In the aftermath of this year’s London Bridge attack and President Trump’s unproductive hot takes about the act of terrorism that left seven dead, London Mayor Sadiq Khan clearly responded by saying that Britain should rescind an offer of a state visit for Trump because of his anti-Muslim views. In a new discussion with The Guardian, the London mayor takes his criticism even further. He expressed feeling “offended” by Trump’s continued bans on travelers from Muslim majority countries (while stating that he’d make an exception for a U.K. Labour politician), and he says the president is “playing [ISIS’] game” by co-opting their rhetoric about a “clash of civilizations”:
“My view was firstly ‘I’m not exceptional’ and secondly ‘Think about what you are saying.’ Because what you are saying is not dissimilar to what Daesh or so-called IS says … They say that there is a clash of civilizations, it is not possible to be a Muslim and a westerner, and the west hates us. And you are inadvertently playing their game, you are helping them.”
Khan’s comments came after the White House revised Trump’s travel ban to add countries that are not majority Muslim countries (like North Korea). He likely did so to bypass potential legal arguments that the ban is a religious-based order. The Supreme Court is set to rule on the travel ban’s overall constitutionality on October 10.
(Via The Guardian)