Religious Diversity and its Influence on Proceedings – Especially the Implementation of Sharia (Muslim Law) by the Mufti Courts in Greece

Abstract The intensified phenomenon of the migration towards Western democracies of Muslim populations who demand the adjudication of marital and inheritance issues exclusively by religious (mufti) courts in accordance with Islamic Sacred Law (Sharia) poses new challenges for the national legislator in the legislative field, both substantive and procedural. Crucial questions arise especially as to whether Sharia and the co-existence of religious and secular courts (legal pluralism) are compatible with the Convention, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and Western Constitutions. The ECtHR has recently examined some aspects of this problem in the renowned Molla Sali v. Greece case. Greece is actually the only Western country that has officially recognized the implementation of Sharia by religious courts for the Muslim minority of Western Thrace for more than a century. In this context, the aim of this paper is twofold: first , to illustrate – especially from a procedural point of view – the special and idiosyncratic legal regime of Muslims in Greece and the problems arising from that; and second , on the basis of the findings of this examination, to evaluate whether the Greek model can be an adequate paradigm for the regulation of the issues under discussion in Western states.