Dissolution of American Muslim marriages
Most Muslims pursuing divorce are careful to follow local state rules in order to ensure its recognition under US law. Sometimes Islamic family law does arise in these civil divorce proceedings, usually in the form of a claim for payment of the mahr∕sadaq amount.
Family law attorney Abed Awad reports, for example, that he sees a trend of husbands resisting dower payments, sometimes using the shari'a- based argument that wife-initiated divorces entail the wife’s forfeiture of the mahτ (interview, 2000). Another Muslim attorney, Sermid al-Sarraf, describes one case where the spouses turned to Islamic law to assist in determining the custody of their children, each consulting different Muslim legal scholars on the question. In the end, however, other issues, such as competency and capability of support, played a stronger role in the custody decision (interview, 2000). In general, US Muslims facing divorce disputes seem to seek advice and assistance on both their Islamic and secular legal rights; and as the number of Muslim legal professionals and legal organizations in the USA grows, more and more experts become available who can assist with both simultaneously.In a minority of cases, Islamic divorces are conducted outside the American system altogether, either by a husband’s private Ialaq declaration or through a third-party determination by local Muslim arbiters, and the parties fail to file any divorce documents under state rules.56 Such divorces would lack validity under US law, and the parties may be faced with complications in any subsequent attempts to marry in the United States (Little 1993).57 They would also present obstacles to either spouse attempting to enforce any terms of an Islamic divorce settlement, such as the distribution of property or custody of children, in the event that the other spouse breaches the deal. Some case law, discussed in the next chapter of this report, reflects efforts by the courts to deal with these extrajudicial divorces.