This edited collection draws upon original empirical and policy re­search to examine debates on religious practice and the experience of Muslim family law within British Muslim communities.

At its starting point, the collection frames the chapters around some of the key findings and recommendations found in the lnde- -pendent Reviemon Shatia τ^aw inEngland a^d Wales (2018) (hereto referred to as the Sharia Inquiry).

The book also addresses wider issues of legal regulation and the management of religious practices within minority communities and the ways in which English family law engages with and across cul­tural and religious difference(s). The image of Muslim family law as a strict parallel legal system, in opposition to English law and encap­sulated as sharia courts, is presumed by many to lie at the heart of a British Muslim identity. The extensive media coverage on Islam and Muslims further feeds into a narrative that British Muslims are simply unable to fully integrate into British society.¹

The focus and debates detailing the experience of Muslim family law in Britain have produced important scholarly and policy research, while addressing issues of ‘women’s choice and the use of religious bod­ies’, questions of potential harm’ and what constitutes as ‘consent’.² The relationship therefore between the formal and informal spaces as inhabited by the state and the community epitomised by religious bodies has led to important questions as to whether individuals from minority religious communities are expected to choose between two different sets of legal regimes for marriage and divorce, raising the potential for conflict between civil law and religious norms.