The headline across the world said it all, “Muslim mayor elected in London,” or “London gets its first Muslim mayor”. For Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, this is not really a new thing. His religion has been used against him, by his opponents and by his fellow Muslims during the elections. In fact, he used it too, against a fellow Muslim years ago, when fighting to lead Tooting, the area that he grew up in.
The fact is this, London has now elected Khan as its mayor, with an overwhelming mandate; he was elected with over 57 percent of the votes. Khan is the first Muslim head of any European capital. That cannot be denied. But his religion doesn’t define him, even though his opponents sought to draw him out on it. Political rivals, including British Prime Minister David Cameron called him out for his stand on Islamic extremism, claiming that he sympathised with terror groups. Sadiq Khan denounced these “Trump-style attacks”, as he termed them, on coming to power two days ago. His rivals’ claims couldn’t be far from the truth, but they were based on certain truths.
Khan’s brother in law was a spokesperson for al-Mujahiroun, his own brothers were affiliated to Hizb ut-Tahrir, another extremist organization. Throughout the 2000s he shared the dais on many occasions with radical extremists. His friend, popular author and columnist Maajid Nawaz, wrote recently that Khan exercised “poor judgment in surrounding himself with Islamists and Muslim extremists.” Nawaz went further to suggest that while Khan was by no means radical, he just did this to garner votes.
Sadiq Khan is the son of a Pakistani bus driver, who then worked as a human rights lawyer until 2005, when he decided to get into politics. He tried to get into Parliament and worked on the campaigns of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, the former and the current head of the Labour party, respectively.
Khan is the mayor of London, a minority community leader and a beacon of light in these troubled times. The UK is heading towards an important juncture in its history, when it holds a referendum on June 23 on whether it stays in the European Union or opts out. Europe, and the UK, are also facing a massive refugee crisis, as refugees from war-torn countries and economically backward countries are heading over into the EU, for a better life. As a Muslim, Khan can change the views of those who look at every single refugee, all Muslim, as a threat to their country. Yes, there are many orthodox refugees who judge their surroundings and those who live in it, by how close they are to Islam. But there are also others who assimilate and integrate into society. Khan can be a beacon of light for those people and make them realise that everyone can aspire to lead someday.
As the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has a task ahead of him. He has to grapple with rising pollution issues, solve a housing crisis, create more jobs for Londoners and sort out transportation issues. But he also has to steer the minority ship, a group of communities that consider themselves British, by virtue of working knee deep in British soil for decades.
For Muslim extremists, Khan is not really Muslim enough. He supports marriage equality for example. For the Tories, he’s Muslim first and will remain so. But for London, Sadiq Khan is their mayor. That’s probably the best description of them all.
