Taqiyya: He's No Moderate! Sadiq Khan Called Moderate Muslims "Uncle Toms"

Labour’s candidate for London Mayor has issued a grovelling apology after it emerged that he had described moderate Muslim groups as ‘Uncle Toms’.



Sadiq Khan said he regretted using the term, which is notorious racial slur used against black people to suggest that they are subservient to whites.



But he also insisted he would ‘respect’ everyone in the capital if he was elected, and lashed out at tactics employed by Tory rival Zac Goldsmith during the battle.



The incendiary claim surfaced in an interview with Iranian-backed Press TV from 2009, when Mr Khan was ‘minister for community cohesion’, in charge of Government efforts to stamp out extremism.



The revelation is a major blow for Mr Khan, who has faced a string of claims about his past dealings with Muslim extremists during the bitter campaign to succeed Boris Johnson.



Mr Khan has dismissed Tory attacks as baseless ‘smears’, and insisted that he was a moderate Muslim.



The Tooting MP himself condemned the use of the Uncle Tom term in recent days while attacking former London Mayor Ken Livingstone for his offensive claim that Hitler was a Zionist.



Asked on LBC Radio at the weekend whether he considered terms such as ‘Zio and Uncle Tom’ to be racist, he replied: ‘They are racist, they should not be used. The harsh truth is this – the comments from Ken Livingstone were appalling and disgusting and should have no place in our party.’



Challenged about 2009 the comments in interviews today, Mr Khan said: ‘It is (a racial slur) and I regret using that phrase.



‘The context was me trying to encourage everyone to get involved in government consultations.’



He told ITV News London. ‘I was a minister at the time. It was wrong and I regret it.’



Speaking on LBC he said: ‘I regret using the phrase and I am sorry.



‘The point I was trying to make was that I wanted to talk to anyone.’



Mr Khan suggested he himself would have been a target for the slur, pointing out that there were protests outside his local mosque when he first stood for parliament.



He said he had been ‘disappointed’ by Mr Goldsmith’s tactics during the battle, which have included repeated claims about his links to extremists. ‘I thought he was his own man,’ Mr Khan said….



In the 2009 interview with Press TV Mr Khan was asked why the Government’s counter-extremism strategy focused on working with moderate Muslim groups like the respect Quilliam Foundation.



He responded: ‘I wish we only spoke to people who agree with us. I can tell you that I’ve spent the last months in this job speaking to all sorts of people. Not just leaders, not just organisations but ordinary rank and file citizens of Muslim faith and that’s what good government is about, it’s about engaging with all stakeholders. You can talk about articles in the newspapers about what an organisation might get but the point is you can’t just pick and choose who you speak to, you can’t just speak to Uncle Toms.’