Another socialist Muslim is running for mayor
Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh announced his candidacy for mayor of Minneapolis this week, making him the second Muslim socialist this year to seek the top spot in a major American city.
Fateh, a 35-year-old member of Minneapolis’ large Somali population, belongs to Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a growing socialist organization that has already placed Muslims in Congress, like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), also a Muslim Somali in Minneapolis. The DSA is a radical Left group whose members have praised Hamas and justified the killing of civilians to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Protecting Somalis ‘back home’
Like Rep. Omar, Fateh sees his role in American government as helping Somali Muslims—not just those in Minneapolis, but “back home” in Somalia.
“I understand that our Somali communities are all connected to each other, here in Minnesota and back home,” he told attendees at an event. “And I ask for your support. There’s always been a link between our community here as well as back home. And I’m running to bridge that gap and unite all of us and represent all of us. Because when we succeed here, we succeed everywhere.”
On another occasion, Fateh, who is American-born, explained how he teams up with other Somali Muslims in the Minnesota House of Representatives to push legislation that serves the interests of the Somali community.
“Right now, we’re blessed to have three Somali elected officials at the capitol: me, sister Hodan Hassan, who is in the state house, and brother Mohamud Noor,” he told an audience at a mosque. “And we work very closely together. And we carry each other’s bills. So the way it works is, if there’s a bill in the House, it needs an identical bill to be carried in the Senate for it to be negotiated and to pass in the committees and then go on for the floor session and then go on to the governor’s signature. So we’re able to pass our bills back and forth that will help benefit our communities.”
Fateh’s agenda
Fateh’s socialist agenda includes freezing or capping rent prices, raising the minimum wage to $20, sending 911 calls to social workers instead of police, and refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Fateh previously supported measures to defund the police and replace law enforcement with a Department of Public Safety, a policy he hopes to implement. He has also promised to “Trump-proof” the city.
“Our residents deserve a mayor that will stand up to Donald Trump and say ‘no, not in our community,’” Fateh says in his campaign video.
Fateh was the subject of an ethics controversy after his brother-in-law and campaign volunteer, Muse Mohamed, was caught conducting an illegal ballot harvesting operation and then lied to a grand jury about it.
Zohran Mamdani
Many observers are drawing comparisons between Fateh and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor. Mamdani is also a Muslim socialist who belongs to the DSA. The Uganda native is running on a strong socialist platform that includes government-run grocery stores, free public transportation, frozen rent prices, universal childcare, medical mutilation for minors packaged as “gender-affirming care,” defunding the police, further taxing the rich, and targeting White people for additional taxes.
