Do Sharia Courts Have a Role in British Life?

It doesn't take much to whip up Britain's
irascible press: "Secret courts imposing draconian Islamic justice
operate across Britain," read one paper's front-page splash last week,
following a BBC report suggesting that observance of Sharia law is
spreading in the U.K.

The papers pounced on
the case of Aydarus Yusuf, a young Somalian who told the BBC's Law in
Action program that he helps convene an unofficial Somali court, or gar,
in southeast London. Controversially, one trial involved a stabbing in
the community — a criminal matter over which the British court system
has sole jurisdiction.

But the papers didn't listen very carefully to the radio program