Thursday 26 April 2012

Things that really aren't a surprise...

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George Galloway is a muslim convert (although he didn't quite mention this fact in a recent by-election):

George Galloway, MP for Bradford West, is a Muslim. He converted more than ten years ago in a ceremony at a hotel in Kilburn, north-west London, attended by members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain. Those close to him know this. The rest of the world, including his Muslim constituents, does not. 

What I can't understand - unless George thinks his conversion might lose him votes - why he hasn't come clean about it? What sort of muslim does that make him?

Or maybe it is a surprise - Mr Galloway continues to deny the claim:

 "The opening paragraph of Jemima Khan's piece in the New Statesman [referring to an alleged conversion ceremony] is totally untrue. Moreover I told her it was fallacious when she put it to me. I have never attended any such ceremony in Kilburn, Karachi or Kathmandu. It is simply and categorically untrue."

So there you go! Clear as mud! Which really isn't a surprise at all.

Update II:

It seems that George really didn't go through this ceremony (although the New Statesman say he didn't deny it and he says he did):
 
“Jemima Khan asked me on tape about this phantom ceremony in Kilburn and I told her it was a lie and whoever told her it was a liar. No trace of this exchange appears in the New Statesman piece, which is predicated upon it. Now that they are denying my denial it places the matter in the hands of my solicitor.”

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1 comment:

John said...

I'm not sure that I like suggestions that white voters in Bradford West would choose to not vote for someone because of their religion or colour, nor that Muslims in Bradford would choose a Muslim over the person they thought would serve them best. Bradford West has shown this by never having a Muslim MP and spent over a decade with an MP who was neither white nor Muslim.

http://jatkinson1977.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/george-galloways-a-muslim-so-what/