The global reckoning over Islamist political power – Texas draws a line, New York crosses another |
The United States is witnessing a moment that may define the global democratic trajectory for the next decade: one major state drawing a hard civilizational line against Islamist political networks, and one of its greatest cities opening the door to a politician whose ideological leanings are celebrated by activists but feared by security analysts. Governor Greg Abbott’s designation of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist–criminal organizations, combined with a sweeping ban on their ability to own land in Texas, coincided with New York electing Zohran Mamdani – a figure whose rhetoric, affiliations and public positions place him directly within the ideological crosswinds shaking democracies across the world.
This is not merely an American story; it is the loudest signal yet of a global struggle over what extremism looks like in the twenty-first century and how far democratic systems can be stretched before they fracture.
Texas takes the first step — A reckoning long overdue
Texas has done what many governments in Europe have wished they could do but lacked the political confidence to attempt. Abbott’s proclamation did not emerge from a vacuum. It reflects years of security assessments, domestic terror cases, investigative reports, and the growing recognition that certain organizations, while operating behind civil-rights facades, have long served as ideological pipelines for political Islam.
The proclamation rests on a simple assertion: democracies must defend themselves before they reach a point of no return. This explains why the move resonated so intensely across Europe. France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom did not merely watch from a distance – they recognized themselves in the text of Abbott’s order.
Europe, after decades of hesitation, has belatedly acknowledged how deeply entrenched Islamist ideological structures became under the cover of multicultural tolerance. France’s Emmanuel Macron admitted in 2020 that the Republic had created conditions for “Islamist separatism,” an alternative social order operating within the nation. Germany’s Angela Merkel conceded in 2010 that the vision of multiculturalism had “utterly failed.” Sebastian Kurz, then Austria’s Chancellor, declared political Islam to be “a threat to our democracy.” These statements were not ideological outbursts. They were confessions of governance failures spanning decades.
Texas has acted before........