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The Islamic State is targeting Christians in the Middle East - and these Americans are doing something about it

March 18, 2015
Wilson

Writer

It's no secret that ISIS is targeting Christians in the Middle East as they seek to build a caliphate. Last night, Glenn was joined by Matthew VanDyke and Johnnie Moore, both of whom are working to protect Christians who live in the Middle East and are coming under attack by radical Islamists.

Glenn: I want to introduce you to Johnnie Moore. He’s been on the program before. He’s a friend and just a really solid guy. He’s the author of Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard . I want you to get this book. This book was just sped up by HarperCollins, right?

Johnnie: Yeah, that’s right.

Glenn: Just sped up because the crisis is getting so bad in the Middle East, and as it says here on the back, “Has a Christian Holocaust begun?” The answer is yes, it has. I was just talking to one of the head guys at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. I’ve never had a Jewish person say this to me ever before and especially from Simon Wiesenthal. He said, “Glenn, please, will you do me a favor?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “Will you stop talking about the persecution of Jews?” I was stunned, and I said, “Anti-Semitism is through the roof.” He said, “The Holocaust is happening now.” I don’t think he used the word Holocaust.

He said the real persecution right now far more than the Jews is the Christians. We’ve got to stand behind the Christians right now. This is what your book talks about.

Johnnie: Yeah, I mean, Glenn, this is a once-in-a-thousand-year crisis we’re witnessing in the Middle East. We have Christian communities that have thrived for nearly 2,000 years. Jesus himself gave the gospel to Thomas. Thomas takes the gospel to Iraq. I mean, this is the place of the birth of Christianity, and we’re watching the full-scale elimination, Nazi-style tactics.

Glenn: Literally Nazi-style tactics.

Johnnie: Literally Nazi-style tactics, I mean, incomprehensible things, and literally most people that are watching this think this came from nowhere this summer. This has been going on since 2003. They’re not starting something, they’re finishing it.

Glenn: Okay, I want to bring somebody else into the conversation. Matthew VanDyke is a guy I cannot wait to meet in person. He is the founder of Sons of Liberty International. Now, this is a nonprofit organization that uses donations to provide resources to local militias in their own defense against ISIS. Let me start with you, Matthew, on this because I have several questions for you, but let me start here. What is it that you have seen, and why is it you’re doing this? I can’t hear. Do we have his audio? Go ahead. Go ahead, Matthew. I think everybody else can hear you.

Matthew: Christianity is under threat of extinction in Iraq. There’s been a large diaspora of the Christian population, and this is really all or nothing for them. They’re either going to be able to provide for their own defense and convince their people to stay or we’re going to see the end of Christianity in Iraq. My motivation for this is Christianity in Iraq as well as ISIS killing two of my friends, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and me looking for a way to make a contribution and fight against ISIS.

Glenn: So, what is it you’re doing?

Matthew: I formed a company called Sons of Liberty International. We’re not technically a nonprofit organization for various reasons, but we operate on nonprofit principles. We’re revenue neutral, and we rely entirely on public support for our funding. So, people go to the website, sonsoflibertyinternational.com, and play an active role in the war on terrorism. They can give and have a tangible effect on the ground in this fight. The situation with Christians is desperate. We’re in a hurry to help them. We just finished training a battalion of them to defend their lands against ISIS, and the work continues. Really the only thing holding us back now is limited funding.

Glenn: Okay, so Johnnie, put the address of Sons of Liberty down so if anybody is interested…there it is. If you want to donate, you can donate there. Johnnie, tell me, what are the things that are happening that you talk about in the book that people would be surprised to know?

Johnnie: Well, the front page of the ISIS magazine in October was St. Peter’s Square right here in the Vatican, and ISIS superimposed a flag atop the Egyptian obelisk at St. Peter’s Square. They put the ISIS flag there. You know, this isn’t like some accidental thing. This is intentional. Every single time Baghdadi has spoken, every single time, everything he has written, he says 100% of the time that they’re marching all the way to Rome.

What’s really interesting about Baghdadi is he took charge of this organization, ISIS, which was then called the Islamic State of Iraq, in May 2010. His first church bombing was in October 31, 2010. Almost as quickly as he took the reins, he went after these Christian populations. In that particular situation, I mean, he, you know, has these guards dress as security guards. They show up inside this Catholic church in Baghdad, Our Lady of Salvation. They killed 50 people, and they assaulted another 70. There’s so much blood that the blood was splashed on the walls and on the ceiling of the cathedral.

That was in 2010. Since that time, every single church in Iraq and every single church in Syria has built bomb walls around their churches to protect themselves. They’re like sitting ducks. I mean, this is what’s so important about what Sons of Liberty is doing. About 14 days ago, ISIS came in a 40-vehicle convoy, clearly, clearly an ISIS convoy, 40 vehicles. They attacked ten Christian villages along the south of the Khabur River in Syria. They kidnapped 300 Christians.

Now, tell me, if the United States government and the European governments are very serious as they say they are about getting rid of ISIS, how did a 40-car convoy of ISIS heading towards ten unarmed Christian villages not get blown to smithereens? It all happened with the whole world watching, and, you know, there’s Christian after Christian after Christian, pastor after pastor beheaded. Their wives and children have been put on slave markets, I mean, everything you could imagine.

I have a price list, a price list…so hard to even think about. It says Yazidi Christian girls, one to nine years old, $170. They kidnap these Christian families. They say in their literature they want to rape their wives and enslave their daughters. They behead the men. They’ve done it over and over and over again. There were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq in 2003. At best there are 150,000 left, and these are the Christians that have carried the gospel for 2,000 years.

Glenn: How many of them, do either of you know, Matthew, how many do we suspect have been killed?

Matthew: The number is not really known. The number of Christians even left in Iraq is estimated at 400,000, but that number is really not known either. You know, there’s so many missing and disappeared that they’re still counting, but it’s in the thousands.

Glenn: You know, I’ve heard about crucifixions. Is that true? Are they crucifying children? Are they crucifying people? Either of you know?

Johnnie: They’re overt in their literature that they are to do it, and there are pictures of them doing it and, by the way, tons of stories of them beheading children. I mean, I have one story in Defying ISIS, I, you know, literally have gotten so connected on the ground, I get emails and text messages from pastors and Christians in the region. This is the 21st century. There’s no barrier. They can communicate with you,

Glenn: Correct.

Johnnie: And one of these says ISIS came from village to village, and they stopped asking the parents if they were Christians because they thought it would be worse if they asked the children. So, this one particular village, this pastor sends me a text message, and he says, “ISIS is coming to my village. They’ve stopped asking the parents if they’re Christians. They’ve started asking the children. Every single one of the kids has said that they are, and every single one of the kids has been killed in cold blood. Please pray for me.” I don’t know what to say to these parents, and I don’t even know how to call myself a Christian, seeing the faith of these children—every atrocity you can imagine.

Glenn: Matthew, I have seen video of some of the survivors that have lost their house and lost everything and get across the border. They’re in these camps, I think it was in Jordan. I saw interviews with these children, and I could not believe the faith of these children. I couldn’t believe how they spoke of forgiving ISIS. It’s a totally different world. What do you see on the ground when you are there and you’re talking to these people?

Matthew: You know, they’re really distressed. You know, the resilience of them is remarkable. The courage of them is. The morale of them, the morale of the men we’re training, they’re highly motivated to defend their lands. Despite everything they’ve been through and the dangers and the horrific things that ISIS has done, they still want to stand up and defend Christianity in Iraq. The tragedy is a lot of the people that you see who cross the border are never coming back, and this is why Christianity is under threat in Iraq. A lot of the people who are refugees will not return to their homes. They feel like Iraq is never going to be a safe place for them, and that’s why the Christians are trying to organize for their self-defense to demonstrate to people that they can stay so that Christianity isn’t lost in the country. You know, it’s really an uphill battle.

Glenn: Let me ask both of you, and Matthew, I’ll start with you and then to Johnnie, and then we’ll take a break. When you’re talking to the people over there, what is it they say about us and our inaction or our blindness or silence?

Matthew: They’re very frustrated, and they don’t understand why all the talk is about supporting Sunni tribes and supporting the Peshmerga but not supporting them in their aspirations to defend themselves.

Glenn: Johnnie?

Johnnie: They told me they feel forgotten. They sent a message to Christians in the West that said, “You would have no Christianity in the West if it wasn’t for Christians in the East. Your church history is our church history, and what happened? Did you cut off the satellites? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming into Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming in with their pickup trucks with their bolted guns in the back of it with the whole world watching? How did you not know that a city that has had tens of thousands of Christians for centuries would have zero left over?”

Glenn: But we’re not talking about…I mean, yesterday, yesterday, we were talking about ISIS, and behind me my staff had picked…one of the things that was rolling the tape behind me was after the execution. It was on the beach in Libya, and it was the sea blood red, just blood water. I stopped watching the show last night, and I rewound it and looked at it. I thought, “How is that not everywhere? How are people not seeing those things?” But in that same video, the banner up above said, “A warning to the people of the cross.” Our own media is complicit. Our own media is not telling the story.

Johnnie: Yeah, and they’re not doing it because it’s Christian, right? It’s religious, but what they don’t understand is that to ISIS, if you live in this country, you’re Christian. We’re a crusader nation in their mind, and so this threat against Christians in the Middle East is very much a threat against anyone in the United States of America because they all put us in this category. You rest assured if they had the opportunity to do it here, they would do it here.

Glenn: They will.

Johnnie: In fact, they are trying to do it here. In fact, they have tried to do it here. We had a beheading in the United States of America. We had police officers attacked on the subway in Brooklyn. We’re losing track. I mean, today we have an Air Force vet that gets arrested because he’s trying to get to Syria. Last night in Washington, D.C., we had a man charge into the cockpit of an airplane yelling “jihad.” The list goes on. We had an attempted suicide bombing in Washington, D.C., just the guy was a part of an FBI sting and got caught. This is happening, and you can rest assured if ISIS has their chance, they will take the Vatican. They will take over the Vatican. They’ll turn the Sistine Chapel into a prison. They’ll behead all the priests and put their heads on the Bernini statues all across there, and they’ll come here next. That’s why we ought to care about it. If our heart doesn’t pull us to care for these women and children, then at least our self-interest ought to do so, but we’re blind.

Glenn: Okay, so when we come back, I want to, Matthew, get specific on what you’re doing and how you’re training and specifically from both of you what we can do, because people feel helpless—this is too big of a problem. What can we do? When we come back.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.