London Elects a Muslim Mayor Who Defended 9/11 Terrorists

by Raheem Kassam
Breitbart
May 5, 2016

https://www.meforum.org/5994/london-mayor-election

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^{Slightly edited version of an article originally published under the title “London Is About to Elect a Muslim Mayor Who Has Defended Islamists, 9/11 Terrorists, and Who Is Endorsed by Anti-Semites.”}

Sadiq Khan narrowly won London’s mayoral election on Thursday.

Londoners went to the polls on Thursday to choose a replacement for the outgoing mayor, Boris Johnson MP. Despite the fact the Labour Party is currently mired in ananti-Semitism scandal, the victory of its candidate, Sadiq Khan MP, was confirmed on Friday.

Mr. Khan, 45, has had a successful career in the Labour Party, being elected to parliament in 2005 and becoming a minister of state in 2008, with a promotion in 2009. He was a shadow secretary of state for justice from 2010-15 and has been running for London Mayor since then.

…

A Muslim Mayor?

Polling suggests some people are nervous about having someone like Mr. Khan near an office that wields so much power, responsibility, and cash.

The crimes of former Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman and others have left many voters distrustful of Muslim politicians.

Private conversations with Westminster insiders often see Lutfur Rahman – the former mayor of Tower Hamlets – raised as another example of a prominent Muslim mayor. Mr. Rahman was removed from office amid accusations of playing sectarian politics with the area’s Muslim population, backing Islamists, and distributing tax payer cash to his favoured Muslim groups to secure their support.

Mr. Rahman was found guilty of “corrupt and illegal practices” – and has perhaps set back the plight of the few integrated British Muslims in elected life. He – alongside politicians like Humza Yousaf,Sayeeda Warsi, Rushanara Ali, Shabana Mahmood,Yasmin Qureshi, Amjad Bashir, Naz Shah, and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh – have created a deep distrust between British voters and Muslim politicians.

In fact, one third of Londoners remain suspicious of having a Muslim mayor, and the likes of Sajid Javid or Syed Kamall suffer because of their coreligionists’ insistence on fellow-travelling with extremists, if not holding extremist views themselves.

Extremism

And Mr. Khan can hardly claim a clean record. Mr. Goldsmith’s attacks are not without basis, though they have been shrugged off as “racism” or “Islamophobia” with the assistance of the left’s useful idiots, like Owen Jones.

Apart from his somewhat threatening statements about not voting for him whileclaiming that “he is the West,” Mr. Khan’s own track record is perhaps one of the most sour of all Muslim politicians in the Western world.

In 2001 he was the lawyer for the Nation of Islam in its successful High Court bid to overturn the 15-year-ban on its leader, Louis Farrakhan.

Babar Ahmad

In 2005 and 2006 he visited terror-charged Babar Ahmad in Woodhill Prison. Mr. Ahmed was extradited to the U.S. in 2012, serving time in prison before being returned to the UK in 2015. Mr. Ahmed pleaded guilty to the terrorist offences of conspiracy and providing material support to the Taliban.

And Mr. Khan also campaigned for the release and repatriation of Shaker Aamer, Britain’s last Guantanamo detainee, who was returned to the UK in November.

Both Messrs Aamer and Ahmed provided Mr. Khan with links to the advocacy group CAGE, which described the Islamic State executioner Mohammed Emwazi as a “beautiful young man” and which has campaigned on behalf of both men. Mr. Khan is reported to have shared a stage with five Islamic extremists, including at sex-segregated events. Even so, his poll numbers remained firm until election day.

The ConservativeHome website lists even more concerns, including:

• A letter to the Guardian in the wake of the 7/7 terrorist bombings on London, blaming terrorism on British government policy;
• His legal defence of Zacarias Moussaoui, a 9/11 terrorist who confessed to being a member of Al Qaeda;
• His chapter in a book, entitled “Actions Against the Police,” which advises on how to bring charges against the police for “racism.” This is the same police force that Mr. Khan as London mayor would exercise authority over;
• His defence of Islamist extremist Azzam Tamimi. When Dr. Tamimi told a crowd that the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed would “cause the world to tremble” and predicted “Fire… throughout the world if they don’t stop,” Mr. Khan, who shared a platform with him, dismissed the threats as “flowery language.”
• His platform-sharing with Suliman Gani, a south London imam who has urged female subservience to men and called for the founding of an Islamic state.

Londoners got news on Friday that their mayor for the next four years is a man with the judgement, priorities, and fellow travellers as laid out above. This, combined with an annual £16bn budget and an army of police, bureaucrats, and officials, would make Mr. Khan one of the most powerful Muslims in the Western world.

RAHEEM KASSAM IS A SHILLMAN-GINSBURG FELLOW AT THE MIDDLE EAST FORUM AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF BREITBART LONDON.

Related Topics:  Antisemitism, Muslims in the United Kingdom  |  Raheem Kassam