Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
There are many religious duties for a Muslim who lives in the West. Being a minority, Muslims living in the West cannot demand for the application of Shariah. It is, however, their duty to call the Westerners to Islam. Also, Muslims living in the West can demand that in family affairs like marriage, divorce and estate division, they want Shariah to be applied. Furthermore, they can call for anything that benefits the whole society such as banning abortion, homosexuality and lesbianism or the like.
As regards your question, the following is the fatwa issued by Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, the late deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research:
Being a minority, Muslims living in the West cannot demand for the application of Shariah. It is, however, their duty to call the Westerners to Islam. If the number of Muslims there increases, then they may one day be able to call for the application of Islamic Shariah.
However, Muslims in the West can demand that in family affairs like marriage, divorce and estate division, they want Shariah to be applied, for this is a clear-cut issue relating to human rights that are always championed by Westerners themselves.
As we know, one of the unique features of the Muslim state is that, while applying the Islamic Shariah in full, it gave the chance to non-Muslims living inside the Muslim state to act in accordance with their own religions in matters relating to family law.
However, in other issues, all citizens of the Muslim state are subject to one law based on Shariah.
Naturally, a Muslim living in the West can call for anything that benefits the whole society such as banning abortion, homosexuality and lesbianism or the like since such matters are prohibited in Islam and there are people among Westerners themselves calling for banning such matters.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.