Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has made some powerful opponents.
He doesn’t know me, never met me, he doesn’t know what I’m all about.
I think they’re very rude statements and frankly tell him I will remember those statements.
My message to Donald Trump and his team is that your views of Islam are ignorant.
He’s the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital - and proud of it.
This is how Sadiq Khan went from the son of Pakistani immigrants, to a lawyer, law-maker
and now the Mayor of London.
Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan - his father was a bus-driver, his mother a stay-at-home
seamstress.
The 10-strong Khan family squeezed into a three-bedroom flat in South London.
He wanted to be a dentist but TV in the 1980s convinced him otherwise.
"Objection!"
L.A. Law, with its swagger and ill fitting suits caught Khan’s eye.
He graduated in 1991 with a degree in law from North london University and joined a
human rights firm.
Khan worked a number of high profile cases - often clashing with London’s Metropolitan
Police force.
But he had bigger political ambitions.
“This is what being a new MP is like, squatting on a bench in the absence of an office, dealing
with letters from constituents”
"Reports are coming in of an explosion in London"
"There were explosions and then it was just smoke everywhere."
"Everyone's asking what's just happened"
Only two months after Khan entered the Commons as a member of Parliament London was attacked
by Islamist extremists.
"That day will stay with me for the rest of my life”
He spoke out against the attacks both as a London MP and as a muslim.
He has been very clear about his opposition to violence, opposition to terrorism and has
set out to make the case for a more open and peaceful Islam.
That’s Thomas Penny, one of Bloomberg’s Westminster correspondents.
Here is a man who is a muslim and is standing up and being open and straightforward and
being clear that the problem here is not Islam but Islamic extremism.
In 2015, a decade after that attack, Khan ran for Mayor of London and his faith was
back in the headlines
His opponent, Zac Goldsmith trying to link Khan to radical Islam.
“The debate got again personal and nasty”
The Goldsmith camp has called Khan extreme and accused him of associating with quote
“those who seek to do our police and capital harm”
Even the fomer Prime Minister, David Cameron, repeated the allegations.
"He shared a platform with Sajil Shahid, the man who trained the ringleader of the 7/7
attacks."
But the smears didn’t stick.
Zac Goldsmith ran a very negative campaign that was based on what people knew was a lie.
This election was not without controversy.
And I am so proud that today London has chosen hope over fear and unity over division
After taking the mayor's office with a comfortable majority - Khan has brought a business like
efficiency to the role, scrapping expensive vanity projects like the Garden Bridge and
the new Routemaster buses - which cost £350,000 each.
The former lawyer, who used to fight the police in court, is now praised for his close relationship
with them.
I was talking to a very senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police who said there
was a sea change after he went into City Hall...and the police were saying how much they welcomed
this because they knew where they stood and he was more straightforward to work with,
he works like a lawyer, he works like a government minister.
Khan’s kept his faith at the fore - He is an outspoken voice for moderate muslims across
the world.
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown on Muslims entering the
United States."
Now by giving the impression that Islam and the West are incompatible you’re playing
into the hands of the extremists.
The ongoing spat between Khan and U.S. President Donald Trump escalated when Trump went after
Khan, misquoting him on Twitter just hours after the terrorist attack on June 3, 2017
Khan is now one of the most prominent Labour politicians in the U.K.
In fact in a recent poll of Londoners found him was more trusted to keep the country safe
from terrorism than the Prime Minister or Labour leader.
His story of going from the son of an immigrant bus driver to the mayor of one of the world's
greatest cities, plays well with Londoners.
But can he appeal to the rest of the nation?
Has Khan got his eye on the top job?
And is the U.K. ready for a Muslim Prime Minister?