Judge orders use of Islamic law in Tampa lawsuit over mosque leadership

[MechAg94]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article1158818.ece

Judge orders use of Islamic law in Tampa lawsuit over mosque leadership

The judge said he would use Islamic law to decide only the legitimacy of arbitration.

"What law would we be applying (at) trial?" Thanasides asked.

"That trial would be civil law," the judge said. "Florida law."

I saw this earlier and heard it on the radio so I figured I would go ahead and post it.  I'm not sure the headline really matches the story, but I don't really agree with the judge's language here.  As the part of quotes states, he is supposedly only using it to determine if the arbitration was done properly.  IMO, what he is actually doing is determining if a prior agreement to use arbitration was followed properly, not necessarily ruling based on Sharia law.  IMO also, he could just judge based on Florida arbitration laws, but there might not be much difference.

[De Selby]

The whole point of ADR is that you get to select the governing law and procedures privately - it would not be private arbitration if the Judge applied windows other than that selected by the parties on the process in this type of review.

[AZRedhawk44]

I agree the headline was sensationalist.

All the Judge did was examine the private contract and determine that the parties involved, agreed to Sharia strictures in their disputes.

He did not sentence anyone to have their hand cut off or to genital mutilation.  He did not apply Sharia to situations where non-Muslims are involved and already agreed to its strictures.

It's essentially the same to reading the remedies for breach of contract in any private agreement, and holding the violator accountable to those terms.

[Jamisjockey]

Ayup.  Sensationalisim at it's finest.  Its not like the judge is upholding an honor killing or something.  Checking to see how a private contract was drawn up is worlds different than applying Sharia law.