2016 hopeful Governor Bobby Jindal joins Glenn

Joining Glenn on radio for a full hour Friday, Governor Bobby Jindal delved into a variety of issues he hopes to address in a dramatic way as President of the United States. From major tax reform to dealing with Islamic terrorism, Jindal shared his plans on how to address some of the most important issues facing our nation.

By way of introduction, Glenn told his audience, "I don't think you'll disagree with very much that he has to say."

Listen to the conversation or read the transcript below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: Bobby Jindal, I'll be spending an hour with him on Monday's television show. Then we'll have some more of that on Tuesday as well. So you can really get to know him and hear his policies. But he joins us today on the program.

BOBBY: Glenn, thank you for having me. Look, you and I, we go way back. You're a long-time friend. I'm a big fan of yours. What you're doing to fight for the conservative cause.

For your listeners out at home, I've always done the show, remotely, calling in. This is my first time to physically come into your studios since y'all have modernized, and this is a beautiful, beautiful space.

For the folks that only get to see it on the podcast from TV or hear about it, let me tell you, Glenn has done a great, great job here with this space.

GLENN: Thank you. It's nice to have you here.

BOBBY: Thank you for having me.

GLENN: How is the family, first of all?

BOBBY: Doing well. You can relate. I know you've got -- we've talked about our kids before. My oldest, 13-year-old girl, she just went to her first boy/girl dance a couple of weeks ago. I'm completely against this. I think that's enough to convince every father to be for the Second Amendment.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

BOBBY: I offered to send the S.W.A.T. team with her. She did not want that. My wife offered to chaperone. She didn't want that either.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: My daughter when she started dating, I about put the kid into just a coma because I brought my security to sit down and meet him. And I just told the security, just play along. Sit at the other table. If I look over to you, just look at me. Look at your phone and then shake your head yes. And I had this kid so spooked that I knew all about him. If you need any tips, as she gets a little older, you call me. I have some good ones.

BOBBY: Out of all the fathers, I have to imagine, dating Glenn Beck's daughter has got to be pretty darn intimidating. Any boy that was brave enough to go through that gauntlet earns points for showing up.

GLENN: Oh, this kid -- the father the next day because I actually -- I ended the conversation. I put a plastic bag in my suit pocket. And we were just having pizza. And he had a Coke, and he drank the Coke. And at the end of the meeting, I said, are you done with that? And he said, yeah. And I took the plastic bag out, and I put his Coke can like I wasn't touching it and I was going to dust it for prints.

And he said, "Are you dusting -- I said, "I just -- hey, no big deal." The father called me the next day. And he said, "Mr. Beck." And I said, "Yes." He said, "Did you dust my son's Coke can for prints?" He was pissed. And I was going to say, well, not really. It was just -- and I said, well, yeah. And he said, you, sir, are a genius. I have daughters. I am doing it to them.

BOBBY: Let's not give away all of our secrets. I don't want our daughters listening to this thinking, oh, they were bluffing. Uncertainty is a good thing.

GLENN: Oh, I have more for you, Bobby. So you have a family. You know what this is -- is going to be like. You know what it's going to be like for them. You know that they're going to tear you apart. The next president, no matter who he is, is going to face Abraham Lincoln-style problems. Why would you want this job?

BOBBY: That's a great question. And look, I think it's the same reason you continue to speak out. Look, you could just easily say, I'm going to stay at home and be quiet. Because you know when you speak out, people come after you. If the next president is going to do what needs to be done, we're going to have to upset a lot of people. We're not talking about incremental change.

That's why I've said it's not enough to elect just any Republican. Folks are running because they want fame or they want glory, they're misguided. The only reason to do this, the idea of America is slipping away from us.

Now, look, every politician will tell you this election is the most important one. This one really is. If we don't change direction dramatically, I don't mean gradually or incrementally, I think we're done.

GLENN: So tell me the most dramatic thing that you think -- because this is -- we were talking about this yesterday.

I want tax plans that say, "We're shutting down the IRS. We're going a completely different way." I want to hear big Silicon Valley-type thinking.

PAT: Bold ideas.

GLENN: Really bold idea. Because that's what will captivate the imagination. And, quite honestly, that's the only thing that will heal us. So tell me -- give me some Bobby Jindal Silicon Valley --

BOBBY: Well, and look, we can start with tax plans. Domestically, we have got to shrink the size of the federal government. Not just slow its growth rate. I'm the only candidate who has done that. We cut our state budget 26 percent. 30,000 fewer state bureaucrats.

All these other candidates talk about shrinking government. They've never done that. So my tax plan, every Republican has a tax plan with lower rates. And we've got that. You know, 25 percent, 10 percent, 2 percent.

Three things that are radically different about my tax plan. So a bunch of these Republicans say -- you know, Trump and Jeb have said, we're going to have half of Americans pay no income tax.

GLENN: That's crazy.

BOBBY: I think that's crazy. I think everybody should pay something.

GLENN: Yes.

BOBBY: So our plan has a 2 percent rate. It's not about how much money we raise, but it's the most important 2 percent rate. We're all in this together. If we want government to stop wasting money, we have to care about it. It has to be our money. It's too easy to think, well, that money grows on trees, if we're not paying something.

PAT: So you have a 2 percent rate up to what?

BOBBY: So up to $10,000 for a single filer. $20,000 for a married filer.

The next level is 90,000 for single. 180,000 for married when you get up to 10 percent. So a middle class family, teacher, police officer married today making 150, they're paying 25 percent today. They would pay 10 percent under my plan. It does two other things that are dramatic. Number one, it also eliminates the corporate tax. Not reduces it. Just gets rid of it.

PAT: Oh, wow.

BOBBY: These guys play games. They hire accountants and lobbyists. They don't pay these taxes. Make the CEOs pay. We get rid of a whole bunch of the deductions and all the loopholes. We preserve five. But we get rid of all the other nonsense they put in the tax code. Here's the thing where the left -- they will attack me on this, but I'm actually proud of this. We shrink how much money -- we dramatically -- we cut 22 percent of the revenues going to the federal government over the next ten years. Now, the left is going to hate it. They're going to say, you can't do that. Well, if we don't do that, we're done.

If we elect a Republican president -- before, we've had Republican majorities, Republican presidents, they slow the growth rate. Nothing changes. We got $18 trillion of debt. We're drowning in debt. Now, this tax plan grows the economy. All kinds of numbers. 14 percent GDP growth. 6 million jobs. You know, 9 percent. Over eight to 9 percent wage growth. But here's the fundamental thing.

Here's the most important thing we have to do domestically. And then one other thing internationally. Domestically, this president has done a great job changing the American dream to be all about the government taking care of us. That's what he's tried to do.

We're on the path towards socialism. Let's just be honest about it. Bernie Sanders calls himself a socialist. Hillary Clinton is no better. Obama is no better. And there are a bunch of Republicans that aren't a whole lot better. They want to be Obamacare-lite. They want to be -- look, if this election is about who can give away the most stuff from the government, we're done. We never win that fight. It's not a fight worth having.

We have to look the American people in the eye and be honest with them and say, what makes the government great is not the government gives you stuff. It's that you have freedom in this country. We have to fight to get that freedom back. Shrinking the government is not just about growing the economy, it's getting our freedoms back. But secondly, internationally, this country better be serious -- and I know you've written about this. I know you feel strongly about this as well. We better feel seriously about the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.

GLENN: So tell me about ISIS. Let's start more basic than that. Tell me about Islam.

BOBBY: The reality is, Islam has a problem. And, you know, nobody on this stage is politically correct. But let's just be honest. I know we'll get a bunch of folks, you're anti-Muslim. You're racist. That's nonsense. This is just true. Islam has a problem. And that's radical Islam. And what we need our president to say to Muslim clerics and leaders, they've got to do two things. At least one, they have to explicitly say, they have to condemn by name these individual -- these terrorists. These murderers. Let's call them what they are.

You can't just condemn a generic act of violence. You can't just say, oh, well, we're against -- no, you have to say, these individuals are not martyrs. They're not going to enjoy a reward in the afterlife. They're going to straight to hell, where they belong.

Then, secondly, they have to explicitly say, we fully embrace religious liberty and all the freedoms for people that have different religious beliefs that we want for ourself. It can't be that we want freedoms for us, but we don't other people to have those same freedoms.

When it comes to ISIS, when it comes to Islam, we have a president who went to the Pentagon a few weeks ago, and said this is a generational conflict. We have to change hearts and minds.

Glenn, they are burning people leave alive. Raping. Crucifying. Torturing. Killing Christians. Other Muslims. Other religious minorities. He wants to negotiate with them? We have to hunt them down and kill them.

He calls Fort Hood an incidence of workplace violence. If we won't name -- Secretary Kerry wants to allow many more Syrian refugees in our countries. We know ISIS wants to send terrorists into Europe and into America. Why are we letting them in? They don't even have to sneak in. If we're going to let them in the front door, why would we do that?

GLENN: Well, we're accepting 15,000 in the next year. They're all being vetted by the United Nations. That's insane. But how do we -- you know, we've just raised -- I just got a note this morning. We have broken the 10 million-dollar mark in what has it been, six weeks? All coming in, in hundred-dollar checks, trying to raise money to save the Christians in the Middle East, the Nazarene fund. $10 million. So that tells me, at least this audience is very well aware of what's going on. That we are now facing the St. Louis, the ship that we turned in the 1930s. That we're facing the same thing that the world faced before. An extermination of a race of people based on their religion.

And I get a lot of heat from people, even in this audience, saying, "You can't bring any of them here." My answer to that is, A, our vetting is far superior than anything the United States is going to do. Second of all, how many members of ISIS are Christian? Zero.

How do you deal with the crisis of not the war refugees because if you're Muslim, as far as I'm concerned, Saudi Arabia has lots of room. Jordan has lots of room. They know the difference between the bad guys and the good guys. The West won't admit it. So they can do that. How do you deal with the Christians and this open door in Europe that's going to crush Europe?

BOBBY: Well, you're exactly right. What I worry about is those folks going to Europe have a much easier time than coming to the United States, where they can do us harm.

GLENN: Yes.

BOBBY: But the vetting is so important. And I applaud the generosity of your audience. Let's get to the root cause of this. This administration wants to talk bandaids. This didn't happen by accident. You have millions of refugees there because of this president's failed foreign policy. Let's for a moment step back and think about what we're seeing today.

So you have Assad and Putin and Iran and Hezbollah working together. I mean, can you imagine -- this all happened because this president, he created a void. He said there would be a red line. He said if Assad crossed that red line and used chemical weapons, there would be consequences. It has been his official policy that Assad has to go, but he's done nothing to accomplish that. He has said his official policy is, we'll hunt down and kill ISIS. He's done not enough to accomplish that. Glenn, we have to take the handcuffs off the military. You've had General Petraeus come to the Congress and offer ideas. You have other military, current and foreign military leaders saying what we should be doing. Why aren't we arming and training the Kurds directly?

GLENN: Amen.

BOBBY: I mean, we're going through Baghdad. The Kurds have been the effective force on the ground. Turkey is willing to help us to go in -- and other Sunni allies are willing to go after ISIS. What they don't want to do is to go after ISIS if it leaves Assad in power. What they don't want to do is prop up Iran, a Shia power. They're not convinced America is in this to win this. So now we're in a position where our friends don't trust us. Our enemies don't fear and respect us. Look, Putin went into the Ukraine and Crimea because he didn't respect the White House. Nothing -- nothing of consequence happened to him, so now he's going into Syria. China is testing us in the South China Sea. Let's be clear about what's going on. These are big adversaries. They respect the Turks. They don't want a conflict with the United States. If they feel like there's no strong pushback, they'll keep doing this.

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.