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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now then, the attack in Tunisia has been described as the most significant terror attack on British people since the 7/7 London bombings took place almost exactly a decade ago.  Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in Tunisia after calling for a wave of violence during Ramadan.  The Labour MP Sadiq Khan is the Shadow Minister for London and one of Britain’s most prominent Muslim politicians and also hoping to become the capital’s next mayor of course, good morning to you Mr Khan.  Our thoughts are obviously with the victims, the relatives and the injured after that attack but it is the nature of it isn’t it, on tourists sitting on their sun loungers, what kind of perverse version of Islam justifies that?

SADIQ KHAN: Well firstly can I just echo what you said, Dermot, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and with their families.  My wife and I had our honeymoon in Tunisia, we went there three years ago with our children, it’s a Mediterranean paradise and but for the grace of God it could have been us there a couple of days ago.  It is the month of Ramadan, many of us are fasting during this month of Ramadan, praying, giving money to charity and it is just unbelievable that somebody could do this, irrespective of the month of Ramadan but when you add that into the equation you’ve got on the same day Sunni Muslims killing Shia Muslims in Kuwait, you’ve got this person in Tunisia killing almost 40 people indiscriminately, cool as a cucumber, you’ve got what happened in France – it is really important for people like me not to apologise for these people, it is nothing to do with me or the law abiding British Muslims but just to explain to those who are maybe watching this who haven’t got friends who are Muslim, don’t work with Muslims but that actually the faith that I belong to and I try to practice does not in any way condone this sort of behaviour.  

DM: Are there some within the Muslim community in Britain who it is to do with because the Prime Minister was talking about those, presumably a tiny minority but those who quietly condone some of the ideology?   

SADIQ KHAN: We can’t escape the fact that literally ten years ago next week four people born and raised in this country blew themselves up and killed 52 people in what I think is the greatest city in the world.  A couple of weeks ago a 17 year old from Yorkshire, 17 years old, got on a plane, went to Iraq, killed himself and others, Muslim victims, it doesn’t matter, he still did that.  A family from this country went to Syria leaving behind husbands who are grieving for losing their wives and children.  There is a problem, we shouldn’t pretend that there isn’t a problem but it is problem that all of us need to work together to find a solution towards. I’m optimistic, Dermot, I meet every day, I was in East London yesterday speaking to 50 different community leaders, I’m optimistic that there is actually a huge willingness amongst British Muslims to recognise that listen this is not in our name, this is nothing to do with the faith we practice and also to try a bit harder to make sure people who aren’t of Islamic faith recognise that our faith is a source of good, many of our values come from our faith and that is one of the reasons why we become public servants.  

DM: Focusing on London, we mentioned the awfulness of 7/7 almost exactly ten years ago, you are standing to be the Mayor of London and it will be perennially it seems always been a huge international target.  Can it be made any safer?

SADIQ KHAN: I think it can.  It is a combination of making sure we work with the police and the security service to make sure our city and our country is as safe as possible.  It is also making sure that people don’t somehow become groomed or indoctrinated into a perverse form of Islam which leads them to do the sort of things that we saw on the 7th July but I’m optimistic, this is a very open minded, respectful and tolerant city and a country.  Where else in the world could you have an ethnic minority, a son of immigrants of Islamic faith having the people of Tooting choosing him not just once, twice or three times to be their MP with increased share of the vote and then hoping to have fellow citizens in London choose him to be the mayor of what I think is the greatest city in the world.  It is a source of pride for me and my parents and my family that the people of Tooting would choose someone like me to be their MP and a source of pride to all of us that I am trying to be the Mayor of London because that says something about our values as London citizens that you’d consider someone who’s different, bearing in mind that people have about Islamophobia, people are seriously considering supporting me and people are supporting me to be Mayor of this great city.  

DM:  Great note to end it on, Mr Khan thank you very much indeed, Sadiq Khan there.