There are as many as 85 Sharia courts operating in the UK, according to a report released yesterday.

There are as many as 85 Sharia courts operating in the UK, according to a report released yesterday.

Academic Denis MacEoin, author of the study, said the existence of courts practising Islamic law could lead to different legal standards being applied to Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.

He said previous reports claimed there were only five Sharia courts in the UK, working in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Mr MacEoin added: "This is not a matter of eating halal meat or seeking God's blessing on a marriage. It is a challenge to what we believe to be the rights and freedoms of the individual, to our concept of a legal system based on what parliament enacts, and to the right of all of us to live in a society as free as possible from ethnic-religious division or communal claims to superiority and a special status that puts them in some respects above the law to which we are all bound."

In his report, published by the think-tank Civitas, he states many of the courts operate out of mosques and their rulings are closed off to non-Muslims.

Among the examples of Sharia judgments quoted in the study are laws banning a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and the removal of a wife's property rights in the event of divorce.

The report states: "Among the rulings ... we find some that advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts."