Law firm puts on sharia adviser
A MELBOURNE law firm has hired Australia's first sharia consultant - an imam to advise Muslim clients on how to observe Islamic legal codes alongside Australian law.
Sheikh Mohamadu Nawas, a member of the Australian National Council of Imams, will work particularly on commercial contracts and disputes between Muslims, plus separation agreements, divorces, wills and pre-nuptial agreements.
Earlier attempts to have Australian law recognise sharia principles or to establish a sharia court in Australia have proved controversial, with Muslim women's groups strongly opposed.
But Sheikh Nawas insists his advice will be fully compatible with Australian law. It will not involve the criminal code.
''In other countries, sharia courts deal with these issues, but here we don't have this, so we are trying to promote sharia-compliance in advance,'' he told The Age.
Sheikh Nawas has been hired as consultant by Logie-Smith Lanyon, which also sponsors a postgraduate degree in Islamic banking and finance at La Trobe University.
According to Hyder Gulam, a senior lawyer with the firm and a board member of the Islamic Council of Victoria, there is rising demand in Melbourne's growing Muslim community for dispute resolution in harmony with sharia principles, as well as Islamic financial products, such as housing finance and investments.
He said: ''It's big business. (Assistant Treasurer) Nick Sherry went to the Middle East recently to promote Australia as sharia-friendly for finance and investment.''
Sheikh Nawas said most Australian Muslims did not know sharia law, but more marriages between Muslims from different communities or with non-Muslims meant more wanted to.
''We are trying to educate people so they can reduce tension in cases of separation or divorce. All these things are available under Australian law.''
Sheikh Nawas, who studied Islamic law in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, said sharia was complex, drawing on both the Koran and the Hadiths (secondary but authoritative sayings of the prophet Mohammed), but fully explained the rights of every husband and wife, parent and children.
''For a will, first the spouse, then the children, then the parents, then other people may come in. If families separate, children should be kept in one house rather than divided between parents, causing harm in their development,'' he said.