A recent viral video from influencer Becky Weiss took aim at New York City mayor Zoran Mamdani for swearing his oath of office on the Quran while simultaneously presenting himself as a progressive reformer. Those two, Weiss points out, are incompatible.
Weiss: Zoran Mamdani just swore in on the Quran. Yay. He's so progressive, super progressive. Let's learn what the Quran says. Per the Quran, men may have up to four wives whom they have complete authority over, but women may only have one husband. Women are not allowed to refuse intimacy with their husbands. And oh, by the way, the Quran actually instructs the husbands to beat their wives for disobedience.
Furthermore, the Quran permits men to marry pre-pubescent girls and then consummate the marriage once the man decides that the girl is physically able to tolerate it. The Quran also establishes a legal inequality between men and women. Women are not treated as equals. They are treated as lesser than.
There's more, but we're going to move along to Islamic law, which stems from the Quran, which allows for the death penalty for gays and the abuse of women at the discretion of their husbands. Ultra progressive, that's your guy, right there. That's what you that's what you voted for.
Oh, wait, there's more. The Quran also explicitly calls for violence against non-believers. Here are a few references you can pause and read. Fitnah is worse than killing. What is fitnah you ask? Well, fitnah is unbelief or the resistance to Islamic dominance and authority. It is better to kill people than to allow fitnah.
Again, unbelief or resistance to Islamic dominance and authority, and liberals, progressives, that's your guy. That's your guy. Do you have any understanding of what it is you are cheering for? Clearly not.
Now, to be fair, Mamdani's defenders are not wrong about one thing. When he describes himself as a progressive, he is not talking about implementing Islamic theology through city hall. His progressivism refers to a familiar menu of secular policy goals: universal childcare, free public transit, rent freezes, and a broader democratic-socialist vision of government intervention in everyday life. Swearing an oath on the Quran does not, by itself, mean he intends to govern New York City according to Islamic law. American politics is full of officials whose personal religious convictions remain distinct (at least formally) from the policies they pursue in office.
That said, the question doesn't disappear simply because it makes progressives uncomfortable. Mamdani's faith is clearly not incidental or merely cultural. It was important enough for him to highlight it symbolically at the very moment he assumed power. And that raises a legitimate question that no amount of hand-waving can fully dismiss:
How much will that faith shape his moral framework, his priorities, and ultimately his policy instincts?
Because if one takes the core moral teachings traditionally associated with Islam seriously, they point in a direction that is about as far from modern Western progressivism as one can imagine.
At some point, progressivism has to decide whether it actually believes what it claims about equality, autonomy, and liberation, or whether those ideals are negotiable so long as the optics are right and the coalition holds.
Mamdani's supporters insist his faith is irrelevant. His oath says otherwise. And while it may be unfair to assume he will attempt to institute Sharia law in New York City, it is not unreasonable to ask whether a worldview strong enough to shape his most public moment might also shape his sense of justice.
The late Charlie Kirk had a point:
Progressives cannot forever pretend that faith is both deeply meaningful and completely meaningless at the same time.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
