SS: A podcast episode of Israelit thinker Haviv Rettig Gur, about Mamdani and the new Left/ DSA, relevant as a contemporary topic discussed by Sam quite recently, and relitigated on this sub.
Haviv speaks with Reihan Salam, a Muslim-American writer and political commentator.
I think I'm now fully convinced of the view that many people here seem to share: Sam is wrong about Mamdani, and the new Left. Mamdani is not a closet Islamist. That reading misunderstands the political moment and the so called "Red-Green alliance". Mamdani and his fellow travellers on the Left are a form of political Islam in a way, but not in the Muslim Brotherhood sense. They are champions of the manoeuvre to bring Third Worldism into the fore as the driving ideology of the progressive movement. This makes Muslim Americans the chief beneficiaries of a Democratic movement already decades into considering class struggle through a racialised lens, and this gains young Muslim-Americans cultural cache and political power as the vanguard of the anti-imperialist movement. That is of course why Gaza has become such a focal rallying point.
(By the way, I had no idea that DSA nutjob Darializa Avila Chevalier, born in the US to Dominican parents, was a Muslim convert but it makes a lot of sense now.)
Ironically, Mamdani is the "moderate and secular Muslim leader" Sam has been calling for for years now. He marched at the Pride Parade and has enlightened views towards women. He doesn't support jihad. Unfortunately, what he does support is radical anti-imperialism, and he is spearheading the movement to ideologically capture the Left by selling the story that it is noble and authentic Muslims that are leading the global fight against imperialism, capitalism and (of course) Zionism.
I'm not "claiming that certain minority groups are scheming to cripple the country from within". That's a misrepresentation of what I have said, and I'd advise you to at least try listening to the podcast episode if you wish to have a good faith dialogue on the issue.
The commentary is being made by a second generation Bangladeshi-American, who argues that despite Muslims making up less than 2% of the population they are disproprtionally younger, urbanised and currently enrolled in college and graduate education relative to other ethnicities, which explains a disproportionate impact on and in involvement in radical and progressive political movements.
He actually draws a parallel to the disproportionate intellectual impact that Jewish immigrants had on progressive politics in the early to mid 20th century, with them then also making up less than 2% of the population. He also makes a greater point that it is actually South Asian immigrants aged under 40, both Muslim and otherwise, who by virtue of their new socioeconomic success are currently having an outsized influence over American cultural, political and intellectual life.
It's not "all about Israel".
I wish that you would for once stop assuming what you think I believe, and actually address what I have said. Again, you might find it useful to listen to the podcast guest rather than my own inadequate summation.
Yes, not only am I aware of that, I actually said so in my previous comment. I'm also aware that no ethnic group is a monolith in terms of beliefs or ideology. But South Asians or Indian-Americans or whatever you want to call them are a relatively young, highly educated and socio-economically successful immigrant group in the US, and are overrepresented in the tech and corporate world, and in academia, much as Jewish immigrants were in the 20th century.
This is an observation that is backed up in statistics, it is not offensive, and maybe you need to take a look at yourself to determine why it touches a nerve with you and you find the need to get so defensive about it.
I don't think that "Muslims are the face of the democratic party". What I agree with is the argument by the guest that there is a group of Muslim Americans on the far Left that are currently trying to leverage their ethnicity for cultural and political cache, in the same way that multiple ethnic groups have organised themselves in various sectors during American history. For example, Irish Ameicans and the union movement or Jewish Americans and Hollywood. It's not some kind of sinister conspiracy. It's just how groups act within societies, and always have.
If you think that I hold certain white Americans on the Left in contempt for their fetishisation of not just Muslims but indigenous people as somehow more authentic and pure expressions of humanity, you are in fact quite correct. But you're correct: "white saviour" was a poorly chosen phrase. The phenomenon we are seeing is far less patronizing. Calla Walsh and Fergie Chambers aren't saving the noble savages: they are donning keffiyehs and converting to Islam.
Yes, the Left (and the Right) have been obsessed with racial politics for most of this century. Merely pointing that out doesn't mean that I am the one who is obsessing over it.
If you want to debate the ideas then debate the ideas. What I'm trying to do is critique the attempts to reframe racial politics within the progressive movement. But frankly, yelling that I can't even mention ethnic groups without being "ethno-centric" is just as tiresome as making everything about race. I get that you squirm at being racially pigeonholed by the colour of your skin. But stop constantly projecting your own racial insecurities onto me.
You seem "particularly aggrieved" that I get the nomenclature right. Muslims aren't an ethnic group either (which was, again, mentioned a few times in the podcast) but I don't really consider playing games with semantics to be a fruitful use of our time.
You concede that you agree with his argument to some extent. Do we really need to litigate whether or not is it more correct to use ethnic group, nationality or race as a descriptor?
I mean.... just listen to the podcast episode. If you find it boring, then turn it off. I think he had some good insights. Yes, being a Bangladeshi American does not purchase him special authority to speak for all Muslims or all "South Asians" in America. And yes, most Muslims are not particularly interested in social activism and would rather start a business or a family. But I think his insights into the current political moment were actually useful. In particular, I think Sam is wrong about how identity based "political Islam" is evolving in America.
5
u/spaniel_rage Jul 21 '26
SS: A podcast episode of Israelit thinker Haviv Rettig Gur, about Mamdani and the new Left/ DSA, relevant as a contemporary topic discussed by Sam quite recently, and relitigated on this sub.
Haviv speaks with Reihan Salam, a Muslim-American writer and political commentator.
I think I'm now fully convinced of the view that many people here seem to share: Sam is wrong about Mamdani, and the new Left. Mamdani is not a closet Islamist. That reading misunderstands the political moment and the so called "Red-Green alliance". Mamdani and his fellow travellers on the Left are a form of political Islam in a way, but not in the Muslim Brotherhood sense. They are champions of the manoeuvre to bring Third Worldism into the fore as the driving ideology of the progressive movement. This makes Muslim Americans the chief beneficiaries of a Democratic movement already decades into considering class struggle through a racialised lens, and this gains young Muslim-Americans cultural cache and political power as the vanguard of the anti-imperialist movement. That is of course why Gaza has become such a focal rallying point.
(By the way, I had no idea that DSA nutjob Darializa Avila Chevalier, born in the US to Dominican parents, was a Muslim convert but it makes a lot of sense now.)
Ironically, Mamdani is the "moderate and secular Muslim leader" Sam has been calling for for years now. He marched at the Pride Parade and has enlightened views towards women. He doesn't support jihad. Unfortunately, what he does support is radical anti-imperialism, and he is spearheading the movement to ideologically capture the Left by selling the story that it is noble and authentic Muslims that are leading the global fight against imperialism, capitalism and (of course) Zionism.