Sadiq Khan, an MP for Tooting since 2005, comes from a family of Pakistani immigrants. In September of 2015, he won a Labour contest to become the party\u2019s candidate in London\u2019s mayoral elections scheduled for May 5. His main rival to succeed London mayor Boris Johnson is Zac Goldsmith, a Conservative MP for Richmond Park who is an Eton graduate and former editor of Ecologist magazine.<\/p>\n
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Speaking before parliament on Wednesday, Cameron argued that Khan has shared the same platform with cleric Suliman Gani \u201cnine times,\u201d<\/em> while branding the imam as an Islamic State (IS, ISIS\/ISIL) \u201csupporter\u201d<\/em> and suggesting that the association could reflect bad judgement on the part of the Labour candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we are going to condemn not just violent extremism, but also the extremism that seeks to justify violence in any way, it is very important that we do not back these people and that we do not appear on platforms with them,\u201d<\/em> Cameron said in response to a Conservative MP\u2019s question on extremism, as cited by the Telegraph.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Corruption & bribery rife in UK, 28% of bosses say<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019re not always responsible for what our political opponents say, but if you do it time after time after time, it is right to question your judgement,\u201d<\/em> he stressed.<\/p>\n Cameron then took a defensive stance in reacting to the outrage caused by his comments. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed Cameron\u2019s words as \u201cdisgraceful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis man [Gani] supports IS. I think they are shouting down this point because they don\u2019t want to hear the truth,\u201d<\/em> the PM claimed.<\/p>\n Arguably, the most intriguing part of Cameron\u2019s attack on Khan, is the actual party affiliation of Gani, who has taken an active part in the Tory\u2019s general election campaign and even met Goldsmith in person.<\/p>\n Gani retaliated with a series of tweets in which he called Cameron\u2019s observations \u201cdefamation at its highest level\u201d<\/em> while urging the PM to \u201creflect and retract\u201d<\/em> his comments.<\/p>\n Conflicting with Cameron\u2019s claims that Gani has supported the terrorist group, Gani previously took part at an anti-terror event named \u201cThe Evils of ISIS\u201d in January.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like gob smacked; I was shocked; I couldn\u2019t believe it. I was very disheartened and I felt betrayed. I felt this is hypocrisy, because I attended a Conservative Muslim forum event invited by the Conservative candidate for Tooting\u2026 to encourage more Muslims to become Conservative councilors,\u201d<\/em> Gani told<\/a>\u00a0BBC in an interview, in which he described his support for the Tories.\u00a0 Goldsmith was also present at the meeting held in Tooting last year on November 17.<\/p>\n \u201cI met him [Goldsmith] in person I shook his hand,\u201d<\/em> added Gani.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prime minister\u2019s desperate dog-whistle has now totally backfired. It now turns out that Suliman Gani campaigned for the Tories at the 2015 General Election, met Zac Goldsmith in November last year and campaigned against Sadiq Khan because of his support for same sex marriage,\u201d<\/em> said Neil Coyle, a Labour MP while commenting on the apparently absurdity of Cameron\u2019s allegations, according<\/a>\u00a0to the Guardian.<\/p>\n Cameron sinks into the gutter in a desperate bid to prop up his failing candidate. Demeans his office. Shame on him. #PMQs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Andy Slaughter MP (@hammersmithandy) 20 \u0430\u043f\u0440\u0435\u043b\u044f 2016 \u0433.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n By accusing Khan of having links with extremist sympathizers, Cameron, in fact, was parroting accusations made earlier by Goldsmith. Speaking at the launch of his campaign, the Tory candidate accused<\/a>\u00a0Khan of dodging questions about his past. He \u201chas tried to silence questions about his links by shamelessly accusing anyone who raises them of being Islamophobic,\u201d<\/em> said Goldsmith, claiming that his opponent had \u201cprovided cover for extremists\u201d<\/em> as a human rights lawyer.<\/p>\n Khan has denounced all accusations that he has links to terror groups, expressing disappointment over Cameron joining his rival\u2019s \u201cdivisive, dog-whistling campaign.\u201d<\/em> Goldsmith, however, denied ever calling Khan an extremist during a BBC mayoral debate held earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cI have made it very, very clear that I have never suggested that Sadiq Khan is an extremist, in any way at all. No one associated with my campaign team has called Sadiq Khan extreme,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n While admitting that he does \u201cregret giving the impression I subscribe to their views,\u201d<\/em> Khan reiterated that his main priority as a mayor will be \u201ckeeping Londoners safe\u201d and to \u201cput an end to radicalization in Britain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Khan is leading in the polls, with a recent survey by ComRes putting his support at 44 percent, while Goldsmith trails with 37 percent. In case of a run-off, Khan is expected to win the position of London\u2019s new mayor by 10 percent, the survey says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cries of \u201cracist\u201d drowned out British PM David Cameron as he delivered a speech accusing Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan of repeatedly appearing with an imam he says \u201csupports Islamic State.\u201d The imam turns out to be an active Tory supporter, however. Sadiq Khan, an MP for Tooting since 2005, comes from a family of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-239157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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