For decades, American political culture and immigration law have rested on a comfortable, idealistic assumption: That anyone who immigrates to the United States will naturally assimilate into our constitutional republic and make our reverence for free speech, individual liberty, and the separation of church and state their highest civic priorities.

But as Dr. Majid Rafizadeh argues below, that assumption is not merely naive—it is dangerous, especially as it concerns Muslims. Drawing from his own upbringing inside the worlds of Syria and Iran, the Harvard-educated Rafizadeh pulls back the curtain on an ideological reality that America’s mainstream media and political establishment continuously ignore: When an individual’s primary allegiance is anchored to an exclusive, uncompromising theological cult, which is what Islam is, American civic and moral values will always take a back seat.

Rafizadeh exposes the profound disconnect held by Islamist politicians and influencers like Abdul El Sayed and Zohran Mamdani, who seek power in the West while maintaining a deep-seated contempt for the very civilization that grants them a platform and protection. He reminds us that gratitude is not just a polite virtue, but a necessary bulwark for civic survival. Instead, he argues that most Muslims are not only incompatible with American laws and morality, but they hate us and what America stands for. Their goal is not to assimilate but to overthrow and destroy America insidiously from within, using our own laws and astonishing communal naïveté to achieve it.

In the following essay, Rafizadeh offers a masterclass in moral clarity. This isn’t about geography or ethnicity; it is about core ideology. To preserve the republic, we must stop turning a blind eye to political figures and dangerous influencers whose worldview is fundamentally incompatible with American traditions, lifestyle, and customs.

Please read Rafizadeh’s important commentary below. Every voter needs to confront this perspective before it’s too late. It is a courageous, necessary read for anyone committed to safeguarding American values against Islamist sociopolitical subversion from a man who is speaking from within the Islamic inner circle.

They Hate America

by Majid Rafizadeh

Coming from a Muslim family and being raised in Syria and Iran, I am all too aware of politicians and influencers such as Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, and others who carry that same formative identity.

Americans should be clear-eyed: Islamist politicians and influencers in the United States will never place their first loyalty with America. It will not happen. Do not even think about it.

For some, the feeling goes further into genuine hatred of America, Western civilization, and the freedom individuals must choose how they live. The pursuit of office and influence is driven by a desire to advance their core identity, not to strengthen the nation that granted them the opportunity.

The first reality is that when you grow up under Islamist religion, teachings, and doctrine, as I did, your identity is not your nationality. It is not “American” or “German” or any other geographic label. It is entirely the version of Sharia and Islamic doctrine you were taught. All allegiance is rooted there. Everything else — citizenship papers, the Constitution, the flag — is secondary, to be used to protect and expand this primary identity.

The second reality is the doctrine of exclusive truth we were taught. We were raised to believe our path is the only correct one and that everyone else is on the wrong path, destined for hell because they are not favored by Allah.

Shia Islam was presented as the final, perfect religion; all others as incomplete or corrupted. This premise produces a sharp view of the world as “us versus them.”

We were taught that a person who does not affirm the shahada — “Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah, wa ashhadu anna ʿAliyyan waliyyu Allāh” (“I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and I bear witness that Ali is the wali (friend/guardian) of Allah”) — before the end of his days, or who never believed it in the first place, does not enter heaven. This teaching instills in one a sense of moral superiority: we are the good; everyone else, unless he converts, is deficient.

From this vantage point, America, which predominantly does not adhere to these beliefs, is the realm of the wrong path, the infidel way.

That worldview is what underlies statements such as the claim that America “deserved” 9/11. Hasan Piker, the influential streamer who has campaigned alongside candidates including Abdul El-Sayed, said, “America deserved 9/11, dude. Fuck it, I’m saying it.”

Please pause for a minute and consider the human reality of that day: people trapped on upper floors of burning towers, choosing to leap to their death rather than be consumed by fire, falling through the air while others below watched in horror. To look at such suffering and declare it “deserved” requires a depth of inhumanity, a contempt for the victims as human beings with feelings, passions and wishes, just as they have.

Such a statement is possible only when these victims are first reclassified as people on the wrong path, people who do not merit ordinary human sympathy, or even as less than people at all: merely objects.

Many who hold such views will not advertise them while they are still accumulating power—for example, people such as Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani, both of whom will tell any number of lies to American voters and conceal their true intentions in order to achieve power over infidels. Can Americans be THAT gullible and naive?

Historically, the pattern begins with promises of a better life: socialism, free necessities such as water and electricity, benefits such as housing for the poor, women’s rights, full religious and ethnic rights, and so on, just as the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, promised the people of Iran.

When power is secured, the actual program is revealed. Lies and deception, called taqiyya, in the service of imposing their preferred version of Islamism and sharia, are treated as desirable.

The loyalty of these individuals remains solely to Islamist rule and their version of Sharia. It will never be transferred to America. The conflict is inevitable and built in. This means American values such as freedom of speech, equal rights for women, freedom of religion (or from religion), and the right to leave a faith without penalty directly contradict core elements of their identity.

In the Islamic framework, a woman’s testimony or inheritance is worth half that of a man; the only fully legitimate religion is their own; apostasy is punishable by death and criticism of their religion is a capital offense. Freedom of expression and conscience, as Americans understand them, does not exist. By embodying the opposite, America becomes an existential affront to that identity. Hatred follows automatically.

These individuals also show little gratitude or appreciation. The same voices that say America deserved 9/11 or that gain influence and prosper in America rarely acknowledge that America gave their family a home, the freedom to criticize anything without going to prison, and the generous chance to move up.

In their countries of origin, criticism of rulers or doctrine can cost you your liberty or life. Yet the narrative remains that only their Islamist beliefs and ideology delivered success. Instead of being grateful to America and Americans, the host society is owed no gratitude: nothing. Everything is filtered through the same Islamist identity: this life and the next depend on fidelity to it. America or the American people are never a priority.

As someone immersed in both worlds, I owe America everything. I owe America my life. I couldn’t write this article without America. No other country lets you enjoy what you want and be who you want the way you can in America. It is an opulence to speak freely — to have the complete liberty to write these words or to remain silent — that only America affords.

It would be totally ungrateful — and in fact a form of seething hatred — not to see that gift and to criticize Americans while ignoring the unique freedom this country gives.

In short, do not vote for candidates whose core ideological and religious identity is built in opposition to American values and whose conception of themselves is built around Islamism, which rejects free speech, equal civic standing, religious freedom, and the liberty to leave a religion. For them, America is not home in any deep sense. It is an obstacle to overcome, not something to embrace or cherish.

The occasional eruption of phrases such as “America deserved 9/11” is not an aberration; it is an unveiling of a hate for America and of an extremely different hierarchy of loyalties. Voters who want America to prosper and remain first should at least recognize that alternative and vote accordingly.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on US foreign policy and Islam, including “A God Who Hates Women,” “My Mother’s Story: Journey of Repression, Poverty, War, Patience, and Perseverance,” and “US Foreign Policy: Understanding ISIS.” He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu. Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter)

After reading Dr. Rafizadeh’s commentary, here is my question and call to action to you, the reader: “Do you think mainstream political parties and America’s gullible media are doing enough to vet Muslim candidates for ideological compatibility? Let us know in the comments below.

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