Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic primary victory has sparked an Islamophobic backlash in the United States, a country that seems to be moving rapidly toward becoming a theocracy with increasing religious intolerance for anything other than Evangelical Christianity. When Mamdani won, some pundits and politicians argued that his faith wouldn’t be a spiritual practice but a political ideology, that the Statue of Liberty would be draped in a burqa, and he would welcome future terrorist attacks on American soil.
This is ironic given that Republican lawmakers use religion and their definition of morality to justify proposed legislation and the erosion of actual laws covered under the U.S. Constitution, such as the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is scheduled to sign Senate Bill (SB) 10, which will take effect in September 2025, and mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom. The authors of SB 10 argue that this bill champions the historic fabric of the American educational tradition, without infringing on religious freedom. Even though new Senate Bills are being presented as a key curriculum to teach American history, it’s a fine line that crosses the separation of church and state.
The organization Texas Values, which focuses on religious liberties, was a significant supporter of the SB 10 bill, taking away civil rights in the name of Christian and family values. Louisiana was the first state to enact this legislation in June 2024, and it included public universities.
Other states in the bible belt that are working to copy this bill include South Carolina and Oklahoma. In addition, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, went so far as to demand that Bibles be placed in every classroom, arguing that biblical principles have shaped the country’s history.
Well, let’s dive into the history. The Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean to America in search of religious freedom from the Church of England and King James, as well as to pursue economic opportunities. In contrast, these same people played a role in the transatlantic slave trade, which trafficked Africans from the continent of Africa. They were packed like sardines in disease-ridden slave ships with names like Jesus of Lubeck and Lord Ligonier.
They didn’t have the pleasure of practicing their faith of choice or have a say in becoming America’s new economic engine. The slave owners’ religion, Christianity, was forced upon them. It was also a form of control, and they sold the righteousness of slavery in the framing of biblical text. Christianity was deeply intertwined with proslavery theology, which drew on biblical scriptures, including Philippians 2:12, that emphasized obedience with fear and trembling. Scriptures that demanded liberation were not taught to the enslaved.
Let my people go, Moses told the Pharaoh.
The history books don’t teach about how enslaved Africans were subject to physical and sexual abuse and reproductive exploitation. Consequently, enslaved Black women experienced forced pregnancy to increase the enslaved population, sold like valuable commodities. Unlike the privileged few who still to this day boast about not having to bow to a religion.
In Comparison, the Redemption of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was weaponized by theological language to disguise the political goals to take away former enslaved and free Black people’s legislative seats and economic gains. All in the name of redeeming the south from the negro misrule. And now we have supposedly “religious freedom” politicians demanding Mamdani’s denaturalization and deportation. These are the descendants of people who violently fought desegregation in the name of Christianity. The same “Christians” who bombed the Birmingham, Alabama church on September 15, 1963, and killed four black girls
Black theology played a significant role in the liberation of Black Americans, which gave birth to the Abolition and civil rights movements. Similarly, the Muslim community’s voice is more confident in its institutional power due to its strong coalition of support.
Mamdani’s primary victory and historical context have demonstrated that religion isn’t immune to the persecutory powers.
These events have the makings of the holy wars referenced in the Old Testament in the Holy Bible, for the sake of keeping America’s educational tradition. Let’s not allow the panic of interfaith to lead us into regrettable acts.