Gina Khan is a very brave woman. Born in Birmingham 38 years ago to Pakistani
parents, she has run away from an arranged marriage, dressed herself in
jeans and dared to speak out against the increasing radicalisation of her
community.
“There are mosques springing up on every street corner,” she says, pointing
them out to me as we drive to her tiny house in Birmingham, near the
district where nine men were arrested last week on suspicion of plotting to
kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier. Two suspects have since been
released without charge.
We pass the biggest mosque, Birmingham Central, where Dr Mohammad Naseem
preached at the weekend that British Muslims were being treated like Jews
under the Nazis and that the Government had “invented the perception” of a
terrorist threat.
“He is not the voice of Muslims in Birmingham,” says Khan, angrily. “I don’t
how he has got himself that position. He does not know what he is talking
about, he is 80 years old and needs to retire. If you want someone to be
running these establishments, you need a British Asian, modern, liberal
man.”
Over the past 15 years, she says, there has been an influx of jihadist
thinking into her part of Birmingham. Bookshops sell radical literature and
the mosques preach separatism and hatred. The Government and the white
Establishment have allowed it to happen. And she is outraged about it. “It’s
all happening on your doorstep,” she says, “and Britain is still blind to
the real threat that is embedded here now.
“I truly believe that all these mosques here are importing jihad. The radical
teaching is filtering through, and these mosques are not regulated. They are
supporting everything that is wrong about Islam. We within the community
knew this. People are lying. They are in denial. They knew they were
bringing in radicals.
“But there are still more English and British people, no matter what, and if
they got together and wanted to stamp out this radicalism, they could. I am
wasting my time talking to my own people; that is why I am sitting here
talking to you, to open your eyes.”
Khan is particularly worried about how mosques are brainwashing children and
young people: “To me, it is starting to look like a cult.” And her local
community certainly seems to be in denial. “After the raid I went to the
corner shop here, and they were all saying it was a conspiracy. I turned
round and said, ‘No, it is not. Let us be honest’.
“They say we’re being victimised. We’re not. The truth is coming out at last,
but it’s 20 years too late.” The trouble is, says Khan, that many of the
Pakistanis who have come to Birmingham are all too easily swayed. “Most of
them are ignorant, uneducated, illiterate people from rural areas. It is
very easy for them to be brainwashed, very easy. These are people who have
been taught from the beginning that our religion is everything, it is the
right way. You are going to Hell simply because you were not born a Muslim.”
Khan is far too independent-minded to accept these beliefs wholesale. “I
would say to my mum, ‘Are you telling me that Mother Teresa is going to
Hell?’ and she didn’t have an answer. My mum was not backward, but everyone
is being taught that Islam is going to take over, there are going to be
mosques everywhere. This is something jihadists have planned for centuries.
They were just looking for our weaknesses, which they have found.”
Khan believes that the radicals have coopted concerns about foreign policy to
suit their cause. When she began to be worried about what the mosques were
teaching her children, she decided instead to ask a female student to
instruct them at home. Khanpicks up the story: “She was in the kitchen
making the tea and it was after the London bombings. She said, ‘What do you
think about what’s happening in Palestine?’ I got angry. I didn’t realise
how patriotic I was getting. I turned round and said, ‘I do not care what is
happening in Palestine or Israel. I give a damn about what is happening on
my doorstep. I have family in London. Look at what is going to happen
because of these few people. Look at the people who have died or had limbs
amputated. Where were the Muslims then? Why did not anyone care? Because
they were mostly white Christians’. And now they’ve turned the bombers’
graves into shrines! They’re just killers.”
Khan says she would be delighted if her son joined the British Army or the
police. “I say to him, ‘You have these options, you can go into the army and
police. You are British, do not listen to anybody else’. I had too much
rubbish fed in me that I would be too Westernised. I was told to keep my
distance from you because I am a Muslim. It is still really hard to explain
to you how you are conditioned. From a young age those thoughts are put in
your head: ‘I am a Muslim. I do not mix with those people’. I would honestly
say that we are more racist and more prejudiced than the English.”
Yet she feels utterly British herself, and senses no conflict between her
race, her religion and her nationality. “I am definitely British. I have a
British passport. I love this country. When I went to Pakistan I missed my
baked beans. It was as simple as that for me. I went in the 1980s and found
that there was more rock music, head-bangers, modern kids there than what
was happening here. I came back and said to my mum, ‘What have you been
doing to me in this country?’ ” What has been done to her — and so many
other Muslim women — is what incenses Khan most, and has emboldened her
tospeak out. Muslim society, she says, is based on male domination and the
oppression of women. The mosques are run entirely by men, the Sharia
councils are run by men, the “voice” of the Muslim community is always male.
And it is women who suffer as a result.
Three issues in particular enrage her: forced or arranged marriages for
teenage girls, polygamy and the veil. Khan herself was pressurised into
marriage at the age of 16 by her father, against her mother’s wish-es. “I
was manipulated by my dad’s side of the family into a teen marriage — you
know, you are a passport for someone from Pakistan. My mum wanted me to
study and make something of my life because she knew what this country had
to offer.”
Khan married and became pregnant, but after her baby died she says that she
suffered terrible postnatal depression and left the marriage. Her family
disowned her, as did the Muslim community. “Where is the support in the
community for women?” she asks. “Where is it? It is not here. The best thing
you can do is go to the social services.” She is full of praise for the
instruments of the British state: social services, the police, job centres.
If she were prime minister, she says, the first thing she would do is ban
teen marriages. “They are still being pulled out of the local girls school
here and taken back home, aged 16 or 17, not allowed to get an education.
These girls are so young, they can be manipulated by their family’s culture
and religion. They don’t have a chance. To wait until they are 25 or so
would make more sense.”
The mosques, she says, collude in these marriages, as they do in the informal
polygamy that she claims is rife in Muslim communities. “It is still very,
very common here, polygamy. This is Pakistan I have just brought you back
into,” she says, gesturing at the streets of terraced and semidetached
houses. “I know enough stories from women who have come out from abroad,
settled with their husbands in arranged marriages and then their husbands
have gone back to Pakistan to marry someone else and work out a legal way to
get them in the country. In 21st-century Britain the men in the mosques are
saying that polygamy is OK, when it does nothing but increase depression in
women. No woman in her right mind can share a man. I defy any woman to say
she can.”As a result, the first wives get desperately depressed. “I am not
exaggerating this. There is a majority of mothers with depression. Fathers
commit polygamy; any child you ask tells you it is an unhappy and sad
situation to be in. It is damaging to society. It should not be happening in
21st-century Britain. They need people to stop it happening.”
But the mullahs are implicitly condoning both forced marriages and polygamy.
“They do not question or do anything about the fact that there are two
people who do not want to get married. They are no good with these issues
because their answer will be, ‘Yes, he is a man, he can have two wives. Yes,
you should listen to your parents and marry the person they have chosen’.”
So, although polygamy is illegal in Britain, it is still, says, Khan, being
practised with a Muslim seal of approval. The “marriages”, after all, are
being sanctioned in the mosques. “My mum would turn in her grave if she knew
Sharia was here. This is England, how can this be happening, how in this
country? People in Pakistan are fighting for it not to happen there.”Khan is
also vociferous on the subject of the veil, which is not, she says, a
religious requirement: “It’s a 7th-century garment that should not be in
this country.” In places like Pakistan, where there is little protection by
the police from sexual harassment, she can see the point of it, but not
here.
“It hurts me,” she explains. “This was once a nice, mixed area. It hurts me
that people are on the streets and women are afraid to walk around. No one
is talking to each other, white women on one side, veiled women on the
other, walking around. They are ignoring me too. I do not know them and I
cannot say hello to them either.”
As for the woman who was recently photographed in a burka, sticking two
fingers upto the photographer, “To me, I felt she did that to me. To me it
was a sign of the real thing which you don’t see. They are not all pious and
vulnerable and dignified under that garment. If she was, she would not have
done that.”
Khan often dresses in Western clothes, but not immodestly. Her sleeves are
long, and she wears jeans, not a skirt. But she resents being judged by men
and more fundamentalist women for choosing to do so. “On one side you have
liberal Muslims who do their own thing and on the other, you have the
fundamentalists and they are looking down at you. That’s the worst thing,
they look down at you because you do not want to be like them. You get grass
thrown inyour face, you cannot be a good person unless you are reading the
Koran, unless your children are and you are living as an Asian woman
should.”
Having banned teen marriages and the veil, cracked down on polygamy and
ensured women’s representation in mosques, Khan’s next priority as prime
minister would be to get rid of faith schools and teach Britishness more
effectively. Although her children are taught well at an excellent Catholic
school, she fears that Muslim schools exacerbate separatism. “Britishness
should be compulsory in schools, taught by English teachers. And we should
let kids know how valuable their British passports are around the world.”
Khan would love to start a movement of like-minded people, who are grateful
for what Britain has given them. “I am trying to get together people,
whether Christian, white, black, Turkish. Whoever you are, we have one thing
in common: we care about Britain, we care about our country. Whoeveryou are,
we want this country to be a safe place. We want to live here, we know we
have the best place.
“Compared with Third World countries, compared with every Muslim country, we
Muslims are a lot safer here, I know that still. I would not want to leave
and move to Pakistan or anywhere on my own as a woman with a grown daughter.
I know that now, though it may have taken me a lifetime to realise it. I am
so lucky to have been born here.
“We are women, we are treated equally here. If I am raped or sexually abused,
the cruellest things that can happen to a woman and leave a residue on your
life, this is a country that supports you. I do not have to hide. They are
going to help me, give me counselling. What are they going to do in a Muslim
country? Stone me. I need four witnesses. They are going to ostracise me, as
if I am dirty.”
But still, within the British Muslim community, women are not equal. “We are
just treated as second-best. It has always been like that. It does not
matter whether you are from a village and backward or from a cultured Asian
family — the mentality across the board is the same.
“You are fighting this mentality all your life, so it is hard to be who you
are. You can either be miserable, as I was for 34 years, or you can say,
‘You know what? I am ahuman being, God gave me a brain equal to the brain he
has given you and I am not going to bend over and pray behind you just
because you are a man’. Nobody can change that about me because I totally
believe that.
“Muslim women aren’t suppose to make waves. I didn’t even hear my own screams
and tears for 34 years. I have now stepped back and decided to understand
and challenge my religion.”
So Khan wants like-minded women (and men) to join her. “We need to get
together. We need mothers getting together. You know what? It is one thing
to sit and talk about it and be angry about it; it is another thing if they
play psychological games. We can show how mentally strong we are, we women,
we can do it, mothers can.
“Let us have a stronger voice. Let us start with the real problems and say,
‘Whether you like it or not, this is what we demand’. We could start with
all the things that should have been done a long time ago. I would start by
ending the teen marriages.“A whole generation of us have been messed up by
these arranged marriages. Women like me lived in depression for 30, 40
years. We do not want to be depressed any more. We want to have a strong
voice.”
But it is a very brave course to embark upon. Already Khan has had bricks
through her car window for speaking out locally about domestic violence and
sexual abuse, issues that are taboo in the Muslim community.
She is determined, though, to stand strong. “It has been a constant mental
battle for me all my life until I decided I am who I am, I am not afraid. I
have been living in this community, but lots of thing I say people will not
like.
“I fear no one. I fear God punishing me for never revealing the truth. Women
like me usually jump in front of a running train. I was close once, but I’ll
be damned if I let another jerk put the fear back in me again. I have
freedom of speech, too.
“I am not going to live in fear. I have been told not to say too much. I have
been told to be careful what you say, there are people, men, out there who
won’t like it.”
But there are thousands, millions perhaps, who will. They will cheer for Gina
Khan, admire her courage and pray that she remains safe. “The bottom line
for my agenda is to eradicate the radicals,” she declares. “We need to say,
‘Wake up, you have to understand you are not being taught the right thing’.”
Let’s just hope they listen. ginakhanmail@googlemail.com
Before islam people used to bury their daughters.women is beautiful and GOD made her covered if you uncover them then men finds attraction in men and guy marriage will happen everywhere.Pakistani society is not an islamic society but a hindu society bcoz our forefathers were non-muslims.think!
ahsan, london, UK
i think gina is not all there. i agree there is a degree of women not being equal to men but that happens in many religions,these days there are laods of asian women that educated to degree level and working with being married and having children and their parents want them to hav good careers and a good life not just the boys.me my 2 sisters and my 2 brothers hav all gone to uni i am married by my own choice with 1 child and i go 2 work my dad paid 4 us all to hav drivin lesson so we could b indepent.gina has her own opion but she shouldnt force her views on others her own experiences r not what every muslim suffers she needs to sort her personal issuses out and her anger not blame the men in her religion 4 what has happend!
mariya hussain, birmingham, uk
The artical is very good but things have moved forward now yet there are issued which need to be addressed.
I am a victim of child sexual abuse for 8 years and am now 22 years of age and proceeding to the courts for Justice, everyone in my community ignores me hates the fact that i am taking him to court beacuse i am Pakistani and he is religious and a quran reciter (hafiz) so they blame me.
I have been through hell and backwards because i have tried to commit suicide but failed on every occasion.
Noone who knows the truth will go and defend me court because we are Pakistani and we don't do that so clearly this needs to be addressed.
I have been trying to find out if the quran has anything for women like me who have suffered but there is nothing just adultery not rape or abuse and in the freedom site all people have to say is if you dressed meat let you be treated like meat it dicusting i was a child i never dressed to impress so why me!!
Naz, West Midlands, UK
while reading this aticle i think it is horrable the way women are disowned by family if i was raped and my parent hated me i just say its not like i enjoyed it and it wasnt my fault khans parents are not understandinh and its allahs dua that it ever happens to other women then allah will protect them and keep them happy
Faiza, birmingham, uk
hmmm i have read all the comments and what a mixed interesting response.
As a few people have mentioned above Gina Khan's experiences are to do with the Pakistani culture in "Pakistan". I am a 25 yr old muslim married woman and have been bought up in a islamic way of life but nothing of the sort Gina Khan has mentioned. I am currently studying at university as are all my sisters we all wear jeans or is it westernised clothes? Nor have me or my siblings been forced into marriage. We have a choice and yet both my parents were born and brought up in Pakistan.
I don't see why she is blaming Islam Islam is nothing like the way she has mentioned, in Islam a WOMAN AND A MAN ARE EQUAL!!!
So she really needs to get her facts rights.
I admire the issues she is raising regarding Domestic Violence against women as that is wrong but the rest is just her personal anger and she is taking it out on her Religion.
Salma , Birmingham, uk
Whilst I think people like Gina Khan should have their say , I'm sick of the way the media holds people in her situation as some sort of example of the muslim communtiy.
I am a muslim woman and find the description of her childhood/family/community completely alien to anything I have ever known. Her "story" is just that, hers. It should not be depicted as anything else.
Natasha Akhtar, Manchester,
The way you talk it seems every Muslim woman is oppressed. I've seen many sisters, (in islam) wear niqab (it is not obligatory) burqa, and hijab proudly. I myself do not wear a niqab but i do wear hijab. Where I live there is no radicalism, no imams preaching hatred and so on. Or forced marriages, if people came here they would know the meaning of religion of peace. Your children I would assume would ask one day where their roots are, why they don't look like the white kids at school, what their religions are. They have a right to know don't they?
I believe that you situtation made you the person you are but don't ditch your roots and your religion because of it. At the end of the day you cannot change your skin color and where you come from.
Sereen, Porsmouth,
Hakam, are you honestly saying that in Islamic societies there is no prostitution and that women are never degraded or humiliated? Wake up.
Jessamy, Oxted, UK
Oh for God's sake Gina, lets just appreciate that Muslim women do not and have not all lived your (previous) life, that you were soooo brave to escape.
My father was a Muslim scholar and taught /solemised many Muslim marriages. If he had any suspicion that they were 'forced' he refused to proceed IN PUBLIC!!. As a young girl accompanying him I witnessed this once myself.
As for brainwashing and education I was taught to question everything, and I did, not something I know is encouraged in Catholic schools (or many, not all, Muslim schools.) My daughter went to one for a term and I was astonished at two things, one that she was the only asian in the school based in a heavily mixed asian area (so much for 'not integrating' ) and secondly that the catholic theology rammed down the throats of the students throughout the school day I believe was the worst sort of brainwashing.
sara, Leeds, UK
I'd like to know how she has the ability to know what is going on inside every single mosque in Birmingham? Gina Khan, Superwoman!
Shazia Awan, Merseyside,
I did not see Gina Khan condemn the whole of Islam, nor did I see her tell us that teenage marriage and polygamy was the norm in Islam.
She simply stated that it was a problem. If this only happened once in a while, it would still be a problem, and she has every right to be outraged about it.
Those of you that take offense to Gina simply talking about her own experiences, and what she has witnessed are only proving the point she is making. She has stated that people would like her to stop talking about it. If these awful things are truly the exception, then why do you take offense to her talking about them? And why do you read it as her condemning the whole of Islam? I think you all doth protest too much....
Meghan, Dallas, USA
Similar scenes are being played out in Sydney, where I live. they are mostly male clerics who preach in suburban mosques to what seem to be mainly disenfranchised younger men about how they will make Australia part of the Caliphate etc. But many if not most of these men are not working, or criminals, or ill educated. Just how do they imagine they will 'take over' and install Islam in Australia or for that matter Britain. By sheer numbers and bombs? I would have thought you'd need more than that. How about political representation? What about skilled professionals to do the work the 'infidels' here currently do, which pays the tax which pays their pensions? The skilled professional Muslims I know are too busy to worry about Jihad. It is so hard to take these fanatical clerics seriously. I should add that I have no truck with Muslims who want to worship peacefully but your god will never be my god. If you think that I will go to hell for lack of faith, then let that be my punishment.
Won't convert!, Sydney ,
>real Islam ... is anti-terror,anti killing,anti hatred
Of 57 countries with Muslim majorities all but a few are repressive, reactionary and authoritarian - and I don't think that civil war ridden Lebanon or Indonesia, where according to recent polls 40% favour Sharia -including hudd laws- are encouraging examples.
These 57 countries don't have much in common, neither the languages spoken nor their historical evolution - except for Islam, that is, plus the cultural values it entails and the part of history they share due to Islamic expansion. The UNDP's Arab Human Development Report made Arab world's utter failure obvious, and things are not to be expected better in Somalia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan or wherever Islam stifled science and progress in the last 1000 years, since al-Ghazali had the doors of Ijtihad door slammed shut, so that Muslims didn't dare to endeavour independent reasoning, as they did in the three centuries of Islam's glory days.
Islam fails the test of history, as did Marxism.
Marek Möhling, Berlin, Germany
Whenever a Muslim woman 'comes out' with the 'truth' people want to hear about Islam, she is praised to the high heavens and it matters not if a hundred Muslims or more point out the falsity of her allegations. I am sorry about her bad experiences but she can't condemn the whole of Islam and Muslims based that alone. She’s more a victim of Pakistani culture than anything else. She talks of forced marriages and polygamy as if they were the norm when they are the exception. Racism does exist but no more than in any other community. There’s been no ‘plan’ by ‘jihadists’ for ‘centuries’. This type of terrorism is new and alien to Islam. I object to her claim Muslims are doing nothing to fight radicalism within their communities. Thy are doing a lot of work. I object to her claim Muslims don't care about the victims of the 7/7 attacks. There were Muslim victims too. We cried and prayed for ALL the victims. The attacks were condemned at Friday prayers, even fatwas were issued.
Shazia Awan, Merseyside,
Its always the same when one Muslim woman 'comes out' with the 'truth' people want to hear about Islam. She is praised to the high heavens and it matters not if a hundred Muslims or more point out the falsity of her allegations.
I grew up in Birmingham and do not recognise the picture she paints of the Muslim community there. I am sorry about her bad experiences but a lot of them are the result more of the negative part of Asian/Pakistani culture and not Islamic practices. You can't condemn the whole of Islam and Muslims based on your own personal experiences. She talks of forced marriages and polygamy as if they were the norm when they are the exception. Racism does exist but not any more than in any other community. All of the mosques are certainly not radical.
There has been no ‘plan’ by ‘jihadists’ for ‘centuries’. This type of terrorism is new and alien to Islam. I object to her claim Muslims are doing nothing to stamp out radicalism within their communities. A lot of work is being done by them. I object to her claim Muslims don't care about the victims of the 7/7 attacks. There were Muslim victims too, as there were in the 9/11 attacks. We cried and prayed for ALL the victims. The attacks were condemned at Friday prayers, in written statements and even fatwas were issued but all of this is ignored.
Shazia Awan, Merseyside,
God bless Gina Khan and people like her. Here in east London, since 7/7, I've become used to being glared at by masked women in black robes. This used to be a friendly multiracial area. I wonder what we did that day to cause offence?
Before 7/7, like most people I know, I never gave a thought to people's religion. On that day, I hoped no one would blame Muslims for what I thought was the action of a few isolated nutcases. Since then (and long before the invasion of Iraq), I've been stunned by the rise in separatist politics.
Bilal Patel is wrong to claim Gina Khan's views have no following, as I personally know Muslims who are deeply opposed to separatism. There is massive pressure on them not to speak out, and to show unquestioning loyalty. I hate to see the divisions these separatists are fostering in what was, previously, a pretty good-natured multiracial community.
Jan, London, UK
Thank God for people like Gina, who are not afraid to stand up and be counted. Good for you!
When is this lily-livered government going to face the truth and start acting on it instead of going the path of least resistence and compromise (remember Chamberlain's compromise with Hitler?). But, like the proverbial frog in the gradually warmed-up water, most people will ignore the increasing heat until it's too late.
Fran, Nürnberg, Germany
Gina Khan does not know of what she speaks. Ask any Muslim woman in Britain if she has been sexually abused, or improperly touched,or not appreciated because of her gender. In whole, Muslim women are treated much better in Britain than their "white" counterparts. Islam offers women respect, dignity, and honor. The west offers them degradation, humiliation, and prostitution.
الإسلام هو الحل
Hakam, London, UK
I live near the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, a place that has seen raids in relation to the attempted July bombings, the airline terror plot, the protests at the Danish embassy in London and now this kidnap plot. There are undoubtedly extremists in this area like al-Ghuraaba that, for example, tell people it is unIslamic to vote in general elections or post stickers telling people if they worship Allah they are terrorists according to the British Government.
However, the picture Gina paints of Muslims in Birmingham, while has some truth, is pretty exaggerated. Not all mosques that are 'springing up on every street corner' are havens for extremists. I know and see many young women getting an education, in full time work and choosing whom they will marry - something that Gina would see for herself if she visited the colleges and universities of Birmingham.
Ultimately this article raises the question of who speaks for Muslims. Not extremists, not MCB, etc & not Gina. So who?
T Hussain, Bordesley Green, Birmingham,
I agree with abdullah,although i am religious girl,I do hate those extremist evil mullahs and imams who call themselves custodians of islam and trust me Pakistani society and mental state is sickest in the world,Go take your anger out on male dominated society who hurt women and strip us of right,My islam is love and has nothing to do with it.
I am not sure whether you're actually mad at your culture or Islam.those who know real Islam would know heart and soul that Islam is anti-terror,anti killing,anti hatred.
Mariam, NY, USA
Well done Gina, you are very brave to have spoken out and told the truth. The vast majority of Muslims I speak to are both religous and westernised and also abhor the lunatic fringe in their communities!
Barry Davidson, Manchester, England
I am British and see exactly what is happening to the country with this threat that has been allowed to progress unchecked. Gina has my utmost respect and admiration - she is a much needed voice from inside the Muslim 'community' and I pray that more people will come forward and stop what is effectively the abuse of a once great nation and its people. Gina has my full support than deepest heartfelt thanks.
Craig, Chelmsford, England
Keep up the good work Gina, I applaud your courage.
j.d., cardiff, wales
She claims that polygamouse marriages are common here, i dont know of any. She sounds a little bit bitter, she probably has a right to feel bitter, but not towards Islam, but towards her pakistani culture, im pakistani myself, i know how pakistanis are, and I admit, women are given very little importance, but in islam, a woman is mans equal. Gina i hope you get over the bitterness and realise that islam is liberation, and not prison.
Pakistani culture can be a prison (certain aspects which we share with hindus and sikhs) but islam is pure.
abdullah, birmingham, england
Its about time we hear something like this! Thank you Gina for pointing out what many Britons have neglected and the liberals practically applaud.
Doug Carter, Miami, Florida
Gina Khan sounds like she has a few personal issues and blames everyone else for it. She's a gem in the sense in that people can use her to bolster their own prejudices of Muslims.
She speaks only for herself. Rest assured that her views have absolutely no currency within the Muslim community. She is not brave, but she is being exploited.
If people do not want to make any progress and want people to reinforce their own prejudices, then by all means use people like Gina to make yourselves feel good.
Bilal Patel, London, UK
A breath of fresh air, Bravo Gina Khan, We all need to support her and others, if they can find the courage to speak out. The Truth Shall Set You Free.
M Shah, San Francisco, USA
"But it is a very brave course to embark upon. Already Khan has had bricks through her car window for speaking out locally about domestic violence and sexual abuse, issues that are taboo in the Muslim community.
“I am not going to live in fear. I have been told not to say too much. I have been told to be careful what you say, there are people, men, out there who won’t like it.”
Funny how anyone who criticizes the violence, intolerance, and call to Islamic supremacy within Islam is threatened with intimidation and death in Western countries; and beheaded and killed in Muslim countries.
I'm confused. I thought Islam is the religion of peace?
Michael, Helsinki, Finland
I wonder what Gina Khan has to say about the thousands of British women converting to Islam every year?. Giving up their jeans and liberal viewpoints for orthodox Islam. Poor Gina seems to be trying her hardest to ingratiate herself to the indiginous population, but let her make no mistake that their view of her will not change no matter what she says or does. Forced marriages are the norm amongst both the Hindu and Sikh traditions and a rarity amongst Muslims, yet no-one makes mention of that. As a Muslim woman, I love Islam and I love being an orthodox Muslim and its us who are in the majority, regardless of what people like G. Khan say.
Angelic, London, England
Surely not! Mosques teaching Jihad! I thought this was unheard of in the "religion of peace which has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extemists who misunderstand their own religion"
Mark David, Bournemouth,
I applaud her bravery.
I Think if we want change in the Islamic/muslim world we need to empower women within!!!
Paul, London,
Great article!! I hope more woman have the courage to speak out like Gina Khan!
Terry, london, UK
I think Gina's experiences of a forced marriage have led her to have this veiwpoint. Ban the veil and Muslim schools: What abt the thousands of Muslim WOMEN who want to wear the veil, regardless of what their menfolk think and send their children to Muslim schools?. Forced marriages occur in uneducated households and is cultural, rather than religious. I have noticed, that the majority of Muslim women who share Gina's opinions have had negative experiences in life, which they wrongly assume is from Islam. It would be beneficial, if such women would research this matter before they speak ignorantly about Islam and Muslims. I do wonder how much effort the Times goes through in finding these "odd" people to interview. But I suppose, as the majority of Muslim women happily wear the hijab and follow the tenets of Islam, they have to go that extra-mile in finding "Muslims" who will give a negative image of Islam.
Aysha, London, England
Outstanding article! We need to hear more first-hand perspectives such as this. Ms. Khan shares with all civilized people a love of individual freedom of choice. These are values intrinsic to all human beings - except of course those who are brainwashed by radicals. Ms. Khan is fighting one of the frontlines in a battle between modernity and barbarism, and we must all support her and those like her in resisting radical Islam all over the world. Gina Khan is a courageous young woman - I hope all like-minded individuals, whatever their creed or nationality, will stand beside her and others like her in this battle.
Joel Braverman, Mission Viejo, California, USA
Everyone should read Mary Anne Weaver's clarion call: "A Portrait of Egypt: A journey through The World of Militant Islam". 1997.
What's going on in Birminghams sounds exactly like what happened in during the 1970s to present with the islamization of Egypt: Neighborhood mosques starting popping up everywhere, fatwas were ordered to kill and plunder soft targets, such as Coptic Christians ("those who oppose Islam"), and Sharia law became the primary goal for the islamists in Egypt.
It's an amazing piece of literature, and one of the first that came out before 9/11.
And Gina is right. Deceit and murder is a common practice with the Islamists. Islam is revolutionary, expansionist ideology, that uses deceit and violence very much like all revolutionary ideologies (e.g. communism). And here's the proof: No islamic country that exists today became islamic/muslim willingly. They were all conquered ("submission") via force and violent coercian. Not one! It's not like St. Patrick who came back to Ireland from ancient Rome, after escaping his captors in Ireland, and won the inhabitants through love and good deeds. No. Islam converts through the sword, baptizes with the sword, and forces submission through the sword.
Ryan, San Diego, Ca.
If there were more people like Gina in the UK, I would be inclined to say that Britain had a chance against this perilous threat. However, I fear that the hour is drawing near that we will see Britain's fall to Islamism...
Bobby, Indianpolis, USA
We need more people like you, Gina. You are a very brave woman and a good human being. I am with you.
Helene, Paris, France
Great article!! I hope more woman have the courage to speak out like Gina Khan!
Terry, london, UK
I am one of the many thousands of women out there who will cheer for Gina Khan, admire her courage, and pray that she remains safe. I simply do not believe that the Koran was written to promote hatred and cruelty, and Gina is right to stand up to those who would corrupt its teachings.
Jo, Cambridge, UK
For the love of God. You folks need to wake up over there.
I weep for Britain-
Lee, Charleston, USC - SC
What an amazing women, what courage she shows puts to shame the men of Muslim faith that share her view secretly but are to fearful to unite in one voice with her.
Where is the mass coverage of this woman’s cries for help from all the other mainstream media outlets?
Two thumbs up for the Times in publishing this amazing woman’s story.
Nicholas, London,
Sounds like you folks have a treasure. Find some way to help her out. Get her a talk show! If you folks can't help, we'll take her here in the States. The talk show circuit is easy to get on.
As for changing the mosques, that sounds like an uphill battle she can do. Get more people - like her - shouting at the imams. They can't play the Victimology 101card when the critics are Muslim. Radical Islam will not change from external forces - only from within.
Gina Khan is within.
Tom L., Helena, Alabam, USA
What a brave and insightful article. We don't hear enough from moderate tolerant people in this country, including muslims and particularly muslim women. We appear to be sliding more and more into separate communities, with all the negative consequences that brings, especially lack of understanding and tolerance. Allowing different communities separate freedoms for fear of being considered racist is creating more separatism-faith schools,mosques that teach separatism, arranged marriages. We have an open and free society and have always welcomed others in but they have a responsibility to abide by our way of life and our laws. Those fighting against this for whatever reason are not welcome here.Thanks to Gina for speaking up, lets hope others step forward to join her.
mary davies, Chelmsford, england
Very brave of Gina Khan to say these things.
Barry G, London,
Thank God for the Times and columnists like Mary Ann Siegart and of course the persistent Muslim-extremism exposer Michael Gove.
I was appalled but, sadly, not surprised at today's Times 2 feature on the brave Gina Khan. And how are we going to recognise Gina's courage?
All of us should be emailing our MP, attaching today's piece an demanding what action they are going to take. Otherwise, the ludicrous policy, highlighted by Gina Khan, of consulting soi-disant representatives of Islam like the Muslim Council of Great Britain and apparently being guided by them will continue.
Barry Reamsbottom, London, UK
We are sleepwalking and cringing towards disaster. When Channel 4 Dispatches only a couple of weeks ago showed secret filming of the preaching of race hatred and praise of terror in Mosques across Britain not a single clip was shown on Channel 4 news, BBC or Sky News. I don't think any of the Immams has been arrested. When the plan to kidnap and behead people in Britain was revealed, the prime task of the interviewers on BBC and SKy seemed to be to highlight Moslems who claimed they were victims. No wonder so many Moslems are in denial. So is much of the media.
It's a tough job for brave Gina Khan. She says 'Wake up' to her fellow Moslems. Why should they? when the real potential victims seem not to give a damn about the fate being planned for them by people with the brainwashing, numbers, and finances, to carry it through.
Mike G, Maidenhead,