Email, Lee Ann Bambach, attorney, July 16, 2015

From: wgselby@statesman.com

Subject: Following up, Texas reporter

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2015 20:09:39 +0000

We wondered too about the national prevalence of Sharia tribunals like the one set up in the Dallas area.

About how many are there?

Are they concentrated in one city or state or such?

(And how does anyone keep track or know all this?)

Thanks.

g.

4:06 p.m.

No one keeps track of such things -- no central authority or tracking or anything like that.

Not quite sure how to answer your question about "sharia tribunals."  Short answer is not many at all.  Most Muslims alternative dispute resolution is done in a mosque setting (again with no way to track exactly where or how prevalent) and is pretty informal (e.g., counseling or mediation by an imam).  Otherwise such services so far have tended to be rather ad hoc (e.g. set up to deal with a particular dispute, such as a dispute between an imam and mosque's directors), although there are a handful of individuals who specialize in serving as arbitrators/mediators.  

I know of a handful of other more permanent Muslim ADR services in other parts of the country due to my dissertation research on the topic.  None are exactly like the Islamic Tribunal in Texas, yet I would hesitate to call the IT the "first of its kind" because something that called itself the "Texas Islamic Court" functioned 10+ years ago in Richardson (see Jabri v. Qaddura case).  

They are not very common and there is no particular state/area that they are concentrated in.  Most Muslims (like most other Americans of any religious/non-religious stripe) are generally happy to use secular/non-religious means to settle disputes, so even among Muslims in the U.S. only a very small percentage use any type of Islamic dispute resolution service.    

Worth emphasizing again that I am aware of no such tribunals/services that seek to enforce any aspect of sharia criminal law (everyone I spoke with/interviewed was clear that criminal law issues were solely under the jurisdiction of the state and federal governments).