There are local, regional and national councils of imams – designed to bridge cultural, linguistic and juridical divides among imams of diverse Muslim communities. The vast majority of imams fulfill their roles with integrity, humility and a sincere commitment to serve their communities. They fully deserve the respect accorded to them.

However, there have been disturbing exceptions. Given the lack of accountability mechanisms in place and the reverential attitude toward religious authority by congregants, it is not surprising that abuses can occur.

Take, for example, the solemnization of marriage. An Islamic marriage, sanctioned by an imam, must also be registered with civil authorities, thereby providing both spouses with basic legal rights. Yet, a number of imams knowingly decline civil registration – to the detriment of women.

In May, 2018, a Quebec imam signed off on an Islamic marriage contract of a 15-year-old girl. His actions were sharply criticized by Justice Bruno Langelier, who granted the teen’s request to be removed from her home.

In January, 2019, The Fifth Estate investigated the prevalence of polygamy in Toronto’s Muslim community. Imam Aly Hindy, of Salaheddin Islamic Centre, was caught on a hidden camera, offering to solemnize a second marriage of an undercover reporter – without the knowledge of the first wife. When confronted, he brazenly declared: “sue me” – confident that his actions were legal. However, the performance of any type of second marriage clearly contravenes the Criminal Code. Why is he still registered, by the Ontario government, as a religious official authorized to perform marriages? In fact, common knowledge is that every major Canadian city has a “go-to” imam who will solemnize a second, third or fourth marriage – no questions asked.

The same Fifth Estate investigation unearthed court records that revealed a prominent Toronto imam who physically assaulted his wife, sending her to hospital, after she confronted him on his secret, second marriage.

Within the past five years, there have been three Canadian imams charged with sexual assault. In British Columbia, Imam Saadeldin Bahr was sentenced to 3½ years for sexually assaulting a female congregant who sought spiritual advice. He was also placed on the Sex Offender Registry for 20 years. In Ontario, Imam Mohammad Masroor was charged with multiple sexual offences that occurred between 2008 and 2011. He was acquitted on all counts after standing trial in 2013. A day after his acquittal, he was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced between 35 to 50 years for sexually abusing his nieces between 2000 and 2003. In June, Toronto Imam Syed Zaidi was charged with sexually assaulting two female congregants. He is awaiting trial.

Muslim communities face an unenviable challenge of holding their religious leadership to account, without having guidance on how to proceed. However, a number of efforts are under way to address spiritual abuse.

Two Muslim lawyers have devised a “Code Of Conduct For Islamic Leadership” for individuals and Muslim organizations, based on nine years of working with victims of spiritual abuse, consultation with lawyers, cult experts, religious scholars and mental-health professionals.

Facing Abuse in Community Environments (FACE) has created a framework to address the leadership accountability gap. They provide tools and resources to report abusive leaders and help protect the community from their continued abuse.

Finally, the Hurma Project – a Canadian initiative – seeks to examine the personal and communal effects of abusive practices, along with practical solutions.

Muslims are painfully realizing that among their leaders, clergy, teachers and religious scholars are individuals who abuse their positions of power and violate their ethical responsibilities.

Too often, justice for victims is sacrificed in the name of keeping the reputation of an institution or an individual intact. Too often, imams have been quietly dismissed, without any meaningful accountability or reporting to authorities. Why is the onus placed on victims? They are either blamed or told to be patient, to pray, to forgive. Let us accord them a modicum of dignity by standing up for justice on their behalf.

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Islam has given many rights to women when it comes to marriages. I am surprised at how some men say things such as ‘We only need Allah’s approval’. When women raise the topic of getting their marriage registered, of course as Muslims we need to have Allah’s approval ‐ but a Nikah ceremony without a registered marriage will not protect a woman and her children if the marriage ends. I have come across many such cases.

An example is Lucy*. She is in her late 30’s, a single mum who embraced Islam a number of years ago. She lives in London and grew up in Care and has no family. She was looking to settle down and met a very kind and charismatic French Muslim man. After a few months she decided that he was the man for her. He informed Lucy that they could only have a Nikah marriage as he did not have all his legal documents for the civil registration process. He promised Lucy when he did get them, they would go and get their marriage registered.

Lucy trusted him, he was good with her four‐year‐old son, he was loving and kind. She decided that she would just have the Nikah ceremony and wait for her husband to produce the documents in due course. Two years passed and the relationship was deteriorating. Lucy’s husband had changed. He did not have regular work and stayed out late with his friends, used the family home like a hotel, would get angry and irritated with her son, would argue with Lucy constantly. It became worse when she told him she was pregnant. That was the last straw. He told her he could not support her financially with another baby on the way. One day after another huge bust up, he told Lucy she was not his first wife; he had another wife in France with two children.

Lucy was devastated. She had believed in her husband and on his request, she had invested all her life savings in his idea of opening a café. Soon after this argument with him, he left her, pregnant and penniless. Lucy went into depression, just about scrapping through financially until she was helped by an organisation in the community.

Lucy realised that as a revert (Muslim convert) who was 100% invested in doing the right thing by her faith, she could not guarantee that her husband would be also doing everything correctly by his faith. In Islam it is the husband’s duty to financially support his wife and children. If she had registered her marriage, as part of the divorce settlement she would have been able to claim her savings from the café and even her legal costs if he fought the case. He would have had to support the baby as the married father. But as his name was not on the birth certificate, she could not even claim child support and faced destitution.

Lucy knows through her contacts that since she has had her baby daughter, her husband has opened a café with her life savings and is doing well financially. It has devastated Lucy to learn that he has sponsored his legally registered wife and children to settle in the UK with him. Yet he does not want to see his daughter. She may run into her husband with his family, humiliated and knowing she has no legal rights.

She is angry and upset with herself as well as with her husband. She did not investigate whether what he said about his documents was true, she just believed him. He did not have any family she could communicate with and she was vulnerable as a single revert woman without any ‘Mahram’ (Guardian) to speak on her behalf or look after her interests. She is not even sure if she can ever remarry because she is still trapped in this Nikah marriage.

Marriage is a beautiful institution, but we need to get things right at the beginning. No‐one ever marries to get divorced. But many people in the community do not realise that a Nikah ceremony or certificate is not enough to be protected under the law. We need to get our act together and make sure our daughters and sisters don’t end up like Lucy.

Saleha Islam, National Project Manager, ROM

*names and country of origin have been changed to protect identities

One would never think that suffering a loss of a loved one would result in a dispute between families that have different religious cultures. This happened to me when I was a Mortuary Manager at a busy London Hospital a few years ago. I wish to share my experience in what happened over 10 days.

I was notified by the ward that there was a death of a Muslim patient that was being conveyed to the mortuary and that his wife was on her way to the town hall to register the death so the body could be released for burial later on that day.

Once this was completed, the representative from the mosque was waiting so the body could be released. The biological family of the deceased appeared, stopping me from releasing the man. They claimed that the man must have a cremation, as he was from a Hindu family. It transpired that the man had converted to Islam to marry his current wife, and this was done at their local Mosque. He did not leave a Will. The biological family contested that the wife was the legal next of kin, claiming they were. They had indicated to me that they were off to the Court to seek an injunction to stop me releasing the body to the wife, until they had the evidence of who was the legal next of kin. This then became a legal argument as to who was going to claim the deceased.

From the production of the ID documents plus the Islamic marriage document (nikah) it became clear that the marriage was not officially registered in the UK, therefore making his son from a previous relationship his legal next of kin. That son was of the Hindu faith and this meant that the biological family could go ahead with the cremation.

This did end on a positive note, as the biological family agreed to have washing of the body and Islamic prayers by the Imam at the mortuary, before it was officially released to the biological family for cremation.

I would advise people to have their marriage legally registered so that the spouse can carry out the deceased’s wishes – or if this is not possible, to make a Will stating clearly their wishes as to burial/cremation. Much emotional agony can be avoided by doing this.

Barbara Peters DipFMS, MCSFS, Mortuary Practitioner.

Read more at: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/blog/the-register-our-marriage-campaign-is-pioneering-for-equality-for-unregistered-faith-marriages/