London’s Muslim mayor to serve ‘every community’

LONDON / Bloomberg

Sadiq Khan of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party took over as London’s first Muslim mayor on Saturday, facing down critics who used his religion against him by vowing to “represent every single community” in the capital.
Khan’s election is a challenge to the rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric by right-wing politicians including French National Front leader Marine Le Pen and presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who promises to ban Muslims from entering the country.
London is a city “that not only tolerates but celebrates diversity,” campaigner Doreen Lawrence said as Khan was sworn in Saturday. Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, a British teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993, said the city had “chosen hope over fear.”
In brief remarks after taking the oath, Khan promised to be “a mayor for all Londoners.” Khan beat Conservative Zac Goldsmith, who had questioned whether Khan’s links in the Muslim community made him a suitable person to keep the UK capital secure, with 1.3 million votes to 995,000. The new mayor was sworn in during a ceremony in London’s Southwark Cathedral Saturday.
“I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again, a visibly emotional Khan said after the result was announced in London’s City Hall early on Saturday morning. “Fear doesn’t make us safer, it only makes us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in
our city.”