MUSLIM LABOUR LEADER FAVORED TO WIN LONDON MAYORAL RACE:

Sadiq Khan, the son of a London bus driver, has had a remarkable rise into the upper echelons of British politics. He grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom home in public housing and attended state schools before becoming a human-rights lawyer and then a senior government minister.

Now Khan, 45, a lawmaker and former transport minister for the opposition Labour Party, is the favorite in the battle to become the next mayor of London. He would succeed Boris Johnson, the extroverted Conservative who has held the post since 2008 and is a leading figure in the campaign for Britain’s departure from the European Union.

A victory Thursday would make Khan the first Muslim to lead the city, where 1 in 8 residents adheres to that faith, and when Britain is struggling to integrate minorities and combat radicalization.

Reuters adds that Kahn will be “the first Muslim to head a major Western capital.” He’s pledged to be “a Muslim Mayor that stands up for Jewish rights,” and I hope that works out well, but he’s got his job cut out for him; as Nick Cohen writes in the Guardian (of all places), “I saw the darkness of Labour’s antisemitism, but I never thought it would get this dark.”

Because of its small size when compared to America, England’s fundamental transformation occurred much more quickly than America’s. In the late 1990s, some were warning it was a preview of what was to come here, and for things to continue getting worse there.