No Dave Rubin, Sadiq Khan is not a 'Jihadist'.

Clearing up some really dumb things said about the Mayor of London

It's been a considerable amount of time since I've paid attention to anything American commentator Dave Rubin has had to say. However, one particular claim he has posted on ‘X’ has just caught my eye thanks to its blend of confidence and cluelessness.

Rubin shared someone else's video of London mayor Sadiq Khan talking up the merits of ‘diversity’ and cited this as evidence that ‘Khan is a Jihadist in sheep’s clothing and Britain is fucked’.

We'll be charitable and assume Rubin missed the sinister question of ‘why is a Pakistani the mayor of London?’ in the original post. Khan is of course British and was born and raised in the very city he is now Mayor of.

However, ‘Jihadist’ is a very specific allegation. Broadly, a ‘Jihadist’ is a Muslim extremist that uses violence to further the cause of Islam. However the video in question appears to contain little more than Khan spouting woke platitudes about the merits of ‘diversity’ and the evils of ‘division’. Khan even goes so far as to claim that Islam is inclusive of ‘Hindus’ and ‘non-Muslims’.

Now, those of us who have been paying attention to the ‘religion of peace’ will know this all to be nonsense—but the point is that talking up Islam’s power of ‘inclusion’ and extending it to non-Muslims is the antithesis of Jihadist rhetoric. In fact, it’s the sort of vacuous nonsense a woke, far-leftie Labour politician might come out with—Muslim or otherwise. Because that’s exactly what Sadiq Khan is.

I've been incredibly critical of Khan over the years and I happen to believe he's doing an awful job as Mayor. However the claim that he is a ‘Jihadist’ is quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever seen said about him publicly. And if you type his name into ‘X’ you will find a whole host of very online right-wingers spreading similar conspiracy theories about the Mayor of London.

In reality, the problem with Khan is not his Islamic faith. In fact, his faith seems to inform very little of what he says or does in his role as Mayor. And given I’m a staunch anti-Islam secularist I'd be the first to pounce on any whiff of Islamist rhetoric.

No, the problem with Khan is that he's just a typical ‘progressive’ far-leftie that's had his brain melted by 'diversity, equity and inclusion' whilst London descends into stabby central.

Take for instance the fact that Khan has marched at Pride, releasing a video celebrating the importance of “LGBTQI Londoners”. Not particularly Jihady, is it? Khan has also spearheaded a campaign to tackle the problem of ‘misogyny’ in our society—because if Jihadists are known for anything, it’s their respect of women.

Khan also releases yearly “Merry Christmas” videos, sometimes wearing Christmas clothing where he talks about the importance of “Christian values” and celebrating “the birth of Christ”. Again, odd flex for a Jihadist.

Mix all this in with the fact that Khan has supported Black Lives Matter, campaigned against “body shaming”, vowed to tackle online hate speech, spent £2.1 million to ensure London public art is more ‘woke’ and thinks that “trans women are women”—you simply get the aforementioned boilerplate woke lefty that are ten a penny in the Labour party.

Sadiq Khan is fair game for criticism. But the proliferation of sinister conspiracy theories about him being a Islamic extremist appear to be based on little more than prejudice around his skin colour and the simple fact that he is a Muslim. No thank you.