan, from Walsall, who has three wives, has launched a legal challenge claiming Britain’s marriage laws banning polygamy violated his rights to religious freedom.