Sir - There are good reasons to criticise the Law Society's guidance on compliance with Sharia when making a will. But not those GB Dipper suggests (Letters, 5th April).
The Society's practice note does not "enshrine sharia law in the UK". Importantly, it should be stressed that there is no legal obligation on anyone (including Muslims) to use Sharia when making a will.
Rather, in issuing this guidance, the Society has presumed competency over theology, which is perverse; and moreover lends credence to a discriminatory dogma, which exhorts adherents to marginalise female relatives, and to exclude non-Muslims and adopted children entirely.
People have rights to choose inheritors, subject to statutory protections, but this guidance launders and sanctions overt discrimination. As the Lawyers Secular Society has pointed out, it's not unlike helping a racist to legally disown their children if they 'married out'.
The LSS also argues: "Many liberal and secular Muslims, within these shores and beyond, are fighting a daily battle, often quite literally, to escape the clutches of Sharia law, and this guidance sells them out in an instant." That's a better criticism, and puts Dipper's casual xenophobia ("either don't come here in the first place or leave") to shame.
Bob Churchill
Bishampton
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