Is Sharia Compatible with Contemporary Russian Law?

The analysis of the interaction between Sharia and legislation in action along with the compatibility of Sharia with contemporary Russian law is important from both a scientific and a practical point of view. There are several reasons for the increasing interest in this issue: the renaissance of Islam, the activity of Muslim communities outside the regions where Islam has traditionally spread, the threat of Islamic extremism, and the increasing influence of Sharia upon the political and legal development of the Muslim world. Russian researchers do not have a common attitude to Sharia’s relation to Russian legislation. They put forward different arguments for and against including Sharia in the official legal system. Along with these, some Russian lawyers make attempts to find the legal possibility or even necessity of including Sharia in contemporary Russian reality, including norms, principles and institutions in the legislation. There are three modes of possible interaction between Sharia and state legislation. The first is represented by the direct inclusion of Sharia norms into the legislation. The second is legal acts which refer to historical or local traditions. The third is that Sharia provisions can be used for solving issues which are provided for by dispositive norms of state legislation