Khan said that many people have not had any experience of Islam and have only learnt about it from television “when there are criminals, terrorists, bad people committing acts of terror and terrorism, using the name of Islam to justify their acts. And so I accept some people’s view of Islam may be clouded by what they see on the TV and the news.”
“So my point to Donald Trump is: if it is the case that your views on Islam are ignorant, if it is the case that you have not met Muslims who are compatible with, comfortable with Western values, to all purposes ‘normal’ – come to London. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Londoners who are Muslim and Western,” Khan, a member of the Labour party, told the Huffington Post newspaper in an interview released Friday.
In December 2015, Trump proposed a “total and complete” ban for Muslims entering the United States, as well as an Islamic registration and control of certain mosques. He also accused Muslims of celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The business tycoon said he would exempt Khan from the ban after the latter expressed his fears that he would not be able to travel to the United States by virtue of his faith. Khan slammed the proposal, saying that Trump’s views of Islam could harm both London and Washington because it could alienate mainstream Muslims around the world and so contribute to the spread of extremism.