Sadiq Khan: The Rise of London’s Muslim Mayor

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has made some powerful opponents. He doesn't know me, never met me, doesn't know what I'm all about. I think they're very rude statements and frankly, tell him I will remember those statements. My message to Donald Trump and his team is that, you know, your views of Islam are ignorant. He's the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital and proud of it. This is how Sadiq Khan went from the son of Pakistani immigrants to a lawyer, lawmaker and now the mayor of London. Khan's parents emigrated from Pakistan. His father was a bus driver, his mother a stay-at-home seamstress. The ten-strong Khan family squeezed into a three-bedroom flat in South London. He wanted to be a dentist but TV in the 1980s convinced him otherwise. Objection! LA law with its swagger and ill-fitting suits caught Khan's eye. He graduated in 1991 with a degree in law from North London University and joined a human rights firm. Khan worked a number of high-profile cases, often clashing with London's metropolitan police force. But he had bigger political ambitions. This is what being a new MP is like. Squatting on a bench in the absence of an office, dealing with letters from constituents. Reports are just coming in of an explosion here in London. It was just explosions and then it was just smoke everywhere. Everyone's just asking what's happened, what's happened? Only two months after Khan entered the Commons as a Member of Parliament, London was attacked by Islamist extremists. That day will stay with me for the rest of my life. He spoke out against the attacks, both as a London MP and as a Muslim. He has been very clear about his opposition to violence, opposition to terrorism and has set out to make the case for a more open and peaceful Islam. That's Thomas Penny, one of Bloomberg's Westminster correspondents. Here is a man who is a Muslim and he is standing up and being open and straightforward and being clear that the problem here is not Islam but it's Islamic extremism. In 2015, a decade after the attacks, Khan ran for Mayor of London and his faith was back in the headlines. His opponent, Zac Goldsmith, trying to link Khan to radical Islam. The debate got again personal and nasty. The Goldsmith camp has called Khan extreme and accused him of associating with, quote, those who seek to do our police and capital harm. It's a pattern of behaviour. Even the former Prime Minister David Cameron repeated the allegations. He shared a platform with Sajil Shaheed, the man who trained the ringleader of the 7-7 attacks and accused the United States of bringing 9-11 on themselves. But the smears didn't stick. Zac Goldsmith ran a very negative campaign that was based on what people knew was a lie This election was not without controversy and I'm so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division. After taking the Mayor's office with a comfortable majority, Khan has brought a business-like efficiency to the role, scrapping expensive vanity projects like the Garden Bridge and the new Routemaster buses, which cost £350,000 each. The former lawyer who used to fight the police in court is now praised for his close relationship with them. I was talking to a very senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police who said there was a sea change when he went into City Hall and the police were saying how much they welcomed this because they knew where they stood and it was more straightforward to work with. Khan's kept his faith at the fore. He's an outspoken voice for moderate Muslims across the world. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. Now by giving the impression that Islam and the West are incompatible, you're playing into the hands of the extremists. The ongoing spat between Khan and US President Donald Trump escalated when Trump went after Khan, misquoting him on Twitter just hours after the terrorist attacks of June 3rd, 2017. Khan's now one of the most prominent Labour politicians in the UK. In fact, a recent poll of Londoners found Khan was more trusted to keep the country safe from terrorism than the Prime Minister or the Labour leader. His story of going from the son of an immigrant bus driver to the mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world plays well with Londoners. But can he appeal to the rest of the nation? Has Khan got his eye on the top job and is the UK ready for a Muslim Prime Minister?