Muslim Women vs. Islamism: An Interview with Gina Khan

Gina Khan is a British Muslim woman who lives in Birmingham’s Ward End, an
area in which men were recently convicted of a plot to kidnap and kill a British
Muslim soldier. In this interview she sets her story of oppression and liberation
against the backdrop of the unchecked growth of Islamism – ‘this backward and
male-dominated ideology,’ – in her city over the last 20 years. Questioning the
adequacy of the government’s response (‘I don’t see how the British Government
can defeat the ideology in Birmingham Sunni mosques by handing them half a
million pounds to eradicate radicalism when no one has even banned the anti
west, anti gay, criminal edicts on minorities or apostates, or books on the “War on
Islam”…’) Khan proposes the empowerment of Muslim women as the heart of the
fight back that could, in time, see ‘the silent majority stand up to counter doomsday
Jihadism.’ The interview took place in January, 2008. Thanks to the Westminster
Journal for kindly granting permission to reproduce this important act of witness.

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