Significance of Khans win
A number of glass
ceilings have been broken through. Khan was from
a far less privileged
background than his opponent and
yet he won
H A Hellyer
London has achieved a milestone. Against the backdrop of rising concerns about community cohesion in Europe, it was quite something when the capital of England elected a Muslim mayor. But is this really a victory over bigotry or is it too soon to tell?
Before Sadiq Khans success, he was subject to a widespread campaign to link him to extremists by significant members of the Conservative party leadership. Following Khans victory, senior Conservatives had to roll back these comments.
In the weeks before the vote Michael Fallon, the UK defence secretary, raised questions about the safety of London if Khan was elected. After the vote, Fallon had to confirm that London was, indeed, safe with Khan at the helm. Does Khans victory mean that bigotry is something we ought not to be worried about any more in British politics? He did win, after all.
But that isnt the whole story. The whole story is that a rather large proportion of the London electorate still voted against Khan.
Even though it was clear that questions were being asked of Khan that would never have been asked of any non-Muslim candidate. Eventually, there were reversals and a walking back of the smears. David Cameron had to apologise for accusing an imam who had shared a platform with Khan of supporting ISIL. But it is likely there would have been none of that had Khan lost the election.
Beyond the part of the electorate that voted Conservative, there was another chunk that went for the British First party, a far more right-wing alternative, which received a very small minority of votes. But not an insignificantly small one, and their candidate, Paul Golding, showed utter disrespect for British democracy during Khans acceptance speech, as well as for Khan personally, by turning his back on the new mayor.
Inadvertently, Fallon himself pointed out part of the problem during an interview with the BBC when he said questions were asked about the platforms that [ Khan] shared with various extremists, and those questions were asked during the election not just by us but by the media too on your own programmes. Sadiq Khans rise from the son of an immigrant bus driver to the first Muslim mayor of an EU capital has been accomplished with skill and commitment, but also the toughest of skins.
Not only did the Labour candidate have to overturn eight years of rule in London by Britains governing centre-right Conservative Party, he also had to weather a vicious opposition campaign that accused him of having links to extremists and threw into doubt his professed moderate views.
Londoners have every reason to loathe terrorists after enduring decades of attacks by Irish republicans followed by intermittent violence and threats from Islamic extremists, including the July 2005 bombings that killed 52 people.
But enough voters ignored what Khan called a smear campaign against him to choose the 45-year-old over the Conservatives Zac Goldsmith. The son of the late Sir James Goldsmith, an Anglo-French billionaire tycoon, financier and publisher, Zac Goldsmith, 41, has a starkly different background to Khan.
The official results of the mayoral election were still to be announced late on Friday night UAE time, but the centre-left Labour Party had already claimed victory.
Congratulations Sadiq Khan. Cant wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all!, tweeted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The new mayor, who is married with two children, was born in London to Pakistani parents who emigrated to the UK shortly before his birth. The fifth of eight children, Khan in a local authority flat on a housing estate and earned money as a boy from a newspaper delivery round, weekend jobs and, during the school holidays, shifts on building sites. While his father drove buses, his mother worked as a seamstress.
Though Khan was initially set on becoming a dentist, he followed a teachers suggestion that his argumentative character might better suit legal studies.
The teacher was right. Khan went on to qualify as a solicitor and gain a reputation for his work in human rights litigation, acting for those from ethnic minorities in conflict with the police or in cases concerning unemployment and education.
Khan served as a local councillor for more than a decade before winning a seat in parliament in 2005, representing the Tooting constituency in which he has lived his whole life.
There appears little about Khan to worry the London electorate.
In a speech earlier this year, he said: As mayor, I will be the British Muslim who takes the fight to the extremists, who gives our experts and emergency services the resources they need to keep us safe and who tackles the underlying conditions that allow extremism and radicalisation to take hold.
And according to Khan, extremists have attacked him for being too moderate.
I have had death threats from extremists when I voted for same-sex marriage, he said. I had to discuss police protection with my young daughters, something that no parent should have to do.
He has also distanced himself from recent allegations of anti-semitism within Labours ranks, urging Corbyn, to get a grip on the crisis that has led to the suspension of former London mayor Ken Livingstone.
And yet Goldsmith accused his rival of belonging to a political movement Labour as led by Corbyn that thinks terrorists are its friends.
The prime minister, David Cameron, also reiterated the allegation in parliament, most recently on the eve of the mayoral election.
He shared a platform with Sajil Shahid, the man who trained the ringleader of the 7/7 attacks and accused the US of bringing 9/11 on themselves, Cameron said, describing Khan as a man who has appeared again and again and again in public with extremists.
The rather troubling discourse that the Conservatives used in a bid to install one of their own party members as London mayor was not just idle chatter, it was a narrative that much of the British media indulged in.
That in itself ought to be cause for concern.
The writer is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London
