M. M. ALAM

LONDON: The 45-year-old son of an immigrant bus driver, Sadiq Khan, who secured 1.3 million votes to become first ever Mayor of London, called his success a victory of unity over division.

Terming Tory smearing campaign as “something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook” Khan held that in order to secure votes, Conservatives have used fear to try and turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other.

Sadiq Khan, commenting on the mayoral campaign, observed that it may have discouraged young ethnic minority Londoners from getting into politics.

Reminding that he had spent his entire life fighting extremism and radicalization, encouraging minority communities to get involved in mainstream politics and civic society, Khan claimed that he had managed to do that.

Maintaining that was a matter for the PM to handle, Khan declined to call for David Cameron to apologize for the campaign. Khan said that he wanted to work with the Government to combat radicalization in Muslim communities.

Tory Mohammad Amin who heads Conservative Muslim Forum said that Goldsmith’s attempt to smudge Khan had increased their risks of suffering terrorism.

Writing on the Conservative Home website Amin said that he was disgusted by Zac Goldsmith’s campaign which repeatedly tried to portray Khan as a security risk and even an ally of terrorist sympathizers.

Criticizing Zac, Amin said his attempts to tarnish Khan have probably increased their risks of suffering terrorism. He noted that Isis was perpetually seeking to radicalize and recruit young British Muslims to their cause.

Amin said that he believed there was a risk that young impressionable British Muslims, who witnessed Khan being smeared in that manner, would thus be made more vulnerable to radicalization than they were before.