George Galloway, who married three Muslim women, voices support for Imran Khan
British politician and broadcaster George Galloway became top hashtag trend in Pakistan when thousands of people posted tweets in his favor after he voiced his support for former prime minister Imran Khan and lashed out at the incumbent government on social media.
Pakistani Twitter is applauding George for praising former cricket hero and agreeing with him that he was ousted through a conspiracy hatched by the US and its local allies.
Galloway’s last three wives were Muslims and he married them in an Islamic ceremony. According to Imran Khan’s former wife Jemima Khan, Galloway converted to Islam around 2000; his shahadah was performed in Kilburn, London, in the presence of members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain. Jemima claims that while Galloway has informed “those close to him”, he chose not to disclose his conversion to the public. Galloway said that the shahadah had not taken place: “I have never attended any such ceremony in Kilburn, Karachi or Kathmandu. It is simply and categorically untrue.” He went on to reiterate his position that religious beliefs are a “personal matter”
In 1979, he married Elaine Fyffe, with whom he has a daughter, Lucy (born 1982). The couple separated in 1987 and divorced in 1999.
In 1994, Galloway married Amineh Abu-Zayyad, a biologist of Palestinian origin, in a non-legally binding Islamic ceremony; a legally binding civil ceremony followed in March 2000. 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.
Galloway married Rima Husseini, his former researcher, in a non-legally binding Islamic ceremony in 2005. Galloway had two sons, Zein (born 2007) and Faris (born 2011), with Husseini, who is from Lebanon.
On 31 March 2012, he married his fourth wife, Indonesian anthropologist Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, in an Islamic ceremony in Amsterdam. The initial event was followed by a traditional Javanese wedding ceremony in Sumatra and a civil marriage at the House of Commons in September 2012.