Page 311 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

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Legal and judicial affairs 631

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porauading suitable people to become members of this
court. fhe ohoioe of the Bhia Bahama members is re-
stricted owing to the faot that there are no important
i
Bahama merchants in Bahrain and the majority of the
Bahama are unoducuted. The only Bahama of any oommer-

oial and financial standing are pearl brokers and nakhudas.
5. The Sunni Shar'd Court consists of three Sunni
Qadis, they are ignorant of modern methods and have no .
reul legal training, The youngest of the trio controls
the court. They are slow and invariably seek for com­
promises instead of giving judgments; this in itself is
compatible with the ethics of Islamio law but is ourried
to an excessive degree, There i3 complaint about their

dilatory methods, Both in matters of law and in general
matters they are ignorant, narrow minded und unprogressive,
they are however typical of the Sunni Ulema of Bahrain.
It is not at present desirable that the Government should
urge any reforms in the Sunni Shar'a Court as public opinion

on this matter is uncertain but when a suitable opportunity
oocurs improvements will bo made.
6. The main subjeot of complaint is about the Bahrain
Court and the junior Bahrain Court. It has never been
suggested that these courts are corrupt, If any grounds
fox* such an aoousat^on existed it would certainly have been

made. The complaint is that the magistrates are untrained.
The only training and experience whioh they have had was
acquired by those who sat with me on the Court, It is an
invidious statement for me to make but I feel that I should
say that His Highness and his brothers and the people who
have voioed their complaints have all stated thut ii I had
remained on the court tbo present complaints would not have
been —