This book considers the complex relationships of Muslim communities with those state and political processes and social and cultural actors that have an interest in Muslim families. The author's focus on Islamic and civil family law in Britain enables a grounded analysis of synergies and dissonances between civil and religious legal regimes often presented as opposed to one other. The book is divided into two formal parts, preceded by introductory chapters which provide an effective ‘scene-setting’ third section. Those early chapters identify the individuals, groups and organisations with an interest in Muslim families, whose perspectives recur throughout the book, and deals with ‘The spectre of shari'a’ (chapter 2). Part I explores the relationship between the many cultural, political and social voices in the context of civil and Islamic marriage and divorce law, voices that are both within and external to British Islamic communities. Part II describes the ‘career’ (p 1) of Baroness Cox's Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill. The author uses detailed consideration of how and where each of the voices supporting, opposing or critiquing the Bill vocalised their position as a means of assessing opposition as separate from, or evidence of, Islamophobia.

The book contains detailed information about current legislation affecting Muslim families and provides a careful analysis of its relationship to Islamic law. It also highlights what might be assumed to be, but is not, law. Drawing on a broad spectrum of primary and secondary sources, it examines the various actors’ responses to that relationship and the sometimes myopic perspectives which inform those responses and which, in turn, they sometimes feed. Although it is not his primary purpose, the author provides a rich reference resource for legal, sociopolitical and anthropology scholars and practitioners working in the field of Islamic State relations, as well as in family law. He exposes the origins of some prevailing mythologies concerning sharia councils and gives insights into how single perspectives become dominant voices in political debate. In so doing, he highlights the effect of political or legislative processes which rely on too narrow a perspective. If there is a deficiency, it is that which Grillo acknowledges at the outset: his inability within the scope of the work to give as detailed an examination of the media's representations as would enable an assessment of their contribution to misconceptions. It would be interesting to see a companion analysis of the relationship between media representation, the dominance of particular voices and politicised activity.