Islamic Sharia Council

The Islamic Sharia Council (ISC) is a British organisation that provides legal rulings and advice to Muslims in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic Sharia based on the four Sunni schools of thought. It primarily handles cases of marriage and divorce and, to a lesser extent, business and finance. Thousands of Muslims have turned to the Council to resolve family and financial issues. The Economist magazine states it has offered rulings to "thousands of troubled families since the 1980s", the council states that it has dealt with an average of between 200 and 300 cases monthly as of January 2012.

The council has no legal authority in the United Kingdom, and cannot enforce any penalties; many Muslims would appear voluntarily to accept the rulings made by the ISC.

The Islamic Sharia Council says it is "devoted to the articulation of classical Islamic principles in a manner that provides a platform for Islam to be the cure of all humanity's ills." According to The Economist magazine its "two main founders come from purist schools of Islam, the Deobandis and the Salafis". A rival service, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, was founded in 2007 by followers of the Barelvi school of South Asian Islam, is reportedly "less strict than the Deobandis" and as of 2010 offered dispute resolution in half a dozen British cities.