The Unholy Alliance of Radical Islam and Far-Left Extremism

When all three far-left congressional candidates endorsed by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defeated “moderate” Democrats in last Tuesday’s primary election, the corporate news media responded with undisguised glee. It isn’t clear, however, that they understand the significance of these results. These three primaries are the latest manifestation of the collaboration between radical Islam and the far left. This affiliation is neither incidental nor harmless.

This noxious partnership is built around two common goals: the destruction of Israel and the eradication of Western civilization—including the United States. The alliance germinated in the wake of 9/11 and came to fruition after Hamas attacked Israel and brutally murdered more than 1,200 Jews—including women and children—on October 7, 2023. Mayor Mamdani is the poster child for the alliance, with links to both a radical imam once on the NYPD’s terrorist watch list and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization.

Mamdani endorsed Brad Lander, who challenged and defeated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in the primary for the Empire State’s 10th Congressional District. Goldman is best known to the public for leading President Trump’s first impeachment, but that wasn’t good enough for Mamdani. At a rally for Lander, he made it clear that Goldman’s support for Israel and acceptance of AIPAC funding are disqualifying.

Mamdani began his remarks by quoting a communist and quickly pivoted to standard anti-Semitic tropes:

“As Gramsci once wrote, ‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.’ These monsters take many forms today. And AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course, is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars. They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal: to preserve their power.”

Gramsci, for anyone who isn’t familiar with the name, was a Marxist politician and a founder of the Italian Communist Party. You will note that Mamdani proudly quotes a communist without mentioning that Gramsci, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and their fellow travelers were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million people during the 20th century. Yet somehow, he associates AIPAC with genocide. Moreover, during his 2025 mayoral campaign, he frequently accused Israel of genocide.

It is no coincidence that the far-left congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani espouse the same weird admixture of radical Islamism and far-left extremism that permeates his rhetoric.

Take, for example, Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier. She defeated five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) after a heated campaign during which she said that Espaillat had been “bought by the Israeli lobby to stay silent,” about the mythical genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Avila Chevalier is also a co-founder of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD). ABC News reports that CUAD routinely takes to social media to post drivel like this: “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.” And in case anyone doubts her disdain for her own country, Avila Chevalier has variously called the United States a “f***ing disgrace,” demanded that the federal government “literally abolish the border,” and said, “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”

The legacy press has pathetically fawned over these candidates as a new, younger generation of rising Democrat leaders. But what the media shills fail to grasp about such candidates is that the Democrat Party is just a vehicle to gain ballot access. They hate the Democrats as much as the Republicans.

Again turning to Avila Chevalier as a representative example, she has reportedly called former President Joe Biden a “rapist” and “war criminal,” chastised Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for his “liberal Zionism,” and said “F*** Kamala Harris.” That is not the language of someone who wants to “reform” the Democrat Party – it is the language of someone who wants to destroy it along with the entire political system that it is a part of.

As Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Gustavo Gordillo puts it:

“Our candidates run as Democrats, we’re on the Democratic Party ballot line. We contest the primaries. And, when they’re in the legislature, they’re part of the Democratic Party caucus. But we don’t agree with the way the Democratic Party establishment organizes or runs its party apparatus … There’s a problem in the Democratic Party where they’re funded by billionaire donors.”

In other words, the Democrats merely provide the DSA with ballot access. If the “reporters” of the corporate media are too obtuse to see this, at least one longtime Democrat operative gets it. Appearing Wednesday night on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” former Bill Clinton aide James Carville blasted Avila Chevalier and the DSA. He offered this advice to the Democrats: “They should not seat her in the caucus.”

Carville went on to ask of DSA members in general, “Why do you want to run as a Democrat? Start your own movement. If it’s such a powerful, sweeping movement that’s got momentum everywhere, then go ahead and be at the head of it. Don’t use the Democratic Party to advance it.” He also suggested that House Democrat leadership should deny them committee assignments: “We just don’t want to be in the same political party with them,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to a report in the Dallas Express, Carville is by no means the only establishment Democrat wringing his hands about last week’s primary wins by DSA-backed candidates in New York City: “Thirteen Democratic House members and candidates have signed onto a new centrist initiative called ‘Promise to America,’ explicitly declaring ‘We are capitalist, not socialist’ and calling for secure borders, fiscal responsibility, and national pride.” As Politico reported:

“In contrast, Democratic socialists, aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), advocate for policies such as Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, wealth taxes, and defunding or reimagining policing. Prominent DSA members in Congress include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), who push for systemic changes to capitalism itself.”

But these 13 Democrats don’t understand that there is far more at stake here than left versus right or capitalism versus socialism. The problem is far more profound than policy disagreements about health care, climate change, wealth taxes, or defunding the police. The problem is the alliance between Islamists and far-left extremists, who both agitate toward the demise of Israel and the destruction of Western democracies—but have far different visions of what comes after. The far left’s celebration of shared victimhood and anti-colonial rhetoric will provide Islamists with camouflage that they will quickly shed if their war on the West succeeds. The purblind leftists don’t understand that their movement is viewed by Islamists as a productof Western cultureand politics. If their unholy alliance achieves its goals, the radical Islamists will set their sights on their former partners—and Islamic theocracies never have mercy on the infidels.

David Catron is a Senior Editor at the American Spectator. His writing has also appeared in PJ Media, the American Thinker, the Providence Journal, the Catholic Exchange and a variety of other publications.