From Hate to Hope: What Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Means for Democracy

From Hate to Hope: What Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Means for Democracy

His victory is a powerful rebuttal to the so-called “clash of civilizations

Tazeen Hasan 

Nov. 7, 2025

One of the courses that inspired me the most at Harvard was titled Democracy and Its Discontents, taught by a Canadian professor. Our final assignment asked a deceptively simple question: What is the greatest threat to democracy in the modern world?

We were to pick one threat, defend our choice, and provide evidence. I don’t know what my classmates chose — but I argued that the gravest threat to democracy was the rise of right-wing populism.

It was the spring of 2019. In the preceding five years, Americans had elected Donald Trump on an anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, right-wing platform. Narendra Modi had won a second term in India by stoking hatred against Muslims. France had narrowly escaped electing a far-right leader. Angela Merkel had barely survived her fourth election, largely due to her pro-immigrant stance. And Britain had voted for Brexit — another populist victory rooted in fear and resentment.

The global political landscape looked bleak. Across continents, right-wing politicians were ascending to power by vilifying immigrants and minorities. Scholars began calling this trend majoritarianism — democracy hollowed out into the tyranny of the majority.

Liberal democracy was under siege. These populist leaders claimed to be the only true representatives of “the people,” while rejecting the media, political institutions, and, often, the constitutional protections of minorities. Their politics were not grounded in service or policy but in hatred — a politics that thrived on dividing society into “us” and “them.”

It became difficult to imagine a world without bigotry, without this incessant othering.

Then came October 7 — an event that shook the conscience of the world.

A genocide began before our very eyes. We watched it unfold in our living rooms, on our phones, and in our feeds — streamed live to a global audience.

And for the first time in decades, the world began to remember its shared humanity. Despite our differences, our blood is the same. We are one species.

Students across Western universities began sit-ins and protests against Israel’s atrocities and their own governments’ complicity. They were punished — degrees withheld, expelled, arrested en masse. Yet public opinion began to shift. The moral clarity of youth pierced through the hypocrisy of power.

October 7 changed the world. Humanity began to prevail over hate. The “us versus them” narrative faltered as people rediscovered a simple truth: our blood is still red.

For twenty-five years, Islamophobic and racist narratives had dominated Western politics, waiting for a reckoning. And then came Zohran Mamdani.

He came. He saw. And he conquered.

Mamdani’s victory in one of the most powerful and symbolically charged cities in the Western world — New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in America, the city of the Twin Towers, the birthplace of modern Islamophobia — signals a turning point.

An immigrant who became an American citizen in 2018, with no elite political pedigree, Mamdani did not run on identity politics. His campaign focused on the real, urgent struggles of ordinary New Yorkers — housing, healthcare, and justice.

His victory is more than a personal triumph. It is a reaffirmation of the American Constitution and the enduring promise of its values: liberty, equality, and freedom of belief.

Zohran Mamdani defeated the politics of fear. He defied a biased media. He proved that money cannot buy moral legitimacy.

Above all, his victory is a powerful rebuttal to the so-called “clash of civilizations” — a reminder that empathy, justice, and shared humanity still have a place in our politics.