In the dead of night on New Year’s Day, as the confetti settled over Times Square, New York City witnessed a ceremony that should send chills down the spine of every freedom-loving American. Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of the nation’s largest city, placed his hand not on the Bible—a tradition rooted in the Judeo-Christian foundations of our republic—but on two copies of the Quran. This wasn’t just a personal choice; it was a brazen declaration.
Here stands a wolf who didn’t even bother with the sheep’s clothing, openly embracing values that clash head-on with the Western principles that built America.
Let’s be clear: America’s strength lies in its commitment to individual liberty, equality under the law, and a separation of church and state that protects all faiths while preventing any one from dominating public life.
These ideals, drawn from Enlightenment thinkers and enshrined in our Constitution, stand in stark antithesis to many core tenets of Islam as practiced in its more orthodox forms. Sharia law, for instance, often prescribes unequal treatment based on gender, with women facing restrictions on inheritance, testimony, and personal freedoms that would horrify the suffragettes who fought for American equality. Homosexuality, protected as a fundamental right in the U.S., can be punishable by death under certain Islamic interpretations. And while our First Amendment champions free speech, including the right to criticize religion, blasphemy laws in many Muslim-majority nations stifle dissent and punish apostasy.
Mamdani’s oath on the Quran isn’t merely symbolic; it’s a nod to a worldview where religious law can supersede secular governance.
Proponents will cry “diversity,” but this ignores the hypocrisy at play. Imagine the outcry if a Christian mayor swore on a Bible vowing to implement biblical law—heads would roll in the media. Yet when it’s the Quran, it’s hailed as progress. This double standard exposes a deeper rot: the left’s selective tolerance, where Western values are sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism, even when it imports ideologies antithetical to our own. America’s melting pot works because immigrants assimilate to our principles, not the other way around. Mamdani’s act risks inverting that, prioritizing collective religious identity over individual American citizenship.
But the hypocrisies don’t end with faith. In his inaugural address, Mamdani doubled down on his socialist vision, proclaiming, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
This isn’t fresh rhetoric; it’s a chilling echo of history’s most notorious tyrants. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator who starved millions in the name of the collective, spoke of subordinating the individual to the state’s greater good. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution crushed personal freedoms to “empower” the masses, resulting in famine and mass murder. Even closer to home, socialist experiments from Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez to Cuba’s Fidel Castro promised equality but delivered poverty, enriching a corrupt elite while bankrupting the people.
Mamdani’s words are word-for-word in line with these failures. Collectivism doesn’t warm; it freezes opportunity.
Under Stalin, the rich (party officials) got richer, while the poor toiled in gulags. Socialism’s track record is unambiguous: it widens inequality by concentrating power in the hands of bureaucrats, stifling innovation, and rewarding loyalty over merit. In New York, a city built by individual dreamers—from immigrant entrepreneurs to Wall Street titans—Mamdani’s agenda threatens to replace bootstraps with handouts, turning the Big Apple into a rotten core of dependency.
Conservatives have long warned that unchecked progressivism invites such wolves into the fold.
Mamdani isn’t hiding his pelt; he’s flaunting it. If New Yorkers—and Americans—value the rugged individualism that made this country exceptional, they must push back. Demand leaders who uphold Western values without apology, who prioritize the Constitution over any holy book, and who empower individuals, not collectives. Otherwise, the wolf won’t need disguise; he’ll already be in charge.
Hannah Nelson is the Vice President of American Faith Media. Any opinions or independent views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated organizations or publishers.
