Nigel Farage has erupted over a job advert on the Government website for a ‘Shariah Law Administrator.’ The job advert was shared by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as a company called Manchester Community Centre seeks a legal assistant with a specialist knowledge of sharia law to help the area’s Muslim population.
With an annual salary of £23,500 the successful candidate is required to conduct interviews with individuals and families to assess and review their requirements as well as provide information and support to clients and admin work for Manchester Shariah Council, a local community charity. The Reform UK leader took issue with the advert, claiming that the country was being “destroyed”. He said: “Our country and its values are being destroyed,” on a post on X followed by a screenshot of the advert.
Political commentator Bella Wallersteiner said: “Sharia law has no place in this country. We’re a sovereign nation with one legal system – English law. It should be banned.”
Reform Westminster City Councillor for Lancaster Gate, Laila Cunningham added: “This is a government-funded job, paid for by British taxpayers to promote Sharia law on our soil. It’s disgusting.
“It undermines our country, our laws, and everything we stand for. One British law, no exceptions, no appeasement.”
One person responded to her post: “This is not a government-funded job and you know that fine well. This is a job on a forum hosted by DWP but advertising on behalf of a sharia council – a private charity.
“These councils are legally bound by British law which, again, you know fine well.”
The issue of sharia law in the UK has proved controversial for many years, with Conservative and Reform UK politicians often sounding alarm over its prevalence in society and the presence of sharia courts across the country.
According to the Telegraph, 85 sharia courts were operating in the UK at the end of last year, with an increasing number of Brits turning to them to issue Islam-inspired rulings on family life and matrimonial matters.
Sharia courts, often referred to as “sharia councils”, consist of a panel of Islamic scholars who are almost always male, have the religious authority to end marriages at the request of a wife if her husband is unwilling to grant a divorce.
Most are Sharia ‘councils’ are set up to make decisions on purely religious matters, but none can overrule the regular courts, meaning that marriages under sharia law have no legal foundation in the UK.
Tory MP Nick Timothy told the Times that sharia marriages “should be criminalised if they are conducted without the protections of an accompanying civil marriage.”