Discuss Islam

Gorgeous George has married a fourth time. Putri Gayatri Pertiwi is 27, bright, beautiful and Muslim. no one who has ever seen the flamboyant politician in action can be surprised.

In 2005 I was sent by a newspaper to cover the battle for Bethnal Green and Bow. Pitted against each other were Oona King – black, Jewish, a woman Labour MP – and George Galloway, “the maverick Scot thrown out of the Labour Party in 2003 after accusing Tony Blair and George Bush of invading Iraq ‘like wolves’.” Galloway, running for Respect, had dragged the war centre stage. Respect fliers showed Oona King sitting in a tank rolling towards Baghdad; in every speech, Galloway made sure to condemn the “lies and lies and lies” that Blair and his lot were telling about the war.

As part of my piece, I attended meetings where the two candidates addressed the constituency (one of the country’s poorest). Oona King had a warm, winning manner; her speeches were full of references to her party’s campaign to alleviate poverty in Tower Hamlets. They did not set anyone on fire. George Galloway, on the other hand, was a revelation: he spoke eloquently, passionately, and thrillingly about his support for the Muslim community. this wasn’t about poverty or lack of education; Galloway was on their side as a man who did not touch alcohol, fought for the Palestinian cause, and  rejected the skewed picture of Islam that the West was trying to propagate. (In fact, Galloway went so far as to meet Saddam Hussein in 2002 and has ever since been attacked as a Saddam apologist.) it was a clever message, perfectly delivered, and by the end, the Muslim audience was in a frenzy of adulation. Gorgeous George was their champion.

In 2005, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi was 20, and still studying at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands; so it is unlikely she attended any of the Galloway gatherings. but the new Mrs Galloway, an anthropologist of Indonesian extraction, would have fitted right in: a cohort of lovely young women, Muslim and conservatively dressed, was always in evidence at a Galloway do. I remember a fellow reporter on the campaign trail joking that Galloway was so pro-Muslim he had embraced some of their traditions – like having four wives.

Seven years on, the flashy clothes and cigar-chomping aura (Galloway is not short of a bob or two: his home is worth £1.4 million) still attract more girly fans than Justin Bieber. I’m not surprised that the 57-year-old has just married a beauty 30 years his junior: George always dazzled the girls. One kind of girl was especially susceptible –  bright, beautiful and proudly Muslim. The new Mrs Galloway, who ticks all three boxes, has worked for her husband’s Palestinian charity. It’s a tie that binds: to Muslims  in the UK, and in the Netherlands (home of the viciously anti-Muslim Freedom party), Galloway appears a fabulous and brave exception in a predominantly hostile culture. he is a friend among foes, who has not bought into the “Zionist” world view. One of the first achievements that Galloway will boast of at any political meeting is his 35 years’ work on behalf of the Palestinian people. this is a sure-fire winner in a Muslim community that feels sidelined by what they perceive is the all-powerful Israeli lobby.

Thanks to his pro-Muslim credentials, Galloway won the Bradford West by-election… and got the girl. Muslim mothers, lock up your daughters!

THE Muslim leader at the centre of police raids in Cardiff has denied being part of a banned group which glorifies terrorism.

Abu Hajar was quoted as a spokesman for the group “Islamic Path” in 2009 when the group tried to arrange a meeting at Cardiff’s County Hall.

Islamic Path appears on a list of “proscribed terrorist groups”, which the Home Office describes as “terrorist organisations [which] are currently proscribed under UK legislation and therefore outlawed in the UK”.

The Home Office says Islamic Path “should be treated as [an] alternative name for the organisation which is already proscribed under the names Al Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect”.

It describes The Saved Sect as “a splinter group of Al-Muajiroon [which] disseminates materials that glorify acts of terrorism”.

Al-Muajiroon was founded by Anjem Choudary, a former lawyer best known for threatening to march through Wootton Bassett, where Britain’s war dead are repatriated.

In 2009, Cardiff council pulled the plug on the planned Islamic Path meeting because of proposals to seat men and women separately at an event called “Islam – from revelation to implementation”.

Yesterday, Hajar, now heading an organisation called Supporters of Tawheed, confirmed he was involved.

He said: “There were a few events up and down the UK, including the one I participated in that was cancelled on the grounds of segregation.”

The 29-year-old said it was “shocking” the group was banned by the Home Office.

“It was really shocking because they [Islamic Path] were just some people that were community based and they organised conferences for events here and there and the next thing… they were not even established before they were proscribed.”

However, he then appeared to distance himself from being part of the banned Islamic Path, saying groups in London of that name were “completely independent” from those in Cardiff. he added: “my personal feeling is that name had been taken up by other organisations.”

In 2009, protesters contacted the Echo because they thought Choudary was rumoured to be speaking at the meeting. This has always been denied.

But yesterday, Hajar confirmed he was connected with the former solicitor, a known supporter of Osama bin Laden.

“I’ve had some conversations with him regarding judicial things, cases he was dealing with in some Sharia courts,” he said.

Yesterday, Choudary took to Twitter to criticise the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit raid on Hajar’s meeting last Thursday in Cardiff, referring to “brutal British police”.

In Tuesday’s Echo, Hajar denied he was linked to Muslims Against Crusades.

Chairman of the Muslim Council of Wales, Saleem Kidwai, said: “they keep changing their organisations but they are all the same group. It’s the same people, different name. Islamic Path was proscribed so they cannot [use that name].”

Hajar, of Grangetown, also defended his right to pray for Osama bin Laden in Riverside’s Despenser Gardens after his death in May.

“we were asking God to forgive him for the mistakes that he had made,” he said.

Illustration: Theotokos, Virgin Mary, Albanian icon

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem. In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

. . .And make mention of Mary in the Scripture, when she had withdrawn from her people to a place in the East, and had chosen seclusion from them. then We [God] sent unto her our Spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect human being. She said: “Truly I seek refuge in the Merciful One from you, if you are God-fearing”. He said: “I am only a messenger of your Lord, to give to you a pure son”. She said: “How can I have a son when no man has touched me, neither have I been unchaste”? He said: “Even so. your Lord says: ‘It is easy for me. And that We may make of him a revelation for humanity and a mercy from us, and it is a thing ordained’”. And she conceived him, and she withdrew pregnant with him to a distant place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried out: “Oh! Would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and unseen!” then (a voice) called out to her from beneath her: “Do not grieve, for surely your Lord has made a stream to flow beneath you; And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree, it will drop on you fresh ripe dates: so eat and drink and refresh yourself. then if you see any person, say: ‘Surely I have vowed a fast to the Merciful One, so I shall not speak to any one today’”. then she brought the child to her own people, carrying him. They said: “O Mary! you have come with an amazing thing. O sister of Aaron! your father was not a wicked man nor was your mother an unchaste woman”. then she pointed to the child. “But they said, ‘How shall we speak to one who is still in the cradle, a little child?’ Jesus said, ‘Behold, I am God’s servant; God has given me the book and made me a prophet. God has made me blessed, wherever I may be; and God has enjoined me to pray and to give alms so long as I live, and likewise to cherish my mother; God has not made me arrogant or unblessed. Peace be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive’”. Qur’an, Chapter of Mary, (19:16—35)

Good evening, al-salaamu alaikum, peace be upon you all.

I am, as ever, honoured to be here with you on this blessed night at Trinity-St. Paul’s. it is a great joy to be back in this church, both in the primary meaning of that word as this gathering of people, and in the secondary meaning of this amazing physical space that we share.