London: Sadiq Khan, Labor Party’s mayoral candidate and the son of a Pakistani bus driver was elected Mayor of London on Friday, making him the most powerful Muslim politician in the Western world.
Sadiq has became London’s first Muslim mayor on Friday.
He won a resounding victory in the capital despite a hostile campaign by Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, which attempted to link the South Londoner to terrorism and extremists.
Sadiq Khan has won the race for London Mayor by 9 percent. Sadiq is a Pakistani Muslim and this speaks volumes of the western societies. Despite rising Islamophobia and the presence of racist and bigoted people, majority of them go for the merit and is not afraid of electing an immigrant even in a closed society like the UK and a Muslim with all the negatives attached to the community. It is indeed a victory of sanity over insanity and reaffirmation of the basic human decency.
Khan’s margin of victory looked set to be narrower than expected in a possible sign that a bitter campaign marred by charges of anti-Semitism and extremism and charges of anti-Semitism in Labour ranks might have taken its toll.
The Labour lawmaker replaces Conservative Boris Johnson, who has run the city of 8.6 million people for eight years. A top campaigner for Britain to leave the EU, Johnson is seen as a contender to succeed David Cameron as party leader and prime minister.
The Conservatives were keen to keep hold of the post, which does not run the City of London financial district but has influence over government in lobbying for the capital. The mayor is responsible for areas such as policing, transport, housing and the environment.