Look what this Brit has done
Who would have thought that one day a Muslim would be elected mayor of London, especially at such an inconvenient time? A time when Islamophobia is rising in Europe, when xenophobia has peaked, when hate speech is abusing the understandable rage against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda that has been rising against all Muslims.
Also, when the lowness of associating terror with Islam has gained incredible speed after the Paris massacres… When the opportunism of showing Muslims as the ordinary culprit has gained a strong platform due to the damned terror attacks… The barbarian attacks, the bloodthirsty homicides which have disrupted the senses; they have depraved minds, poisoned hearts… When the entirety of Europe is alarmed by the Muslim identity…
The extreme rightest politicians who make use of this foggy environment have started bearing grudges against the Muslim existence in Europe…
When there is no sympathy left for Islam; on the contrary, when it is approached with a lot of suspicion.
As such a dangerous rise is ongoing, as such an unfortunate polarization is dominating the world, a Muslim becomes the mayor of London. Who would have guessed this?
Sadiq Khan is the biggest, most influential and popular Muslim politician in the West, according to the New York Times. He has achieved an unprecedented victory, actually shattering all prejudices.
London is a cosmopolitan capital. Some 8 percent of the population is Muslim, one-fourth of it is migrants.
However, Khan obtained way more than half of the votes and was a long way from his closest rival.
He had an unquestionable landslide victory.
I am confused. Weren’t the British the infamous evil, the oldest enemy of Islam, the most devious deceiver of all times? Can this be the new trick of the Queen, a last game?
Maybe this Khan is a British agent posing as a Muslim, right? If not, how can a bus driver’s son from the suburbs of London, one of eight children, become the mayor of the capital of the United Kingdom at such a time?
Imagine a pious Muslim, a Briton, a Londoner, a person of Asian origins from Pakistan who has become the mayor of London. He won with the majority of London votes; with pure local and national British votes.
It is as if a German Hans or a British George became the mayor of Istanbul; it is something like that.
All the complaints about the British are down the drain now. This has blown all of them away. A poor boy from an unprivileged neighborhood, playing by the rules of the game, is able to conquer the hearts of all the British.
London is now entrusted to a 45-year-old Muslim.
This reminded me of a piece of dialogue in the Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s Risale-I Nur collection.
A hundred years ago, as the Westernization winds were blowing with all their strength across the Ottomans’ lands, he answered an Egyptian scholar during a debate as such: “The Ottoman government is pregnant with Europe. It will bear a child like Europe. Europe is pregnant with Islam; it will also bear an Islamic state.”
Who knows if Khan will be able to achieve this; maybe, who can know?
