PM welcomes legislation allowing them to opt for Greece’s secular legal system instead of Islamic law to resolve divorce, child custody and inheritance matters

Members of Greece’s Muslim minority have hailed new legislation that will enable citizens to sidestep sharia law in family disputes, but says the measure fails to go far enough in Europe’s only country where Islamic jurists still hold sway.



In a move described as a “historic step” by the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, the leftist-led government announced on Tuesday that members of Greece’s 120,000-strong Muslim community would be able to seek recourse in Greek courts in divorce, child custody and inheritance matters rather than take their case to Islamic jurists – a century-old legacy of legislation drafted with the collapse of the Ottoman empire.

Human rights groups have long said the laws discriminate against women.

But while welcomed, Muslim MPs said the new law had not “fully abolished” sharia courts in the sole EU member state where they had been compulsory.

“There is no doubt this is an important step and a positive one that will open the way to further freedom for our community,” MP Mustafa Mustafa told the Guardian. “But I would have liked it to be fully abolished. No other EU country has sharia.”

A member of Tsipras’ Syriza party, Mustafa said leftists had been campaigning for state-appointed muftis “to be religious leaders and not jurists” since the collapse of military rule in Greece in 1974.

Islamic court hearings, in accordance with laws first drafted in 1914, have until now been presided over by a single Muslim cleric. Under the new law Muslims will have the right to opt for a Greek court although Islamic jurists will still be available upon request.

“That is why it is a half measure,” said law professor Yannis Ktistakis, speaking from Komotini in Thrace, where Greece’s Muslim minority mainly resides. “We have a situation where laws drafted in 1914 still apply ... this new legislation doesn’t go far enough as it still gives muftis (Muslim legal experts) the right to intervene.”

Inequities associated with sharia were highlighted when Hatijah Molla Salli, a 67-year-old widow locked in an inheritance dispute with her late husband’s sisters, took the case to the European court of human rights after Greece’s supreme court overturned an earlier court verdict in her favour. The tribunal is expected to cast its ruling in June.

“The government knows that the ruling will not be in its favour and is only acting to prevent condemnation by the court,” said Ktistakis, Salli’s lawyer. “This is a political move. The laws governing sharia should be abolished altogether.”

The new legislation, passed with overwhelming support, has been seen as long overdue. The education and religious affairs minister, Constantine Gavroglou, praised its passage as “not just a technical adjustment [but] a very important day for parliament. Sharia, he said, had stemmed “from policies that were hostile toward the minority and sought to create second-class citizens”.

Greece’s Muslim minority is embraced by Turkey and is often the cause for tensions between the two Nato rivals. Previous government had hesitated to change the law for fear of further straining ties.



