The Hindustan Times reports on the first Asian mayor of the England’s second largest city, Manchester.
Afzal Khan who came from Pakistan to Britain at the age of 12 had nothing to look forward to. He had no education and no money, but now 35 years later at 47, he has become the first Asian Mayor of Manchester, the second biggest city in Britain.
He said his appointment reflected the diversity of Manchester’s ethnicity and demonstrated the contribution immigrants can make. “They can provide a city with an infusion of energy and creativity,” he said.
There was this one line that caught my eye,
Khan has a reputation for taking firm stands on ethnicity. He has supported the idea of celebrating Englishness through a patron saint as a way of enforcing community cohesion and, although he is a former assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, he has not adhered to its policy of boycotting National Holocaust Day Remembrance services.
No! Birmingham is England’s second largest city by quite a long way. Its quite normal to have Indian, Pakistani, Jamaican mayors, its a ceremonial role, they open a few schools and wear silly hats, and everyone feels happy to show they are all so multicultural.
Huh? Why do they have that policy??
Why the confusion, Saheli? Standard Muslim vs Jew argument, no?
Sorry, my cynical realism took the weekend off without telling me. :-p
Saheli, no worries, happens to me all the time 🙂
Thanks for the clarification, PB! Mayors are certainly not ceremonial across urban America. Except ofcourse for the nation’s capital, Wahington D.C.