London
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London mayor Sadiq Khan has fought back against Donald Trump’s false claim that Sharia law is being introduced in the British capital, calling the US president “racist”, “sexist”, “mymony” and “Islamophobia.”
Trump used his speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Tuesday to label Khan as a “terrifying mayor” and falsely argued that London wanted “to go to Sharia Law.”
Khan, the first Muslim mayor of the western capital, told reporters on Wednesday:
He said, “I think, as Donald Trump has shown, he’s racist, he’s sexist, he’s misogynistic and Islamophobia.”
London City Hall previously said, “London is the largest city in the world, safer than major cities in the United States, and we are pleased to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”
In response to Kern’s remarks, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told CNN:
Sharia’s laws are based on the holy book of Islam, the Quran, and the life of the Prophet Mohammed. It refers to a set of principles governing the moral and religious life of Muslims on issues as diverse as prayer, finances, divorce, or halal cuisine.
According to British government documents released in 2019, the Sharia Council has been in the country since the 1980s, but is “used to solve the marriage issues of Muslims living in the UK in light of Islamic Family Law.”
According to the government, their decisions are not legally binding, as the council “has no official legal or constitutional role in the UK.”
UK Health Secretary Wes Street defended Khan in a post on Tuesday on X, writing, “Sadik Khan is not trying to impose Sharia law on London.”
“This is the mayor who marches with pride and stands against background and differences in opinion, focusing on improving our transport, air, streets, safety, choices and opportunities.
Trump was in the UK last week for an unprecedented second state visit. The second term of the US president is not normally given the dignity of two official trips. The state banquet was held in his honor at Windsor Castle, but his itinerary did not include a trip to the British capital, where crowds of protesters gathered.
There is no love lost between Trump and Kahn. They had a long-standing nausea.
In the trajectory of the campaign before his first term as president, Trump has pledged to ban inaugurated Muslims from the United States. At the time, Khan saw it as an “outrageous policy.”
Khan later called Trump’s views on Islam “ignorance,” and the president said, “I remember those statements. They are very troublesome statements.”
Elected in 2016, Kahn is a powerful critic of Trump, particularly granting permission to protesters to fly a 20-foot-high “Trump Baby” balloon in London during his first presidential visit to Britain in 2016.
In a 2019 opinion article in the British publication The Guardian, the mayor of London denounced what he called a red carpet development that welcomed Trump and his wife Melania on his first visit to the UK.
“Donald Trump is just one of the worst cases of global threat growth,” writes Kern. The mayor also criticized the president for another operation earlier this month, denounced the Trump administration’s policy of “leading straight out of the dictator’s playbook.”
At a joint meeting with British Prime Minister Stage in July, Trump rekindled his feud and called Khan the “nasty guy” who had been doing “awful work.”
Priority suspended Trump and said of Khan, “He’s actually my friend.”
