civil court. On family matters, Sheikh Saleem says, his panel believes strongly that women should get justice, and that the welfare of children should be paramount. The Imams' Council supports a move to cement its system in Australian law. "Naming the court in English as a sharia court is a misnomer, it's not a sharia court, it's a court of arbitration on family matters," says Sheikh Saleem. "It shouldn't be construed as Muslims taking over Australia. That will never happen." Perhaps surprisingly, the idea enjoys some backing in secular legal circles. One supporter is Robin Inglis, chief executive of the community-based Fitzroy Legal Service in Melbourne's northern suburbs, which are home to a substantial Muslim population. He says Islamic courts "would fill a really important need and would be a win -- win situation". Inglis says the ideal of equality before the law is fine in principle but rarely achieved in practice, as minority groups such as Muslims often find the civil court system daunting, inaccessible, prohibitively expensive and incomprehensible.  "We're not trying to argue that sharia courts or sharia law are some sort of utopia or panacea, but the notion of trying to use the strength and expertise of particular communities to enrich how the Australian legal system functions is really worth talking about. I don't see it as undermining Australian law or the international laws we're signed up to." However, within the Muslim community, it's a deeply polarising issue. Proponents of sharia are often condemned for fuelling hostility