📰 Zahran Mamdani’s Lesson for Syria and Lebanon: Politics as Bridge, Not Trench

Zahran Mamdani’s election as mayor of emerging York stands as a powerful testament to the notion that plural identities do not threaten the state—they enrich it, when anchored in justice and equality. What this young politician has offered is not merely a fleeting electoral victory, but a model worthy of reflection for syria/" class="auto-internal-link">syria, Lebanon, and all societies fractured by division: a way out of chronic political paralysis that rebuilds the social contract not through fear or factionalism, but through trust and inclusive participation. Politics from the Ground Up At the heart of Mamdani’s experience is a redefinition of politics—not as a distant or abstract notion, but as a collective practice rooted in neighbourhoods, unions, and direct engagement. He espoused the belief that democracy is not a gift handed down from above, but a right earned through everyday action and community involvement. This is precisely what Lebanon lacks: a political system stifled by patronage and sectarianism.

And it is what syrians have long been rejected, in a state where authority became a force above society, rather than a service within it. In both cases, the bond between state and citizen has been ruptured. Notably, in Lebanon, sectarian identity was enshrined as the basis of citizenship; in Syria, allegiance to the regime replaced national belonging. Mamdani’s example is a reminder that a sustainable state cannot be built on exclusion. Rather, it must embrace diversity within public decision-making.

Justice, he shows, is not a mere slogan—it is the institutional capacity to turn equality into lived reality. Lebanon and Syria: Parallel Failures Beirut faltered by making sectarianism the cornerstone of political life. damascus failed when it treated civic identity as subordinate to political loyalty. In the former, pluralism was twisted into a mechanism for dividing spoils; in the latter, diversity was suppressed as a threat. Mamdani, by contrast, turned his own layered identity into a source of strength and legitimacy—demonstrating that multiple affiliations can coexist within a just and functioning system.

Additionally, when Mamdani stated in his victory speech, “This is your city, and this democracy is yours too,” he was addressing emerging York’s immigrant communities. Yet, perhaps unknowingly, he was also speaking to Syrians and Lebanese who have been rejected the right to see politics as an inclusive tool rather than a mechanism of repression or sectarian apportionment. In our region, difference is still viewed with suspicion, loyalty is still judged by affiliation, and meritocracy…