09/01/2011 04:26 PM
Parallel Justice
Islamic 'Arbitrators' Shadow German Law
By Maximilian Popp
In mosques or tearooms, Muslim elders dispense verdicts that keep their
communities in line. They mediate between aggrieved immigrants, sometimes at
the expense of German justice. Some say the arbitrations ease caseloads in
court, but others see the creeping advance of Sharia law.
The men ambushed Fuat S. on the street, then locked him in a basement and
tortured him. Fuat was later admitted to the hospital in Berlin's Neukölln
district with gaping wounds, contusions and broken bones.
Police took his statement concerning the attack the same night. Fuat S., a
gambler and a recipient of "Hartz IV" -- Germany's social welfare benefits for
the long-term unemployed -- gave a detailed statement. He'd conned an
acquaintance, Mustafa O., out of €150,000 ($217,000) and the man was taking his
revenge, Fuat said, together with his three brothers. They hit his hands, arms
and knees with a hammer and threatened to shoot him.
The public prosecutor's office in Berlin initiated proceedings against Mustafa
O., a Palestinian man who had come to their attention repeatedly for violent
acts. Police had investigated him in a number of cases, and now prosecutors saw
an opportunity to convict a dangerous repeat offender. But when the case began,
Fuat S., the principle witness, unexpectedly withdrew his testimony. It was not
Mustafa who had tortured him, he said, but an Albanian man he didn't know.
Mustafa, he said, wasn't even in the basement at the time. This was clearly a
lie, as police analysis of telephone data showed, but the judge was forced to
acquit the defendant due to lack of evidence.
The decision, in fact, was reached by a different judge. According to police,
the victim's and the perpetrator's families had met at a restaurant in the
presence of an Islamic "justice of the peace," an arbitrator who mediates
conflicts between Muslims. The two families had reached a compromise: Fuat
would drop the charges, and in exchange be relieved of part of his debt.
According to Bernhard Mix, the public prosecutor in charge of the case, Fuat's
false testimony was part of a deal between the families. "It's difficult to
establish the truth using legal means, when the perpetrator and the victim
reach an agreement," he says.
Judges Without Laws
Politicians and social workers tend to focus on forced marriages and honor
killings, but the baleful influence of these Islamic arbitrators has gone
largely unnoticed by the public. Joachim Wagner, an author and television
journalist of many years, has taken a closer look at the phenomenon in his book
"Richter ohne Gesetz" ("Judges without Laws"). Reconstructing Mustafa O.'s
case, he reaches the conclusion that "the Islamic parallel justice system is
becoming a threat to the constitutional legal system."
These justices of the peace don't wear robes. Their courtrooms are mosques or
teahouses. They draw their authority not from the law, but from their standing
within the community. Most of them are senior members of their families, or
imams, and some even fly in from Turkey or Lebanon to resolve disputes. Muslims
seek them out when families argue, when daughters take up with nonbelievers or
when clans clash. They often trust these arbitrators more than they trust the
state.
The late juvenile court judge Kirsten Heisig drew attention to this problem a
year ago: "The law is slipping out of our hands. It's moving to the streets, or
into a parallel system where an imam or another representative of the Koran
determines what must be done."
In Wagner's book, judges and prosecutors tell of threats toward public
officials and systematic interference with witnesses. "We know we're being
given a performance, but the courts are powerless," says Stephan Kuperion, a
juvenile court judge in Berlin. Federal public prosecutor Jörn Hauschild warns,
"It would be a terrible development if serious criminal offences in these
circles could no longer be resolved. The legal system would be reduced to
collecting victims."
So who are these men who make the decisions about justice and love, lives and
monetary compensation?
'They Trust Me'
Hassan Allouche sits behind the wheel of his station wagon, steering the
vehicle through Berlin's rush hour traffic with one hand, talking on his cell
phone. Two Arabs have called on him for help in a rent dispute. He lights a
cigarette and says, "People are afraid of the authorities. They trust me."
Allouche came to Germany from Lebanon 37 years ago. He acts as a religious
arbitrator, just as his great-grandfather did before him. People greet him on
the streets of Berlin, shaking his hand or bowing. "He's kept us from a great
deal of harm," one Turkish businessman says.
Allouche's brother was shot while trying to resolve a conflict, and since then
he always wears a bulletproof vest when doing his work. He says he mediates 200
cases a year, often offers his own services and doesn't ask any payment,
although he accepts gifts. "I do this for Germany and for Allah," he says.
Wagner, the journalist, believes that getting rich plays only a minor role for
most of these arbitrators. Far more important, he says, are power and prestige,
as they increase their influence within the community with each successful
mediation.
Although the mediators generally work in secret, "it's common practice," Wagner
says, repeating what Ralf Menkhorst, detective superintendent for the city of
Essen, has told him. "Any beginner realizes after three cases that this
phenomenon exists." Police in Bremen, for example, know of four or five
arbitrators by name.
They operate in a gray area between conflict resolution and obstruction of
justice. Allouche, for example, claims to work closely with authorities, but
investigators suspect him of preventing witnesses from giving statements to the
police. So far they've never been able to prove an obstruction of justice.
This culture of arbitration predates Islam, since earlier Arab tribes also
solved conflicts with verdicts passed by senior family members. In countries
such as Lebanon or in southeastern Turkey, these lay judges still take the
place of governmental institutions. In Germany, they find followers wherever
the local population includes many Muslims who haven't integrated into German
culture.
Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an Islamic studies professor in Marburg, believes this
distance between immigrants and the German state explains the success of
religious arbitration. Many immigrants, she says, mistrust police and the legal
system. Criminal prosecutors are concerned about extended Muslim families and
strict religious groups. "They disdain the rule of law. They haven't
integrated, and don't intend to. The family is above the law," Bremen's police
write in a working paper.
Munich-based imam and arbitrator Sheik Abu Adam says he considers it a
religious duty to mediate among the faithful. He invites both parties to visit
him at the mosque, listens to both sides, and ultimately has them sign a peace
treaty. The important thing, he says, is not who's right and wrong, and
evidence is no particular help -- the important thing is to find a compromise.
In nine out of 10 cases, the people respect his decision, he says. "My judgment
is fairer than the government's," he says.
A Problem of Integration
Abu Adam teaches a reactionary kind of Islam. He lives with three women,
doesn't believe in separating religion from the state, and rejects moderate
branches of his religion. "I tell my people, don't go to the police," the
sheikh says unabashedly. "We'll take care of this conflict among ourselves." He
dismisses accusations of running a shadow justice system, saying, "I'm making
less work for the police."
Investigators do cooperate with Islamic arbitrators in a few exceptional cases.
In Essen, for example, police and an imam work together to mediate disputes
within Muslim families.
If these arbitrators would limit themselves to containing conflicts, there
would be no reason to object, says legal and Islamic studies expert Mathias
Rohe in the Bavarian city of Erlangen. German law, after all, allows for
arbitration. What Rohe finds unacceptable is the exertion of influence over
criminal proceedings. "Criminal prosecution is a privilege of the state," he
says.
The state justice system, though, is having a hard time shaking off the shadow
system. Klaus-Dieter Schromek, a judge in Bremen, criticizes his colleagues for
not taking the phenomenon seriously enough. "If conflict mediators manage to
force the justice system out of homicides and other serious violent crimes," he
told Wagner for the book, "it will mean more conflicts settled using these
methods."
Legal steps alone can't prevent a parallel Islamic justice system, not with so
many immigrants from Muslim countries who insist on following values retained
for centuries -- such as the primacy of men and the unconditional struggle for
one's own honor and that of the family. One problem is that they pass on these
clichés to their children, so even third-generation members of immigrant
families mistrust the German legal system.
"We need to promote our constitutional legal state starting in school," says
Rohe, the Islamic studies expert. If German integration were in better shape,
he believes, Islamic arbitrators would have been out of work long ago.
URL:
* http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,783361,00.html
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