LONDON – London Mayor Sadiq Khan has compared US President Donald Trump’srhetoric against Islam to tactics used by Daesh (ISIL) to inspire terrorattacks in Western cities.
In an interview with the Intercept, Khan said Daesh terrorists seek “anincrease of Islamophobic attacks; they want a backlash against proudMuslims, proud westerners.”
Khan, who has exchanged barbs with Trump in the past, said the USpresident’s language was “very similar to the rhetoric used by so-calledIsis/Daesh.”
The comments were in reference to Trump re-tweeting of a series ofIslamophobic posts by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-rightgroup Britain First, who has been accused of hate speech.
The mayor pointed out that Thomas Mair, the man who killed Labour MP Jo Coxin 2015, repeatedly shouted out “Britain first” as he shot and stabbed thelawmaker.
“One of the reasons I spoke out against his retweets was that he wasamplifying a message of division and hatred, and he should be condemned forthat,” Khan said of Trump.link>PressTV-Trump re-tweets anti-Muslim videos by UK grouplink>US President Donald Trump has re-tweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted bya British far-right political organization.link>
The mayor also said that it “beggared belief” that Prime Minister TheresaMay’s invitation to Trump for a state visit to the UK had not beenwithdrawn following the retweets of Fransen’s hateful posts.
Khan stressed that the US president should not be granted a state visitbecause “there are too many things that he believes that we disagree with.”
The war of words between Trump and Khan – London’s first Muslim mayor –began during the US election campaign when he condemned Trump’s proposal toban all Muslims as “ignorant.”
Khan lashed out at Trump again when the president introduced a travel banon citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, calling the policy “crueland shameful.”
A planned visit for Trump to open the new US embassy in London wascancelled earlier this month amid fears of mass protests.