So what if he's Muslim?

The newly elected mayor of New York has won over the disaffected electorate of one of the world's most important urban centers. He has done so with a dynamic communication style and, through the most powerful channels with mass attention capacity, has managed to convince the residents of the former New Amsterdam. Saturday Night Live Ten days ago, he parodied a still-campaigning Mamdani who wanted to offer voters free healthcare, affordable housing, and free Wi-Fi. Then, he asked himself, "As mayor, can I make it happen? I don't know yet, to be honest," and after a pause, added, "But together we'll find out... that the answer is no."

But the most surprising thing about the new star of the global left isn't the programmatic promises he makes, but rather that he presents religious and/or identity-based credentials. I understand Mamdani coming out to claim his identity as an immigrant given the demonization and persecution carried out by the American administration against this scapegoat established by the president. What I find harder to understand is why the elected official is proclaiming that he is Muslim. Among other things, because I don't really know what he means by that. Does it mean that he gets up before dawn to pray and performs the five daily prayers with his five obligatory ablutions? This kind of ritual doesn't seem to fit into the busy life of a young man in his early thirties leading one of the world's most important cities. Does he believe in what Surah 4 says, that God has established men as superior to women and that women owe obedience to men? Does he believe in the existence of a winged horse that took Muhammad for a ride through the sky? Or that the inhabitants of Sodom were punished by God for practicing anal sex? Is he Sunni or Shia? Which Quranic school does he follow? Does he believe that all those who voted for him and are not Muslim will go straight to hell? Does he accept the Islamic eschatology that establishes a paradise designed for the enjoyment of men?

Obviously, I don't think Zohran Mamdani subscribes to any of these absurdities contained in the religion he claims to belong to, because beliefs have long since ceased to be beliefs but rather an identity. In many cases (fortunately), it's an empty label, an affiliation divorced from real knowledge of the sources that underpin faiths and lacking the necessary theological reflection for a well-founded belief. Postmodernity allows for the combination of antagonistic and contradictory values because everything can be reinterpreted. There is no history or collective organization, only what I, a sovereign individual, decide things are. Although, in fact, as in the case of the mayor of New York, I'm trying to convince my voters that being Muslim is relevant (politically!), too. I could also present myself as a follower of Muhammad while enjoying a good plate of ham or downing a cold beer. Serious Muslims would tell me I'm not, while modern multiculturalists who favor a cacophonous cult of identity would applaud my eclecticism. Something like what Rosalía has done, who has so skillfully baited the hook of ambivalence in a supposed mystical rapture that even a bishop has fallen for it and He has written a letter to the Sunday newspaperLet's see if it converts her.

Personally, I think religion has no place in politics; a candidate's personal beliefs are theirs and theirs alone. And believing in superior, omnipresent beings whose existence hasn't been proven, or accepting a cosmogony full of stories with supernatural and fantastical elements, doesn't inspire confidence in me, quite the opposite. Democracy should be based on reason, not on hallucinations or delusions.