“An arbitration agreement could lawfully require that the arbitrators appointed had to be members of a particular religious community since the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, which prohibited employers from discriminating on religious grounds, did not apply to the selection or appointment of arbitrators, who were not employees of the arbitrating parties appearing before them. An arbitration clause in a commercial agreement between two members of the Ismaili community requiring that, in the event of a dispute between them, any arbitrators they appointed had to be members of the Ismaili faith was therefore valid and precluded the appointment by one of the parties of a non-Ismaili.”
WLR Daily, 27th July 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk