Mamdani for Jihad He supports the jihad against Israel and India. Still, given that his wife didn’t wear hijab, it seemed that Mamdani was effectively more of a secular leftist than a Muslim hardliner. Nevertheless, at least some Muslims took him to be a Muslim candidate, running to further the cause of Islam. “The true believer,” said Malik, “knows that none of this is in vain, that this is all jihad.”Did Mamdani think “this is all jihad”? This was the incident to which Mamdani was referring as a virtual wiping-out of the Muslims across the entire state of Gujarat.