Zohran Mamdani, a Shia Muslim, immigrant, and social democrat, has become mayor of New York—the largest city in America and the financial capital of the world.
Kabul 24: Mamdani, who says he draws inspiration from the resistance of Imam Hussein against tyranny, addressed Trump directly:
“Donald Trump, I know you’re watching—I have four words for you: Make our voices louder. New York will remain a city built and run by immigrants, and starting tonight, its leadership belongs to an immigrant.
So, President Trump, when I say you’ll have to go through all of us to get to any of us, take it seriously. I am young, I am Muslim, I am a democratic socialist—and most importantly, I refuse to apologize for any of it.”Donald Trump has repeatedly and openly expressed his hatred for Mamdani, even threatening to cut federal funding.
From the perspective of America’s racist president, all three of Mamdani’s traits—being an immigrant, a socialist, and a Muslim—are crimes.
Trump has similarly spewed venom against Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London—a son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver who now holds the keys to the world’s oldest capitalist metropolis.
By any measure, Mamdani and Khan are blossoms of democracy in its autumn season. In an era of democratic backsliding and the fall of deceptive right-wing patriarchy, the will of the people still rises from the heart of the storm.Even the worst democracy, under the worst conditions, is better than the best oligarchy.
If we rightly lament the injustice of the global system and the imbalance of power in the world, we must not forget our own share in this defeat and decline.
The strength of the West stems from its efficient political systems and powerful methods of social organization. They accept no restrictions or quotas on the path to meritocracy.
The wheels of the world’s most dynamic and fastest-moving cities today are turned by immigrants. Entrepreneurs, inventors, specialists, and brilliant minds from every corner of the globe are drawn first and foremost to the rule of law, merit-based selection, and systems free of discrimination and rich in dignity—in the cities of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
Even our cosmopolitan neighbors like Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not exempt from this model.
Of course, the West is not a bed of roses—racists, Islamophobes, and xenophobes exist, embodied in Trumpism and the far-right. And here’s the point: our relationship with Trumpism. If we consider Trump’s words and actions the worst version of contemporary Western political thought, we are, tragically, not free of its domestic variants.
Every exclusionary, purist political discourse or behavior that seeks minority rule over the majority and fears the democratic rotation of power—whether knowingly or not—walks the path of Trumpism.
In Tehran, the so-called “Mother of the Islamic World,” is it even conceivable for not just a Sunni Muslim, but a technocratic dissident—even if Shia—to become mayor?
If Tehran were truly tolerant and open to all worthy and patriotic Iranians, would religious orthodoxy at the borders be traded for the counterfeit coin of xenophobic ethno-nationalism?
I am certain that if Mamdani and Khan came to Iran, they would struggle to rise beyond doormen in the mansions of northern Tehran.Look no further than our own Urmia to see which political current’s language is most stained with Trump’s cursed vocabulary!
Who keeps chanting “immigrant, immigrant”? Who thinks Iran’s history is like stolen tea or plundered land—robbed, distorted, and carved up?
The similarity in vocabulary and terminology between political currents and Trump’s language is no coincidence—it signals drinking from the same tainted well.
Demographic fearmongering, citizen division, and the preservation of discrimination and discord are the shared playbook of today’s racist right. Religious right, ethnic right, linguistic right—all are pitiful caricatures of the original Trump.
Salahuddin Khadio
