London Mayor Sadiq Khan compares Trump’s speeches to ISIS rhetoric
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has hit out at US President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, saying its tone reflects the propaganda touted by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
Speaking at an event hosted by the Guardian newspaper at this year’s Labour Party Conference in Brighton, Khan suggested the Republican leader is actually helping the terrorist group in creating a divide between ethnic groups in the Western world.
Voicing his opposition to Trump’s US travel ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority nations, and the president’s claim that Khan himself would be exempt from such a ban, the London mayor said: “My view was firstly ‘I’m not exceptional’ and secondly ‘Think about what you are saying.’
“Because what you are saying is not dissimilar to what Daesh or so-called IS says,” the Labour politician added, according to the paper.
“They say that there is a clash of civilisations, it is not possible to be a Muslim and a westerner, and the west hates us.
“And you are inadvertently playing their game, you are helping them.”
He then criticized UK Prime Minister Theresa May for inviting the President on an official UK state visit.
May made the offer when she visited Trump at the White House in January, soon after he was sworn in.
The invitation, however, caused public outcry, with critics saying the visit would be an “embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen.”
A petition calling for the invite to be rescinded drew more than 1.8 million signatures.
The government, however, remains resolved to welcome the president.
The mayor’s remarks follow a war of words between him and the president which broke out in the wake of the London Bridge terrorist attack in June.
Trump suggested Khan had downplayed the severity of the attack that killed eight and injured dozens more, as Khan said there was “no reason to be alarmed.”
His comment, however, had been made in the context of the armed officers being deployed in the aftermath of the attack.
The Mayor responded saying he “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police — including armed officers — on the streets.”
