Behind every radical Democrat politician is an even more radical spouse — whether it’s California Governor Gavin Newsom’s bride, Jennifer, or New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji.

Mamdani has claimed time and again that his wife is a private person, not a public elected figure worthy of scrutiny, but Duwaji keeps giving us reasons to investigate what she is up too, and not in a positive way.

For America’s 250th anniversary, Duwaji decided to leave the country and go on an Islamic retreat in Spain. Not days later, Duwaji is cohosting another Islamic retreat in Corsica, France.

The latter one, titled “Mary in the Quran,” honors the mother of Jesus as a “Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation.” The retreat obviously tries to center Islam on Mary’s story. There are huge problems with this.

First, Mary was not Palestinian. There was no such ethnic group until much later. Mary was a Jew living in Judea, as was Jesus. These would be the first decades AD, when Judea was under the control of the Romans, as was the majority of the known world at the time. The word “Palestine” was not applied to the region of Judea until much later. Under Roman emperor Hadrian, the Jews were stripped of their lands — and to further sever the Jews from their lands, Hadrian renamed the region “Syria Palaestina” in 135 AD — in other words, a century after Jesus’s life.

Second, it’s interesting that the Islamic retreat is focused on Mary. According to the retreat brochure:

At the heart of this retreat is the luminous legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Qur'an, chosen, purified, and elevated above all women of the worlds. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an — mentioned 34 times — and the only one to have an entire chapter revealed in her name: Surah Maryam. Her story is not only one of divine motherhood, but of unwavering faith, sacred retreat, and total devotion to Allah.

Like Jesus, Mary is revered by Muslims, but her real story — the miracle that God worked through her — is diminished. Muslims do not believe in the crucifixion. And if they do not believe in the crucifixion, they do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and savior of the world.

Evangelist and apologist Shahriq Kahn puts the sad misconception of Jesus in the Quran very plainly. He wrote on X:

The Quran calls him Al Masih in Surah 3, 4, and 5, but gives no context. Jews say they’re waiting for the Messiah. Christians say Jesus is the Messiah.

But what does Islam say?

Messiah means anointed one. It’s rooted in the Hebrew story, the Son of David, the King on David’s throne (Isaiah 9), the servant who bears sin (Isaiah 53), the one anointed to proclaim good news and liberty.

That’s not a nickname or title. That’s more of a role. The Quran gives Jesus the receipts, born of a virgin, a word from God, a spirit from Him, heals the blind, raises the dead…

But then, it denies the cross.

Why is that the detail that gets removed?

Messiah of what exactly?

A king with no throne. A Savior with no sacrifice. If the Quran confirms previous scripture, then let the Torah and Injeel define Al Masih. It leads straight to the cross.

The amazing thing is, I saw Al Masih in the Quran. But I met Him in the Gospels. A Messiah without the cross is just a miracle-working prophet. With the cross, the most verified event in history, He is the King who saves humanity.

The story of God coming to us… that’s insane.

The Holy Family being mislabeled as “Palestinian” is also a misnomer that leftists worldwide cling to in their attempt to justify their animosity toward Israel. The purpose and miracle of Mary, Jesus, and God’s plan for salvation come second to their moralizing about inclusion.

At Duwaji’s Islamic retreat, Muslim women have gathered in an old monastery — which used to be inhabited by Christian monks — to give their heretical devotions to Mary, who is their symbol of total surrender to God. This is a demonic inversion. The Catholic monks honored Mary, the Mother of Jesus — God’s perfect sacrifice, His only Son, savior of the world. Now, Islamic women honor Mary because she was the “most beloved of Allah.” Her part in the story of the incarnation is made less as a result. It takes God’s actual miracle right out of the center, changing it into aspirational platitudes. In other words, it misses the point.

Ironically, Duwaji seems to miss lots of points. She misses the point of being an American. She misses the importance of the 250th anniversary of American independence. She misses the true importance of Mary — a Jewish woman and the mother of Jesus, God incarnate.

Thankfully, Rama Duwaji is not beyond God’s grace, and we can hope and pray that she accepts the gospel one day. Right now, though, her private choices bring to the fore a concerning radicalism that her husband intends to inflict on New York City with a smile.