Anyone old enough to remember 9/11 knows precisely where they were when they heard the news. I was home when a friend from Chicago called. It was early (I reside on the West Coast), and I was still in bed. I didn't answer at first. Back then, we still had answering machines. She was halfway through leaving a message when I heard, "We're under attack!" I picked up instantly. She told me to turn on the TV. I did—and watched the towers fall.
At the time, I was working at a local newspaper. The atmosphere in the newsroom was heavy, disoriented. We all knew the world had just shifted, but the presses didn't stop. We kept working. The lounge TV stayed on–something we never did–and people rotated in and out, glued to every new development.
For me, that day wasn't abstract. It was personal.
I was the only Middle Easterner in the office. I lived in Palo Alto, which everyone now calls Silicon Valley. But before it became Silicon Valley, it was just my home–mostly white, middle-class, quiet. I was technically a "minority," yet I never felt out of place. No one cared. People were curious about my name and my background. I welcomed it. I never minded being called "exotic."
When 9/11 happened, that changed–but not in the way you'd expect.
White people suddenly became extra nice. Their exaggerated efforts to make me feel "included" had the opposite effect. It was awkward, performative, and demeaning. I didn't need their pity–I never asked for it–and their forced kindness only made me feel more alienated.
What disturbed me most was the sheer ignorance behind it. White Americans were so desperate to prove they weren't racist that they were willing to suspend common sense, even their own safety, to protect someone else's feelings. I knew then that America's downfall would come from this instinct–the need to destroy itself in the name of compassion.
Here we are today. The city I watched destroyed–its people shattered, the one that vowed we would "never forget"–just elected a Muslim immigrant, a proud democratic socialist, as mayor. Once the epicenter of American values and dreams, New York is now run by a man who proudly calls it "a city built by immigrants."
You'd assume non-white voters primarily drove this race. But the data tells a different story–half of the city's voters were white, and among them, 45% backed Mamdani while 46% went for his opponent. Non-white voters made up the other half and leaned heavily his way–56% supported Mamdani compared to just 37% for the others. His strongest backing came from Asian voters at 62%, followed by Black voters at 57%.
Another striking detail is that native New Yorkers didn't vote for Mamdani. According to NBC's exit polls, only 38% of those born in the city supported him, while 55–85% of newcomers who've lived there less than a decade did. In other words, the people reshaping New York didn't build it.
And when you look at age, Mamdani's base is even clearer. Most of his voters weren't even alive during 9/11. Those under 30 backed him by a staggering 78–18 margin, and voters under 45 by about 70–25. Older New Yorkers–the ones who actually remember what the city once was–voted against him almost two to one.
Interestingly enough, NBC–and the Edison Research consortium that runs exit polls for every major network–completely omitted "Muslim" as a category, even in a race where the candidate's Muslim identity was both historic and central to his campaign narrative.
They've done this for years. Their religion question is a lazy relic from national polling: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Other, and None. That's it. "Other" becomes a statistical junk drawer, lumping Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and everyone else together–making it impossible to see the fundamental religious dynamics behind voter behavior.
In a city like New York–home to more than 750,000 Muslims, nearly 9% of the population–that omission isn't an oversight. It's a data blackout. You can't celebrate "representation" or "historic firsts" while refusing to measure the very communities that made it possible–allegedly.
In 2018, I went to Washington, D.C. as part of the Middle Eastern Women for Trump coalition. I spoke at that event, warning about Sharia law creeping into our Christian nation. It was during the height of Linda Sarsour's Muslim activism when her influence over progressive circles was dominant. Recently, she even boasted that Mamdani's campaign was backed by the jihad-linked group CAIR.
As an immigrant born in an Islamic country, I know firsthand what Islamists are after: to topple and convert Western nations by any means necessary. To them, it isn't politics–it's divine command.
My heart aches for our nation. Despite years of warnings from people like myself, we're walking down a path that will soon make America unrecognizable.
As Rod Thomson wrote, "Marxism and Islamism run in direct opposition to America's Constitutional and traditional worldview of individual freedom and rights, and a capitalistic society that operates within those freedoms and liberties."
He's right. We must stand against both ideologies to preserve what our Founding Fathers fought so hard to build.
Let us never forget 1776.
Soad Tabrizi is a licensed marriage and family therapist in eight states, with a private practice based in Orange County, CA (www.soadtabrizi.com). Soad is also the founder of www.ConservativeCounselors.com.
