Barbarians Inside the Gates: An Interview with Robert Spencer

Thirty-four years after the end of the Cold War, and a quarter-century after Islamists blew up the Twin Towers, a radical Islamist socialist reigns supreme in New York City. We spent trillions of dollars in the War on Terror only to end up with allies of terror in the halls of Congress and America's most important cities. Where did we go wrong? And more importantly, how do we get back to America's Christian roots? For answers we turn to Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, who recently joined the Restoration Spotlight Podcast to discuss Zohran Mamdani's threat to the republic. He gave a subsequent interview to Senior Editor of Restoration News, Jeff Reynolds, to drill down on the pending disaster of a Mamdani-run New York City.

Jeff Reynolds: In your interview on Restoration Spotlight, you mention that New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani represents something wholly un-American, melding an anti-colonialist third world perspective with European Marxism. How did he win that race? And how frightening is it that someone like that can get elected to lead our largest city and most important commercial zone? 

Robert Spencer: It’s extremely frightening, not least because Mamdani is just one exponent of what is clearly a far-left political strategy. The plan is to run young, attractive, avowedly socialist candidates, often non-white, non-Christian, and not born in the U.S., marketed as fresh new outsiders.

In 2020, Joe Biden ridiculed the idea that he was a socialist, but the new wave of Democrats—AOC, Mamdani, Seattle mayor Katie Wilson, failed Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh—is openly and proudly socialist. Given the authoritarianism of the Biden regime, this is a disturbing development and makes it likely that if Democrats win in 2028, or even after that, they will set about to destroy our constitutional protections once and for all and make the nation into an authoritarian one-party state.

All this looks dire, and it has come about in large part because of the success of Mamdani, but in reality, his election was not the great harbinger of things to come that it has often been presented as being. New York City was already effectively a one-party state because of years of Democrat policies designed to consolidate their control over the city, and Mamdani’s opponent was the extremely unattractive, aged corruptocrat Andrew Cuomo.

It is, however, hardly comforting to note that Mamdani only won because his opposition was so weak, for now Mamdani will ensure that he can be reelected as long as he wishes to remain mayor. What was no mandate at all will be run with as if it were a decisive mandate, and New York City and the nation will suffer grievously as a result.

Reynolds: New York City is home to nearly one million Muslims, as you know. In late February—less than two months after Mamdani was sworn in—they gathered in Times Square to broadcast Islamic prayer calls during Ramadan. Now Mamdani is expanding permission for mosques to broadcast Muslim calls to prayer throughout the city. That feels like more than just a religious display, doesn't it?

Spencer: There is no need for this kind of public display. In pre-modern times, a public call to prayer could conceivably be justified as a necessity, but today in New York City everyone has a smartphone. No one needs a public call to prayer to tell him it’s time to pray.

So why is the call of prayer sounded in New York and other Western cities? It is a declaration of the presence and supremacy of Islam.

The content of the call to prayer itself makes that clear, as it repeats “Allahu akbar,” which is both the jihadi’s war cry and a declaration of the victory and superiority of Islam. The public prayer in Times Square is undertaken with the same mindset. The idea is to make a show of force in the face of unbelievers. “Islam must dominate and not be dominated,” said Muhammad, and the public prayer, especially when it blocks streets and sidewalks, is an expression of that dominance.

Reynolds: Mamdani isn’t alone. I’ve been concerned ever since we somehow elected Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to Congress that we now have large enough pockets of populations with contempt for Western civilization to elect people who don’t understand and revere our Constitution. Those pockets seem to have joined forces with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Newsweek recently reported that the DSA has reached out to the Chinese Communist Party to work together to undermine American government. Seattle elected a DSA mayor in her 40s who campaigned from her parents’ basement. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is a 20th century communist from the revolutionary African school. A majority of Portland's city council are from the DSA. 

How big a risk is this fusion of Islamism, globalism, anti-colonialism, and communism in conquering our institutions? And how incompatible are all these forces with Western culture?

Spencer: It’s a huge risk. That’s exactly the effort that the Left is now making. These forces are not only incompatible with Western culture, but actively hostile to it. They want to destroy it and replace it, although they disagree on exactly what should replace it. They do, however, intend to establish an authoritarian internationalist state, and to accomplish that, the U.S. as it currently exists will have to be destroyed, the borders definitively opened, the idea of citizenship rendered meaningless, and Constitutional protections of speech and self-defense voided. All that is very much underway. The second (and first) Trump administrations they regard as just a speed bump on the way to the workers’ paradise or a Sharia state.

Reynolds: Where do we go from here? How do we stop the enemy already inside our gates, and reignite a love of America and American values?

Spencer: The rot is very deep and the leftist/Islamic inroads comprehensive and multifaceted. To recover and face down this challenge, we will need to end mass migration; recognize Sharia as political, supremacist, authoritarian and violent; and regain control of our schools, colleges and universities, making concerted efforts to teach young people why Western civilization and the U.S. in particular should be valued and defended.

All that must be done now, and done on a large scale, and done quickly.

However, for the most part we are at the stage of people gradually beginning to awaken to the fact that there is a crisis, while the people who have created the crisis are acting energetically and have been doing so for years. They have a massive head start. We must pray and fast and implore the mercy of God, for it may take a miracle at this point.

Reynolds: Robert Spencer, thank you for your insights. Let's pray there's still time to save America.

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WATCH: Is Mamdani the Democrat Party's Future? with Robert Spencer | Restoration Spotlight

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