Well, here it is, on video, in context, so there’s really no weaselling out of it.
Sadiq Khan calls moderate Muslims “Uncle Toms”, in an interview – tellingly – on Press TV, the propaganda channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is attempting to explain why as (then) Labour’s Minister for Community Cohesion he took a “big tent” approach, which included speaking to extremists as well as those he described as “Uncle Toms” – Muslims who supported the government.
The video was obtained by The Daily Mail.
There is no need to explain, I suppose, that “Uncle Tom” is a racially-charged term and those who use it imply that ‘moderates’ in their community who deal with government are sell outs. This is an extraordinary position for someone then in government to take.
More dangerously, it feeds the myth that the interests of Britain’s Muslims are at odds with the interests of the British State. It certainly explains why Sadiq Khan acted as legal council for radical ‘Nation of Islam’ leader, Louis Farrakhan, and defended Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi when he was the guest of Ken Livingstone (before or after he went mad is debatable).
So where does that leave Sadiq Khan now? With the keys to London’s City Hall, which he’ll use to effectively lock out these moderate “Uncle Toms”? It is unlikely that he’ll do that. But, given what we know about Sadiq Khan’s alliances and associations, he is likely to give a place within the “Big Tent” to extremists. The use of such a derogatory term now makes it clear that he is not particularly sympathetic to Muslims who oppose extremism and hatemongering.
It is not worth talking to extremists because we cannot compromise with them, and they certainly have no intention for compromising with us.
After all, that’s what “Uncle Toms” do.
