From Mitcham Road to the Middle East - Tooting MP Sadiq Khan visited Afghanistan last week on a mission to change local people's perceptions of the West.
Mr Khan, London's first Muslim MP, spent eight days visiting aid projects, hospitals and farms and meeting British troops and local politicians.
He led a delegation of British Muslims including a human rights activist, a barrister and a community worker to debunk misconceptions among Afghanis about how Muslims are treated in the UK.
Mr Khan said: "The trip wasn't about governance meeting governance - it was people meeting people.
"People in Afghanistan have got quite agitated, for example about the Danish cartoons. The older people especially assume everyone in the UK makes blasphemous comments about the Prophet Mohammed.
"It makes the jobs of our teachers, aid workers and troops harder.
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"I wanted to show them I am British, I am a Muslim and I can practice my religion. They couldn't believe that we have Muslim MPs."
Mr Khan spent several days in the capital Kabul, and then flew over rugged terrain to Mazar-e-Sharif province in the North. Here he met poppy farmers who had been given alternative crops to grow, as a strategy to tackle Afghanistan's heroin trade.
"There was no point just going to meet VIPs," said Mr Khan. "We wanted to get out and about and meet people."
In what he described as a "humbling" experience, the Tooting MP also visited British soldiers at Camp Souter, who are working to secure areas so aid workers can build schools, bridges and hospitals.
Mr Khan left the country feeling optimistic about its future after several inspiring conversations with Afghani people, who felt positive about the future of their country.
"We can't turn our backs on Afghanistan," he said. "If you allow religious extremist views to fester it can lead to problems in your own back yard."
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