Morality Tales

It is a fact that under common Islamic marriage laws - taken from the Hadiths (sayings attributed to the prophet), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Tafssir (interpretation of the Quran), and of course the Quran - that while a Muslim man may take a non Muslim wife from the Christians or Jews (any children must be brought up as Muslims), no Muslim woman can marry a non Muslim man ... in fact only Tunisia legally allows such marriages in the Muslim world (although in reality families wouldn't).

The Brides of Galloway.

The reasons for this are a mixture of male chauvinism in a patriarchal Islamic society, and because a woman can't legally make such decisions under Sharia law i.e. Her male relatives father or brothers etc make the decision as to who she marries, and therefore it won't be a non Muslim.

 

Why am I mentioning this is that when George Galloway won the recent by- election in Bradford West parliamentary seat for the 'Respect party', it also came out that he had been practising some unusual marriage techniques with Muslim women. According to his public Wiki pages his matrimonial affairs run as follows:

• From 1979 to 1999, he was married to Elaine Fyffe, with whom he has a daughter aged 29.
• In 1994, aged 42, he married Amineh Abu-Zayyad (then 27) as a second wife in a non legally binding Muslim ceremony (later after his divorce from his first wife, he and Abu-Zayyad also undertook a legally binding civil ceremony); Abu-Zayyad was granted a divorce in February 2009, after an estrangement of several years, on the grounds of "unreasonable behaviour"; her petition was not contested.
• In 2005 aged 50, Galloway married as his third wife Rima Husseini aged 35, a Lebanese woman and former researcher, also in a non legally binding Muslim ceremony. She gave birth to their first son in May 2007, and a second son in December 2011 .... she and her father apparently claims they are still married in Islamic eyes.
• In March 2012, Galloway married Putri Gayatri Pertiwi aged 27, a consultant with a Dutch research firm ..... in a civil ceremony at the Houses of Parliament no less. 

Its important to note here, that living together is recognised as a relationship under English 'Common Law,' and therefore has a 'legal basis' in the UK, but its not the same as a full legal marriage and therefore doesn't break the letter of the bigamy laws. But to Muslim women these 'Muslim ceremonies' are 'legal marriages' under Sharia, and so using them without the civil ceremony has some connotations to them beyond 'living together', which is usually Haram (forbidden), under Islam.

Marriages are only legal in the UK and most European countries if they are conducted by a state registered cleric (very few Iman's are qualified), or followed by a registry office ceremony. Interestingly by 2016 the UK newspaper the Independent was describing Mr Galloway as having a child by his third wife, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi ..... so Rima Husseini has been consigned to history as just an affair by some sources.

Galloway was raised as a Roman Catholic and has never publicly renounced this faith nor converted to Islam that I am aware of .... rather he has used rather interesting terms which imply much, but say little ...

• He has stated at a Respect Party rally in 2012 that "We stand for justice and haqq" .... haqq means truth in the literal sense but to Muslims also means Allah (Al-Haqq, the truth, is one of the names of God in the Qur'an.)
• He also added that "A Muslim is somebody who is not afraid of earthly power but who fears only the Judgement Day. I’m ready for that, I’m working for that and it’s the only thing I fear".

These statements do not actually say that he is a Muslim, and don't say he's not, but could be read anyway the listener wishes to do .... implying much without saying much ...... clever words when used in a constituency, that is not fully literate in their native languages, let alone in English. But I do understand the English language, even so I am none the wiser as to whether he is a Muslim convert, and if not, why he is allowed to 'marry Muslim women' in Muslim ceremonies. 

 

His Wiki page suggests that he may have actually become a Muslim around 2000, but he later refuted the claims that he performed the shahadah (the Muslim conversion ceremony) at a hotel in Kilburn, north-west London, which was allegedly attended by members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain - although leaving some ambiguity as to his status as usual.

No doubt all will be revealed in the fullness of time .....

Updated 2018 to include 2016 news report.