The rise of Sadiq Khan to the mayoralty of London, and the election of Zahran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, were not mere passing events on the Western scene.
They are political and cultural earthquakes that have struck at the very core of Western consciousness, which has long built its glory on the exclusion of the "other."
Today, the West finds itself in direct confrontation with the children of its immigrants, those who built its cities and boosted its economy, and who now occupy positions of power within them.
Khan and Mamdani… Two Faces of a New Western Era:
In London, the city is governed by the son of a Sunni Muslim driver once described by right-wing newspapers as “the danger coming from the East.”
And in New York, the world’s economic capital is headed by a young Shiite man of Indian and African descent, who speaks boldly about social justice and defends Palestine from the heart of the United States.
Between the two, there is a common thread: both were born outside the traditional Western myth, and both reached positions once considered the exclusive domain of the “pure Western” elite.
Trump’s Shock… When the Mask Falls.
Trump did not hide his displeasure; he understands that the symbolism of Sadiq Khan and Zahran Mamdani transcends mere office. It is an intellectual and cultural defeat for the very project he championed—the project of “restoring white America” and “protecting the West from its cultural invasion.”
But the West has changed despite Trump. Today, those who govern the two largest cities in the Western world do not belong to the religious or ethnic heritage that Trump claimed was the guarantor of civilization.
The monopoly has been broken, and a generation has emerged that is not afraid of its identity, does not apologize for its origins, and does not seek permission to be part of the decision-making process.
The West is being tested. What is happening is not merely “political diversity,” but a revolution in the balance of identity. The West, which built its history on a claim of “superiority,” is discovering that its true strength lies in its diversity, and that the children of immigrants are the ones protecting its fractured image both domestically and internationally.
However, this transformation, despite its positive aspects, is unsettling the Western elites themselves, who have yet to reconcile themselves to the idea that the “Western world” is being led by people of color, whose mosques are closer to them than their cathedrals.
The lesson for Arabs: those who fear their own people cannot build a nation.
When a Sunni in London and a Shiite in New York manage to govern the most complex cities on earth, the question becomes painful:
Why does the Arab world still reject its own people in the name of sect, region, or loyalty?
Why do we insist on remaining prisoners of our anxieties, while others progress because they have transcended them?
The West has understood that diversity is a source of strength, while we still judge each other based on name, sect, and affiliation.
Herein lies the difference between a nation that builds and one that fears building, simply because it might change the image of its leader.
The shock Trump is experiencing today is not the shock of a man who lost an election, but the shock of an entire system that has lost its capacity for intellectual dominance.
The West, which taught the world lessons in democracy, can no longer tolerate its consequences when it brings forth figures who do not resemble it.
Therefore, Trump is nothing but the clearest expression of the West's fear of its new image… an image in which a Sunni Muslim decides the fate of London. A Shiite Muslim is planning for the future of New York.
And therein lies the bitter truth: those who were once guests have become the masters of the house.
In a remarkable precedent, two Lebanese from the Shiite community, Mo Beydoun and Abdullah Hussein Hammoud, have also been elected mayors in the United States, confirming that competence trumps identity, and that the sons of southern Lebanon have become part of the decision-making process in the West.
This event transcends the electoral dimension; it is a symbolic message from Lebanese immigrants to their homeland: when competence is honored, one is not asked about their sect, but rather about their ability to build and manage.
This is a new source of pride for Lebanon, proving that its sons and daughters, wherever they may be, bring glory to the country they reside in, in its name, not in the name of their affiliations.
History does not wait for those who fear change, and those who refuse to see the features of the new world will be replaced sooner or later.
Time does not respect the hesitant, nor does it have mercy on those who build their glory on the exclusion of others.
In short, I hope that this victory will not provoke any reactions that lead to physical harm to any party; neither to Trump nor to any other Zionist in the West. Let them know that politics is for the future, and it can only be managed through dialogue whose goal is truth and justice, not through violence that kills reason, logic, and truth... and which will not last long.ع
