Blogger Najm Al-Din rains on the parade of Muslims celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral victory by arguing that systematic change is what’s needed, not controlled opposition which only allows us to blow off some steam.
Dear Muslim New Yorkers, forgive me for being a party pooper but Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory is not the game changer which many of you have been led to believe.
Besides the fact that participation in a secular democracy which usurps Allah’s exclusive right to sovereignty is fraught with dangers from an Islamic legal standpoint, I think those who are riding the wave of optimism have underestimated the resilience of the system presiding over them and its ability to maintain core functions in spite of occasional shocks and stresses, such as the appointment of Mamdani as New York’s Mayor.
Western governments have historically managed opposition and non-mainstream voices by incorporating some of their demands while redirecting their energy into controllable channels, without ceding ultimate power and control over decision making.
Whether it’s devolving power to regional bodies, community consultations, investigative committees to scrutinise the executive or BAME representation in mainstream parties like the Democrats or Labour, governing structures throughout the West permit outlets for dissent in order to manage the accumulation of tension and prevent the outbreak of social disorder or emergence of organic revolutionary movements outside of their control.
In other words, the powers that be survive by accommodating opposition voices like Mamdani to neutralise their radical edge and maintain the facade of diversity, inclusiveness and representation.
Although we are told that citizens in the West are privileged as they have the freedom to express grievances, this mechanism for channeling public discontent – be it over Israel’s genocide in Gaza or the cost of living crisis – functions as a crucial safety valve to mitigate unrest and maintain law and order, without having to address the underlying systemic issues which are responsible for the unchecked corruption and abuses of power at the higher rungs of politics.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
Symbolic representation
To stop these systems from imploding, it’s vital to grant political agitators some kind of relief, in order to bypass more radical demands to fundamentally reorder the system at the root and branch level.
In light of the groundswell of anger erupting among large swathes of the left-leaning electorate in NYC, there’s no better way to placate the discontent than by creating emotional catharsis and offering a structured platform to a socially progressive Muslim minority candidate, who has captured the hearts and minds by passionately championing economic equality and Palestinian self-determination.
Simply, Mamdani is the approved outlet to channel pent up frustrations and hostile energy building up among New Yorkers.
Despite the outrage directed against him by the MAGA community and political right, I believe the establishment has few qualms with his political ascent as it discourages those who are disillusioned with the status quo from mobilising outside the system while creating the illusion of feeling represented within the existing system.
Therefore, Mamdani’s representation is purely symbolic and does not translate to systemic change.
As much as we are tempted to think otherwise, the real power brokers in the U.S. will not be perturbed by Mamdani’s broad appeal among immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and major labour unions.
In fact, they will tolerate Mamdani’s presence knowing very well that the changes he can effectuate will be incremental at best, giving disgruntled New Yorkers an opportunity to let off steam. Furthermore, with the Democratic Party’s popularity at a historic low, a fresh faced trailblazer like Mamdani is the perfect springboard to rebrand the party’s tarnished reputation and energise its progressive base, by moving beyond centrist candidates and mobilising a diverse coalition of young, dynamic, working-class voters in future elections.
By absorbing this radical political energy which is growing by the day in the U.S., the ultimate winner is the conventional two-party system as it manages to control the trajectory of any non-mainstream and anti-establishment sentiment, pacify tangible threats to the power structure and prevent pressure from reaching boiling point.
Just like the third party and independent candidates who have been elected into the British parliament, Mamdani’s political momentum can be co-opted and the system which continues to fail its citizens at home and create havoc abroad can claim to be responsive to the concerns of minorities and those with legitimate grievances, without having to make any substantive overhaul to foreign or domestic policy.
The ultimate result is that we end up implicitly accepting the legitimacy of the very system responsible for our woeful predicament, by endorsing a candidate who is a perfectly calculated release mechanism for public outrage, serving the function of pseudo-polarisation and distractionary culture wars which western democracies have manipulated to their advantage, while ensuring that the overarching system remains largely untouched.
Islamic political activism
Sadly, a long term consequence of such short-sightedness is that Muslims are derailed from pursuing the political activism legislated in the Qur’an and Sunnah, which obliges them to establish the sovereignty of Allah through the implementation of Islamic law and order.
By settling time and again for minimal token concessions which do little to alter power dynamics and consuming so much energy and resources into supporting secular politicians, many Muslim activists in the West have all but forgotten the obligation to re-establish the Khilafah, restore Islam as a comprehensive deen for mankind and physically strive in the path of Allah to liberate occupied Muslim land.
Instead, they have been absorbed into an alien political culture through integration into a nation-state model and duped into believing that the long-term interests of Muslims in the West and those who are languishing in occupied territories can be better served through traditional canvassing, arbitration to established political bodies and participating in the formal, institutional process inside a secular nation state.
Muslim diasporas in the West have arrived at a critical juncture and it pains me to see how many scholars, du’at and social media influencers have sidelined grassroots efforts and collective aspirations to establish a Caliphate in favour of immediate, tangible political power within the existing secular framework.
While I appreciate that many sincere Muslims have voted for Mamdani given his anti-Zionist stance and campaign pledges that resonate with the working classes, over time their engagement within a political framework which confers sovereignty to man rather than Allah can condition an entire generation to internalise secular principles and socially progressive values which Mamdani strongly advocates, despite its blatant contradiction with orthodox Islamic teachings.
The Muslim grassroots support for Mamdani shows that a significant portion of the community is still emotionally invested in the stability of a secular liberal nation state and have abandoned the obligation to work collectively towards reviving a model of Islamic governance based upon the Prophetic methodology.
It’s time the Muslims in America acknowledge that politics in the West is a conniving monster, not only because it creates an illusory sense of representation and empowerment but also because it places the ultimate source of power and authority in the creation as opposed to the Creator.
