A few months ago, the Chief Justice of the city of Sheikh Zuweid announced that many Islamic groups throughout El Arish, in northern Sinai, would form forces of 60,000 soldiers to enforce and implement the provisions of Sharia Law.

A few months ago, the Chief Justice of the city of Sheikh Zuweid announced that many Islamic groups throughout El Arish, in northern Sinai, would form forces of 60,000 soldiers to enforce and implement the provisions of Sharia Law.

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Judge Assaad al-Bek during a session

“We merely want to enforce God’s Sharia to please him without demanding any financial return,” said Assaad al-Bek, a 60 year-old agronomist in El Arish and the Sharia Chief Justice of northern Sinai.  Al-bek denied any relation to his court and the announcement made by the Chief Justice of Sheikh Zuweid, regarding the armed enforcement.

“A Sharia judge is not like a customary judge who acquires fees in return for arbitrating among disputing parties,” he explained. “We have opened three religious courts in El Arish with self funding or donations from businessmen.”

Sharia enforced in Sinai since the 1980s enforces no punishments, like cutting off the hand for stealing; which, have been replaced with exorbitant fines for victim compensation.

Religious courts like customary courts

At the entrance to a court house, litigants take off their shoes and sit in a narrow hall, awaiting permission to go in and present their grievances. The session secretary sits at a desk and calls them in one by one. Like customary courts—tribal courts— litigants enter holding a file, containing evidence of their right to litigation.

Lawsuits are usually about a dispute over a parcel of land or a complaint against a neighbour; some may bring witnesses. This court adopts the same approaches of customary courts.

“The enforcement of God’s Sharia with its penalties will be made only when Islam completely conquers the lands, after the establishment of a real state of Islam,” added Assaad, without setting a date for the formation of an Islamic state. Until that time, the new Sharia courts will compete with customary ones.

“The state is responsible for the collapse of customary courts”

Many customary judges have quit their jobs and closed their offices. Some of them are renown judges like Sheikh Hassan Muhsen, whose courts have shrunken down to the size of their house halls. “I judge without getting paid the known Rizqaor remuneration.”

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Sheikh Hassan Muhsen

“Customary courts have collapsed due to lack of relevant respect by the state,” Muhsen said.  “Only non-local residents or emigrants from the valley resort to the state courts and the state hasn’t protected the thousands-year old customary courts, which have been a factor for the balance of power amongst tribes and respect the cultural traditions of Sinai people,” he said.

According to Sheikh Muhsen, the difference between the two systems is considerable; customary courts are an inherited profession in families greatly experienced in the field of litigation, and a social expertise transferred among generations that refers to the canons of old society wisdom and justice.

Sinai’s doubts

Despite the extensive emergence of the power of new religious courts, a number of judges who were originally enthusiastic about them eventually abandoned them, including Sheikh Quttob and Sheikh Abdulkareem Badawi.

Many of those against whom the courts issued fines, in accordance with the Sharia provisions, didn’t pay them, neither did their guarantors; which, has divided the Sinai street about the usefulness of replacing customary courts with religious ones.

Sabri Sourki, a young man from Sinai, asserted that the youths of his area often don’t use religious courts; if they have to, they go to senior sheikhs who can guarantee them. Most of them, according to Sourki, reject the idea of compulsory execution of rulings, as they are shocked by gunmen who execute a ruling that the accused knows nothing about.

Muhammad Hassan, a Palestinian residing in El Arish, explained that there is a Sharia judge in Arish for Palestinians. He pointed out the difficulty, however, in appointing a lawyer to defend him if his rival was, for example, a wealthy family that could afford a better lawyer. In which case justice, regardless of the court, is relative.

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