According to the Muslim Council, The Times had cut a couple of sentences from its letter that criticised the newspaper for "raising uninformed hackles against our faith" and stressed the need to "report such matters fairly".

The Muslim Council was right to complain. Mr Justice Baker did not mention the word "Sharia" in his judgment. But, in explaining why he had allowed the case before him to be referred to a beth din, he made it very clear that this would not open the door to family dispute resolution by other religious courts. The judge said he had been reassured that the New York rabbinical authorities would treat the children's interests as paramount, as would the English courts. "It does not, however, necessarily follow that a court would be content in other cases to endorse a proposal that a dispute concerning children should be referred for determination by another religious authority," the judge said. "Each case will turn on its own facts."

What the Muslim Council seems to be suggesting is that it should be possible for Muslims to settle family disputes according to Islamic principles. That's fine, but only if those principles are consistent with the law of the land. The clear message from this case is that religious law cannot be allowed to trump secular law. As Mr Justice Baker observed, he had respected the parties' devout beliefs. But the outcome of the case, while rooted in the Jewish culture to which both families belonged, was firmly in keeping with English law.