LONDON (Web Desk) – After Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party became London mayor, there was much buzz in media about his religion. The news of his victory was headlined as “Sadiq Khan becomes first Muslim London mayor” by most media houses.
However, there is very little to celebrate about Sadiq Khan’s religion, after he had clearly sided with Israel in the Palestinian conflict in Middle East.
In an interview with Daily Mail, Khan revealed his plan to support a festival which aimed at showcasing Tel Aviv. On the other hand, he promised to oppose the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiative, which confronts Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, in the same interview.
Moreover, Sadiq Khan is also critical of his party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his engagements with Palestinian and Lebanese organisations including Hamas and Hezbollah. He believes that such approach could easily turn London into a potential terror target.
In the same interview, he also explained his refusal to discuss foreign affairs during the election campaign, saying he did it to look beyond the Palestinian narrative in the Middle East.
And while Khan’s own election campaign had to constantly face Islamophobic slurs, in the interview he said hijab-wearing women were suspicious and alien within London.
After he was sworn in as London mayor, his first official engagement was to visit the memorial of Holocaust victims.
On the other hand, he refused to attend an event of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to commemorate the Nakba: marking the expulsion and ethnic cleansing in of Palestinians in 1948.
