Until it’s time to celebrate it, obviously:
Twenty-five years after 9/11, two pieces of journalism, describing two different phenomena in contemporary New York, tell us a great deal about a city, and indeed a world, caught between two eras. In one, New York Magazine dives into “Habibi City”, a New York where a “cultural shift is underway, led by a generation of New Yorkers coming into its own”. This new generation is labelled as originating in “SWANA” – south-west Asia and north Africa, a region that “includes countries from Palestine to Iran to Sudan”. In the other, Vanity Fair describes calls for Zohran Mamdani to not attend the 9/11 memorial ceremony as partly founded in “inchoate, emotional” impulses, that see “the city’s first Muslim mayor as a stand-in for the 19 Muslims who hijacked four planes and turned them into deadly weapons, part of the ‘them’ who attacked ‘us’.”
Together they capture what has changed over a generation, and what remains stubbornly the same. Members of a diaspora of Muslim background are indeed breaking through and accumulating, as New York Magazine says, “clout”. They are no longer simply a fixture of bodegas and halal carts, but of Saturday Night Live, upmarket dining, entertainment and politics too. Mamdani is both the expression of that cohort and the catalyst of its recognition as an emerging force. They care deeply for their local communities but also for those in Gaza and beyond.
Cunts.
How about ‘WISI’ – Worst Islamic Shitholes Imaginable? Or DoLTCI – Don’t Let These Cunts In?
Having said that, my distaste for WISI natives is as nothing compared to my loathing of the sort of cunts who write gleefully about their own colonisation.
This goes back to the discussion about algorithms over the weekend.
For some bizarre reason, I am now being bombarded with posts about how wonderful and welcoming Moslem countrues are to Christians and that they form a tiny minority in the UK and go around their neighbours distributing curry and present no threat at all.
“they form a tiny minority in the UK”
You wouldn’t get that impression from the media, where they don’t even seem to be a minority. And is 15% “tiny”?
I read that over one million Christians lived in Algeria in the 1950’s. Today it is less than 50,000. moslems like to go on about minority rights when they are in the minority but don’t give a shit for minority rights when they are the majority.
Plus, Palestine isn’t a country.
What the fuck is wrong with these people?
This is what it always comes back to, isn’t it?
They hate you and want you dead and your children raped and enslaved.
Not just us, white writers of similar articles probably fantasise about themselves being raped and enslaved. And they don’t have children.
It’s just another example of ‘fuck you, Dad’ syndrome.
“The capaciousness of this heritage is demonstrable in its integration – without compromise – into mainstream American society.”
Yes, they quickly become embedded in Democrat politics, because it’s as corrupt as the politics of theis countries of origin
And migrants often become embedded in Labour politics…like Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden Council, and the Labour Party candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Came here in the 1990s from Somalia and has never had a proper job…Labour councillor since 2022 and also a school governor, community activist, and charity trustee.
From what I can gather Abdi-Wali is an absolute wrong’un https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2026/09/15/an-interesting-look-at-the-candidate-that-is-standing-in-sir-keir-starmers-old-seat-for-labour/
Yep.
Madmani is a remnant of NYC goofball politics. A nobody who ran in the Dem primary against a former governor who forced care homes to take in active Covid patients, killing tens of thousands of grand parents. Winning the Dem primary in NYC is equivalent to winning the general election. There is no viable opposition.
So Guardian anoints nobody Madmani as the new generation taking over New York. The Democrat Party embraces the new Socialists in their Big Tent. The Socialists have set a corner of the tent on fire. Dems are in deep doo-doo.
“In a way,” said American comedian Ramy Youssef, in a now legendary standup comedy segment, “9/11 made me more Muslim. Cos I was told it was my fault.” This is a profoundly recognisable story for many, including myself, for whom a casual religious identity became a sharp political one during the “war on terror” years.
Interesting.
” In a way,” said commenter Jonathan, ” The allegedly unique evils of the transatlantic slave trade and the British Empire made me feel more White. Cos I was told it was all my fault.”
See how it works? I wonder if I’ll get a sympathetic story in the Guardian now…
I think the simplicity – and accuracy – of the Great Norman’s contribution wins the thread
While I am angry at the ISIS extremists who have flocked to the US and UK those who applaud it will have to be hanged as a deterrent to others following in their footsteps. I simply see no way of co-existence with people who are so misguided.
“a diaspora of Muslim background”
So they’re not Muslim, they had an ancestor somewhere who was a Muslim. That’s fine then. I have French ancestry somewhere, doesn’t mean I’m French.
“9/11 made me more Muslim”.
Ah, so *not* of “Muslim background” but actual Muslim. Make yer mind up.
A few hundred years ago our laws were quite mean to RCs. Even after they lifted the laws making catholic activities illegal there remained laws which discriminated against them serving in certain roles, such as being a commissioned officer in the forces. The reason for that restriction was the possibility of divided loyalty. That if the interests of the UK were opposed to those of the Pope and the RC church the catholic was not reliable.
That’s the case with muslims now. If the interests of the UK conflict with what the Imams preach the muslims will probably choose their faith. In fact they are required to. But we don’t have any laws to match the ones we used to have.
I’ve been saying for some time that we should resurrect the Test Acts. No muslim should serve in any state function whatsoever.
It is possible for a Muslim to serve the UK loyally unless we declare war on a Muslim Holy Place or reintroduce discrimination against Muslims. Reintroducing/enforcing the laws on High Treason will catch more Lefties than Muslims.
You should. But. Yuman rights.
#meetoo