No More Exceptions: Europe’s Historic Stand Against Sharia Law—Part 1

On January 22, 2019, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution 2253, a document that explicitly declared Sharia law fundamentally incompatible with democratic values and with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

It was a legal and moral reckoning based on the European Court of Human Rights' own jurisprudence, specifically the landmark case Refah Partisi v. Turkey, which ruled that "the institution of Sharia law and a theocratic regime are incompatible with the requirements of a democratic society." (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 6).

Resolution 2253 (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 6) identified specific contradictions between Sharia law and multiple ECHR provisions (Council of Europe. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. European Treaty Series No. 5. Rome, 4 November 1950. As amended by Protocols Nos. 11 and 14. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2010) :

• Article 2 (right to life) – Sharia permits death penalty for apostasy and adultery
• Article 3 (prohibition of torture) – Sharia allows corporal punishments like stoning and amputation
• Article 6 (right to fair trial) – Sharia courts lack proper procedural safeguards
• Article 8 (private and family life) – Sharia permits child marriage
• Article 9 (freedom of religion) – Sharia prohibits apostasy and missionary work by non-Muslims
• Article 10 (freedom of expression) – Sharia criminalizes blasphemy
• Article 12 (right to marry) – Sharia discriminates based on religion and gender
• Article 14 (non-discrimination) – Sharia systematically discriminates against women and non-Muslims
• Article 5 of Protocol 7 (equality between spouses) – Sharia grants men unilateral divorce rights and superior inheritance shares
• Protocols 6 and 13 (abolition of death penalty) – Sharia maintains capital punishment

The Resolution 2253 exposed a shocking reality: Greece, an EU member state, officially applies Sharia law in the Thrace region for its Muslim minority.

The problems identified (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 7):

• Muftis (Islamic religious leaders) act as judges without proper legal training or procedural safeguards
• Women are systematically disadvantaged in divorce and inheritance proceedings
• Despite PACE's 2010 recommendations, the practice continued

The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Greece in Molla Sali v. Greece (Grand Chamber, no. 20452/14, December 19, 2018), finding that forcing a Greek Muslim widow to accept Sharia inheritance rules violated her Convention rights.

The Resolution highlighted that "Sharia councils" operate throughout the UK as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, handling:

• Islamic divorces
• Inheritance disputes
• Commercial contracts

The concerns (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 8):

• These councils clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance
• Women participate "often under considerable social pressure," not always voluntarily
• They operate outside the formal legal system but have a significant impact on the community

A 2018 UK government review found that over 90% of Sharia council users are women seeking Islamic divorce, many trapped in unregistered religious marriages with no legal protection (Home Office, The Independent Review into the Application of Sharia Law in England and Wales, February 2018, p. 5).

Three Council of Europe member states had endorsed the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 4):

• Albania
• Azerbaijan
• Turkey (with the caveat: "so far as it is compatible with its laws")

The Cairo Declaration uses Sharia as its "only source of reference" fundamentally contradicting universal human rights. Articles 24 and 25 of the 1990 Declaration subordinate all rights to Islamic Sharia, creating an irreconcilable conflict with the ECHR (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, August 5, 1990).

The Resolution 2253 imposed (PACE, Resolution 2253, 2019):

To All Member States (Article 11):

1. Bolster pluralism, tolerance, and openness through proactive measures
2. Design educational programs on human rights and gender equality
3. Promote universal human rights in multilateral organizations
4. Engage in revision of the Cairo Declaration to ensure ECHR compatibility

To Albania, Azerbaijan, and Turkey (Article 12):

1. Consider withdrawing from the 1990 Cairo Declaration
2. Make declarations ensuring the Cairo Declaration has no domestic effect inconsistent with ECHR
3. Adopt formal acts establishing ECHR as superior binding norms

To Greece (Article 13):

1. Rapidly implement the Molla Sali v. Greece judgment
2. Allow Muslim minority to freely choose muftis as purely religious leaders (without judicial powers)
3. Abolish the application of Sharia law

To the United Kingdom (Article 14):

1. Ensure Sharia councils operate within the law, especially anti-discrimination provisions
2. Review the Marriage Act to require civil registration before or during Islamic ceremony
3. Take enforcement measures to oblige celebrants to ensure civil registration
4. Remove barriers to Muslim women's access to justice
5. Implement awareness-raising campaigns on women's rights
6. Conduct further research on Sharia councils' practices and voluntariness

The Deadline (Article 15):

All mentioned countries were required to report back to PACE by June 2020 on their follow-up actions.

This Resolution represented a rare moment of moral clarity from a major European institution. It refused to hide behind cultural relativism or political correctness. Instead, it stated plainly:

“The Assembly calls on the member States of the Council of Europe to protect human rights regardless of religious or cultural practices or traditions on the principle that, where human rights are concerned, there is no room for religious or cultural exceptions.” (PACE, Resolution 2253 (2019), article 9).

The Resolution recognized that women are the primary victims of Sharia application in Europe:

• Unequal divorce rights
• Discriminatory inheritance (often receiving half of male heirs' shares)
• Limited child custody rights
• Vulnerability in unregistered religious marriages
• Social pressure preventing access to civil courts

After this powerful Resolution was adopted in January 2019, critical questions remained:

• Would Greece finally abolish Sharia law?
• Would the UK reform its Marriage Act?
• Would Albania, Azerbaijan, and Turkey distance themselves from the Cairo Declaration?
• Would the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation revise the Cairo Declaration?
• Would anyone actually comply?

The deadline for reporting was June 2020.

What happened next? ➡️ That's a story for the next article.