Sharīʿa in Greece

Abstract

The Balkans, a region where Christianity and Islam have come into close contact since the 14th century, is an interesting study in legal pluralism. The Ottoman millet system, under which distinct ethnic-religious communities - including Muslims - were granted partial institutional autonomy within the Empire, was, by the late 19th century, a convenient legal paradigm to accommodate (Muslim) minorities within the new nation (Christian) states. Greece retained a legal regime that to some extent grants legal autonomy to the Greek Muslim population that survived a population exchange with Turkey at the end of the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922. The Lausanne Treaty granted the Muslim population of (Western) Thrace in Greece a special minority protection regime that applies sharia law to Muslim Greek citizens residing in that region of Thrace. However, sharia law is only applied by the local Muftis who have special jurisdiction over these matters, in certain disputes relating to family and inheritance law.