Following the Law Society’s publication in March of a “Practice note on sharia succession rules”, a protest was held in Chancery Lane yesterday evening, organised by One Law for All, Southall Black Sisters, the Centre for Secular Space and LSE students’ Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society.

The problem with the practice note, in the view of the protesters, was that by publishing it the Law Society (which is publicly committed to equality and diversity) has not only got involved in religious matters that should not be its concern, but has lent its name to the argument that sharia should somehow be “recognised” in our legal system, and has legitimised an extreme and discriminatory approach to inheritance. The practice note says:

Certain principles of Sharia are different to English succession laws. For example … illegitimate and adopted children are not Sharia heirs.

The male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir of the same class. Non-Muslims may not inherit at all, and only Muslim marriages are recognised …

This means you should amend or delete some standard will clauses.

About 70 people gathered outside the Law Society to protest, and heard speeches from Pragna Patel of Southall Black Sisters, Maryam Namazie of One Law for All, Charlie Klendjian of the Lawyers’ Secular Society, Peter Tatchell and others. I’ll be posting one or two of those speeches later. In the meantime, here’s the sound of the protest before the speeches began. You can hear Chris Moos, then Pragna Patel, leading the chants. This sort of thing can’t happen very often in Chancery Lane.

2014-04-29T16:32:51+00:00