A Muslim cleric who runs Britain’s largest network of sharia courts has been
questioned over historic child rape allegations.
West Midlands Police are investigating claims that Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi raped
two Dutch women in the 1980s and 1990s.
He has denied the claims, which first appeared in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf,
saying they are �?unfounded’ and part of a campaign to discredit his family.
The cleric, 51, is the head of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, an Islamic legal service
that operates a string of controversial sharia law courts across England which critics
say discriminate against women.
The two women claim they were sexually abused from the ages of 11 and 12 until they
turned 16. They were sent to the UK by their parents to be educated by Sheikh
Siddiqi’s father, a respected Muslim scholar.