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London Elect First Muslim Mayor

Scorpion

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Labour's Sadiq Khan elected mayor of London
Tooting MP becomes first Muslim mayor of an EU capital after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 57% to 43%


Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, reclaiming the post for Labour after eight years of Conservative rule and becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital.

Khan took 1,310,143 votes (57%) after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614 (43%). His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.

The 45-year-old son of a Pakistani bus driver beat Zac Goldsmith at the end of a sometimes bitter campaign during which the Conservatives accused Khan of being “dangerous” and “pandering to extremists”. Labour complained that Goldsmith’s campaign was Islamophobic.

In his victory speech Khan said he was “deeply humbled by the hope and trust” voters placed in him, adding: “I want to thank every single Londoner for making the impossible possible.”

He added: “I’m so proud that Londoners have today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.”

The convincing win will provide solace to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after a poor set of election results overnight in Scotland, England and Wales. Khan becomes the first Labour leader at City Hall since the Conservatives’ Boris Johnson unseated Ken Livingstone in 2008.

“Cosmopolitan London will be reflecting on this result that London is capable of putting race, religion and identity to one side,” said Prof Tony Travers, director of LSE London. “This is concrete evidence of that.”

Even before the result was announced, Conservatives turned on Goldsmith’s campaign. Lady Warsi, a former chairman of the Conservative party, described it as an “appalling dog-whistle campaign” and said it “lost us the election, our reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion”.

Roger Evans, the outgoing deputy mayor, said Goldsmith’s “very foolish” campaign left a “negative legacy which we in London are going to have to clear up long after the people who ran Zac Goldsmith’s campaign have gone on their way”.

“I hope we don’t do this stupid thing again by trying to bring Sadiq down by saying he is an extremist,” added Andrew Boff, a senior Tory on the London Assembly. “He is not an extremist. He went out and engaged with people with orthodox religious views. Dialogue is not assisted by shutting people out.”

Even Goldsmith’s sister, Jemima, tweeted: “Sad that Zac’s campaign did not reflect who I know him to be – an eco friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity.”

Labour also secured 12 seats on the London Assembly, the Conservatives took eight while the Greens and Ukip took two each and the Liberal Democrats were reduced to one.

The result paves the way for Khan to implement a manifesto programme that he promised would make him “a mayor for all Londoners”.

The son of a bus driver, Khan was the fifth of eight children in his family and grew up on a council estate. He has promised to make solving London’s housing crisis a key priority, and has said he will freeze fares on public transport for four years.

He said he would set a target that half of all new homes should be “genuinely affordable”, promised to boost landlord licensing and to name and shame rogue landlords. Oxford Street would be pedestrianised, he said. He would restore the capital’s air quality to legal and safe levels and be “the most pro-business mayor yet”.

In continental Europe, where the mayoral election made headline news, the focus was firmly on Khan’s religion and family background rather than his politics. Headlines in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany included: “The first Muslim mayor of London”, “First Muslim mayor of a major European capital” and “The green millionaire vs the leftwing Muslim”. (The US Drudge Report, meanwhile, went with: “Developing – first Muslim mayor of Londonistan.”)

Khan led Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park, for almost the whole campaign, but his lead narrowed over the last fortnight from 16 points to nine points on polling day, according to YouGov.

There was speculation that the antisemitism row surrounding Labour, which resulted in the suspension of Naz Shah MP and Ken Livingstone from the party, could dent his hopes. Khan did come second to Goldsmith in the Barnet and Camden constituency, which has a large Jewish population, leading to speculation the controversy may have affected the result.

“The Conservatives will have to have a postmortem,” said Travers. “They would have been better hacking away at Jeremy Corbyn day and night as a strategy.”

Goldsmith’s campaign, overseen by the firm led by the Tory election strategist Lynton Crosby, sought to paint Khan, whose family are from Pakistan, as a supporter of Muslim extremists.

It sent leaflets to Hindu, Sikh and Tamil voters warning that Khan was “dangerous”. It did not mention that he was a Muslim, but several recipients felt it was divisive “gutter politics”. Another letter warning that Labour wanted to tax gold jewellery owned by many Indian families was also seen as stoking community tensions.

The home secretary, Theresa May, described the former transport minister as “unsafe” to run London at a time when we face “a significant threat of terrorism”, because of his history of defending extremists when he was a human rights lawyer.

Boris Johnson, who repeatedly joined Goldsmith on the campaign trail, had said: “In Islam and the Labour party there is a struggle going on, and in both cases Khan – whatever his real views – is pandering to the extremists.”

Khan is a married father of two who became a partner in a human rights law firm aged 27. He chaired the human rights group Liberty and was elected to parliament in Tooting in 2005. He became transport minister in the last year of Gordon Brown’s government.

If, as expected, Khan stands down from parliament, the result is set to trigger a byelection in Tooting, which Labour holds with a less than 3,000-vote majority requiring a 2.7% swing for the Conservatives to strike back.

Labour's Sadiq Khan elected mayor of London | Politics | The Guardian
 

pwarbi

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Most of the press is bound to concentrate on his religion, and while a lot of people have said that Goldsmiths campaign was underhanded, what he was saying wasn't a lie. Khan was involved with a number of extremists.

Only them and him will know what really went on, and I'm sure that we'll never find out but at the end of the day, the mayor of London is Muslim, and no matter what people might say in the press wanting to be politically correct, there's an unrest on the streets of England today, put it that way.
 

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My viewpoint is that we tend to make too much fuss of what divides us than what unites us. The fact remains that every religion, creed of colour has its moderates and extremists. An individual should be judged on the basis of his or her own worth, on the content of their character.
 

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While I agree that each individual should be judged on their own merits, and just because ges a Muslim shouldn't make a difference.

What should make a difference is that he's attended rallies and heard extremist Muslim leaders rant about causing a fire throughout the world. What should make a difference is that he's long been labelled a terrorist sympathiser for defending another Muslim extremist Dr Azam Tamimi over comments he's made.

All this was told to the people of London, and they've made their bed, lets hope they get to lie in it.
 

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Most of the press is bound to concentrate on his religion, and while a lot of people have said that Goldsmiths campaign was underhanded, what he was saying wasn't a lie. Khan was involved with a number of extremists.

Only them and him will know what really went on, and I'm sure that we'll never find out but at the end of the day, the mayor of London is Muslim, and no matter what people might say in the press wanting to be politically correct, there's an unrest on the streets of England today, put it that way.

What do you mean by ''Khan was involved with a number of extremists''? You mean terror organizations? Or terror affiliated groups?
 

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While I agree that each individual should be judged on their own merits, and just because ges a Muslim shouldn't make a difference.

What should make a difference is that he's attended rallies and heard extremist Muslim leaders rant about causing a fire throughout the world. What should make a difference is that he's long been labelled a terrorist sympathiser for defending another Muslim extremist Dr Azam Tamimi over comments he's made.

All this was told to the people of London, and they've made their bed, lets hope they get to lie in it.

Extremism should not be linked to religions. An extremist is an extremist regardless of his/her faith. Religions don't teach extremism. Its the person that use religion to justify an action and should be called an extremist person but not an Islamic extremist. We should be civilized and learn how to classify people accordingly without creating labels that incite violence and create clashes among people?
 

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But seeing as Sadiq Khan as shared a platform with somebody who is described as a Muslim ISIS supporter (Suliman Ghani), spoke at a rally where they was flying the Jihadists black flag, and then called moderate Muslims 'uncle Tom's' as they were letting down the so called 'real Muslims', that behaviour to me smacks of extremism.

The fact he's gone on to say he's a proud Muslim, and thanked the Muslims of London for their vote, kind of says to me (and millions of others) that he's a Muslim, that's also an extremist, so no matter if it's right or wrong, you can see why people put the two words together.
 

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But seeing as Sadiq Khan as shared a platform with somebody who is described as a Muslim ISIS supporter (Suliman Ghani), spoke at a rally where they was flying the Jihadists black flag, and then called moderate Muslims 'uncle Tom's' as they were letting down the so called 'real Muslims', that behaviour to me smacks of extremism.

The fact he's gone on to say he's a proud Muslim, and thanked the Muslims of London for their vote, kind of says to me (and millions of others) that he's a Muslim, that's also an extremist, so no matter if it's right or wrong, you can see why people put the two words together.

The Flag/ banner ISIS uses is that of Prophet Mohammed PBUH which ISIS hijacked so rising the banner doesn't mean supporting ISIS. Another thing is that Sulaiman Ghani has openly spoken against ISIS in an event held somewhere in South London. You and the people who use such a phrase are nothing but an islamophobics.

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Is that the same Imam that says women are subservient to men and condemned homosexuality?

If not wanting a man that calls moderate Muslims uncle Tom's, and hangs around in the same circles as Azam Tamimi, Ismail Patel, Ibrahim Hewitt and Daud Abdullah to be a mayor of London makes me an islamaphobe then so be it.

Would you want any of those people to be in power in the US, or in your country? Kahn could be a jew, Christian or any other religion for all I care, but if he's supporting people like this, then he shouldn't be the mayor of London, but that's just my opinion.
 

pwarbi

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Just to follow up in this, Khan as now come out with the statement that if Trump gets into power and tries to stop Muslims entering the US, they will have every right to declare war and attack your country.

So do we still think that Khan is a good choice for a position as important as the mayor of London?
 

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Just to follow up in this, Khan as now come out with the statement that if Trump gets into power and tries to stop Muslims entering the US, they will have every right to declare war and attack your country.

So do we still think that Khan is a good choice for a position as important as the mayor of London?

Pathetic statement by him, if he indeed said that. He and other EU politicians should keep their noses out of US domestic affairs. Islam needs a reformation as well, which is slowly occurring overseas, and we don't want Muslims in the West to revive it. It's like two different realities, in the East, people had enough of religion. In the West, there is lack of religion and some people try to regain spirituality, and as they grow older, they tend to 'settle down' if you will and become more religious.
 

pwarbi

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It was in response to Trump being asked if Khan's election as mayor of London would mean that he would be allowed in to the US if he became president, and he replied there will be no exceptions.

It might be just a war of words between the two, but at a time like this it's not what people want to hear.
 

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Remnant said it best. Every religion has it's extremists. Islam is a very peaceful religion and all the extremists are using Islam to hide behind. Qur’an 6:151 says, “...and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully.”. This roughly translates to "...murder is forbidden, but the death penalty installed by the state for a crime is permitted. I don't think soldiers have been committing any crimes that result in a beheading. Besides, the KKK were Christian Extremists, proving that all religions have extremists. I think that having a Muslim mayor could show that Islam is peaceful, and is not what we perceive through the media

Oh and I find it funny how Trump is banning Muslims entering USA, but will let Londons new Mayor in XD
 

pwarbi

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Remnant said it best. Every religion has it's extremists. Islam is a very peaceful religion and all the extremists are using Islam to hide behind. Qur’an 6:151 says, “...and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully.”. This roughly translates to "...murder is forbidden, but the death penalty installed by the state for a crime is permitted. I don't think soldiers have been committing any crimes that result in a beheading. Besides, the KKK were Christian Extremists, proving that all religions have extremists. I think that having a Muslim mayor could show that Islam is peaceful, and is not what we perceive through the media

Oh and I find it funny how Trump is banning Muslims entering USA, but will let Londons new Mayor in XD

Trump as said that there will be NO exceptions, so he wouldn't allow Khan to come to the US. That's why I said, maybe Khan saying what he did was merely fighting talk after he heard that?

Either way, turn the clock back 5 years, and who would have thought that London would have a Muslim mayor of London, and Trump had a shot at being president of the US?
 

TheOptical

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Trump as said that there will be NO exceptions, so he wouldn't allow Khan to come to the US. That's why I said, maybe Khan saying what he did was merely fighting talk after he heard that?

Either way, turn the clock back 5 years, and who would have thought that London would have a Muslim mayor of London, and Trump had a shot at being president of the US?

It's just what I heard on the BBC website. Personally, I think he makes no sense. He said that he loves Hispanics on Cinco De Mayo, yet he expects the Mexicans to pay for this stupid wall

Anyway, 5 years ago, I don't think anyone would have expected a Muslim mayor, and I don't think anyone know who Trump was!
 
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