WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, suggested on Monday he would make an exception for London’s newly elected Muslim mayor, the New York Times reported.
“There will always be exceptions,” the Times quoted the real estate billionaire and presumptive Republican nominee as saying when asked how his controversial proposal would apply to Sadiq Khan, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver and a seamstress, who was sworn in as London’s mayor on Saturday.
Trump said he was happy to see Khan elected, the Times reported, adding: “You lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job … that would be a terrific thing.”
Trump put forth the idea of the ban after deadly attacks by Islamist militants in Paris and California last year. Muslim and human rights groups, Trump’s Democratic rivals and many of his Republican presidential opponents condemned the proposal as divisive, counterproductive and contrary to American values.
Khan, the Labour Party candidate, defeated his Conservative rival by a record margin to secure the biggest individual mandate in British political history after an acrimonious campaign.
Speaking of the Conservatives’ tactics, Khan, 45, told Britain’s Observer newspaper: “They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other – something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.”
In an interview with Time magazine, Khan said he wanted to go to the United States to see the interesting programs the mayors of New York and Chicago were implementing, but that he would have to visit before January in case Trump won the Nov. 8 election.
“If Donald Trump becomes the president I’ll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can’t engage with American mayors and swap ideas,” Khan said.
(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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Categories: America, Americas, The Muslim Times, United States
Well, what about the other way round? If Trump would become President Muslims should ban any travel to the USA and, of course, also withdraw any investments from the US dollar world. (Unfortunately that would be of benefit to the USA, because the dollar would collapse and all-of-a-sudden there would be no US dollar debts any more).
Mayor elect says his opponents used fear and innuendo…… yet he did the same when he was running against an Ahmadi
“Khan’s rival was Liberal Democrat Nasser Butt. Liberal Democrat opposition to the Iraq war posed a serious challenge to Khan and his Muslim power base in Tooting. British South Asian Muslims—myself included—overwhelmingly opposed that war. “Luckily” for Khan, Nasser happened to be an Ahmadi Muslim. Yes, this is as relevant as Sadiq Khan being a Sunni Muslim. In other words not at all, in a perfect world. Alas, Khan’s world was far from perfect. Ahmedis are perhaps the most persecuted minority sects among Sunni Muslims.