Sadiq Khan’s Eid message is a disgrace

London’s Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan published a video online earlier this week to mark the Muslim festival of Eid. Released under the guise of seasonal goodwill, this glib social media greeting is not merely problematic – it is an outright disgrace. Cloaked in the warm language of unity and peace, the Mayor of London delivered a politicised monologue that whitewashes terrorism, stokes division, and fundamentally misrepresents the moral landscape of the Israel–Palestinian conflict. This is not the conduct of a responsible leader. It is the conduct of a man either wilfully blind to barbarity or all too willing to exploit a religious holiday for ideological gain.

‘More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, including more than 15,000 children,’ Khan states, with all the solemnity of a humanitarian appeal scripted by a Palestinian support group. But where do these numbers come from? He cites no source. In reality, these figures are unverified numbers released by the so-called ‘Gaza Health Ministry’ – a body we all know is directly controlled by Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation under UK law.

And what of the Muslim victims of Hamas? Those in Gaza murdered by Hamas for dissent?

Hamas is not merely a political entity; it is a jihadi terrorist group responsible for grotesque crimes against civilians, including rape, torture, the killing of babies, and the kidnapping of men, women, children, and the elderly – on 7 October 2023 and for many years before. Yet in Khan’s message, Hamas is not mentioned once. Not once.

This is no accidental omission – it is a deliberate moral distortion. Hamas’s atrocities are the very genesis of this war, and yet Khan sees fit to mention only Israel’s actions, casting them as ‘betrayals of humanity [that] should weigh heavily on our collective conscience’.

Sadly, this is the level of intellectual and ethical engagement we have come to expect from our small-minded mayor, representing one of the world’s most diverse cities. To ignore the inciting act of mass terror by Hamas and frame the defensive response by Israel as the sole moral failing is not just misguided – it is morally repugnant, especially in a video greeting to Muslims, whose faith was used by the terrorists as a justification for their acts of horror and bloodshed.

More egregiously, this false framing is delivered during what should be an inclusive civic message. Khan speaks ‘as the Mayor of London’, not merely as a private citizen or religious leader. And yet, his address is pointedly communal in a way that excludes. ‘I want to send my warmest wishes to everyone celebrating Eid here in London and around the world,’ he begins, before pivoting into an indictment of Israel that, intentionally or not, validates the language of extremist protest and exacerbates social tensions in a city already teetering under the weight of anti-Semitic agitation.

London is home not only to Muslims but to Jews, Hindus, atheists, and, of course, many Christians. Where is the sensitivity, the balance, the recognition of the diversity he so often proclaims to champion in this pointedly political and skewed vision of the war in the Middle East?

And what of the Muslim victims of Hamas? Those in Gaza murdered by Hamas for dissent? In recent days, even Palestinian sources have confirmed extrajudicial executions by Hamas against its own people – yet Khan’s ‘compassion’ makes no room for them. Nor does he mention the Muslim hostages taken by jihadi Hamas terrorists. Nor the Muslims brutalised on 7 October 2023. Nor the grotesque irony that Hamas carried out its massacres shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ – in the name of Islam. In a message about Islam, in a moment of reflection and moral clarity in which he specifically chooses to talk about that war, would it not have been appropriate to denounce those who started it by using his own faith to commit such acts in its name?

Khan instead chooses a simplistic binary: Israeli actions are a betrayal of humanity; Palestinian suffering is uniquely worthy of solidarity. No mention of Hamas’s genocidal charter. No acknowledgement that they started this war. No indication that Israel, like any sovereign state, has the right – indeed the obligation – to defend its citizens. This is not nuance. This is not diplomacy. This is inappropriate propaganda.

The most dangerous aspect of this message is not its tone, but its function. At a time when anti-Semitic hate marches have continued to flood London’s streets for over 17 months – replete with jihadi slogans, terrorist flags, and calls for ‘global intifada’ – the Mayor’s silence has been deafening. For all that time, he has stood idly by, allowing his city to become a platform for extremism masquerading as humanitarian activism. Now, under the guise of an Eid greeting, he effectively fans the same flames, offering a message that not only fails to promote unity but actively deepens divides.

What was the point of this message, truly? If it was to bring hope and peace, it has failed. If it was to speak to injustice, it has chosen the wrong target. If it was to promote harmony, it has sown discord. And if it was to show leadership, it has done the opposite.

Sadiq Khan is fond of reminding us how proud he is to represent the ‘greatest city in the world’. But what kind of city are we becoming when the mayor uses a religious holiday to whitewash terrorism, ignore hostages, and embolden those who seek to turn a conflict abroad into hatred at home?

This was not a message of peace. It was a disgraceful distortion – a politicised and dangerous affront to truth, to unity, and to the moral conscience of Londoners of all faiths. And we must not tolerate it.