Authors: John Stonestreet and Dr. Timothy Padgett
Last week, Zohran Mamdani secured the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor. The 33-year-old Assemblyman gained a lot of traction in the final days of the primary contest to beat former NY governor Andrew Cuomo by seven points. As one article put it, Mamdani chose “Tik Tok over talk shows,” first wooing influencers and young people before eventually winning the upper middle class white vote.
Mamdani ran as a Democrat Socialist, a political party U.S. voters have never put in power. This made his win even more shocking, considering that New York City is one of the most capitalist cities in the world. Mamdani has promised to establish government-run grocery stores, to provide free bus fare and free childcare, to freeze low-rent buildings, to hike minimum wage to $30 an hour, to shift the tax burden to “richer and whiter neighborhoods,” to cut the police budget, and to use $65 million of taxpayer money to pay for transgender surgeries.
In addition to his social and economic policies, Mamdani’s ideologies about Israel and the West should also be noted. After Tel Aviv, Israel, the New York metro area is the largest Jewish community in the world. Since the October 7 massacre, the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, protesters in New York and elsewhere have threatened and intimidated Jews, voicing their support of Palestine and Hamas, with genocidal chants such as “From the River to the Sea” and “Globalize the Intifada.” In Mamdani’s first social media post on October 8, the day after the massacre, he blamed—not Hamas—but the Israeli government for the attacks. When pressed in interviews about the chants, he claimed that “Globalize the Intifada” reflects only a “desire for equality and equal rights.” He also said that, as mayor, he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, should he come to NYC.
Perhaps most shocking about this nomination is that, less than 25 years after thousands of New Yorkers died at the hands of Islamists on 9/11, voters have put a proud Muslim in line for executive power. But Mamdani isn’t a Westernized or liberal Muslim. He’s a Muslim in the mold of London and other European politicians who secure for Islam privileged status through anti-blasphemy laws and socialist policies. For example, his campaign promises included an 800% increase in funding for hate crimes programs.
The unusual alliance between the far Left and radical Islam has been a feature of European politics for some time. According to the Australian Muslim cleric Mohammad Tawhidi, Islamists vote for the Left, even supporting abortion and pro-LGBTQ policies, because the Left is easier to manipulate. Perhaps that is the reason, or perhaps it’s because of how deeply it is that progressives hate the West.
Whether or not Mamdani becomes mayor in November, the fact that such an inexperienced politician with an unabashed socialist and Islamic agenda has gotten this far politically this fast is significant. Worldview matters, not only in politics but also in every other aspect of life. The ability to recognize ideas and their consequences is essential to citizenship. Also, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, solid policies and principled public servants built on what is true are needed if for no other reason than bad ones exist, and they must be countered.