The Democrat nominee to
be the next mayor of New York City has had a years-long and close
affiliation with Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, whose
views on Israel have stirred years of controversy and accusations of
anti-Zionism.
Zohran Mamdani’s relationship with Sarsour went largely
unremarked during the primary race for City Hall even though he
campaigned alongside her, and she called him her “friend.”
A Just the News review found that Mamdani embraced
a nearly decade-long association with Sarsour as he rose from an
activist to New York State assemblyman and now the Democrat Party’s
nominee to run America’s largest city. Their views on the Jewish state,
law enforcement, and far-left policies have been closely aligned.
“Peace can only begin by ending the occupation and
dismantling apartheid,” Mamdani said of Israel the day after the Oct. 7,
2023 Hamas atrocities inflicted on Israel.
Extensive public support from Sarsour
Mamdani, a Ugandan-born Indian-American Muslim who is a
member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated former Gov.
Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday in the ranked-choice primary race to be
the next mayor of NYC.
While concerns about Mamdani’s history of anti-Israel
statements brought him scrutiny, his close relationship with Sarsour
went largely under the radar. The Democratic primary in 2025 reportedly saw double the number of votes this time around as compared to the one in 2021.
Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist and vocal anti-Israel critic, stepped down from leading the Women’s March in 2019 over allegations of antisemitism and her connections
to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Mamdani repeatedly appeared
with Sarsour as he campaigned to be mayor in 2025 — and she has been a
key part of his political rise for years.
Sarsour, who has close to 270,000 followers on Instagram,
and hundreds of thousands on the other leading social media sites as
well, has posted numerous messages encouraging Muslims to vote for him,
with one post about Islamophobia grabbing 18,000 "likes."
She describes herself as "an author, award-winning racial
justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer, and
mother of three" on her self-promotional webpage. After Mamdani’s win on Tuesday, Sarsour was jubilant, posting
on Instagram, “A name and money can’t beat people and faith. On to the
general election and that’s gonna be another wild ride. We need a nap (a
very short one).”
Hardline Islamist language used openly in campaign
The Democratic mayoral nominee’s own statement
the day after the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas made no
mention of the terrorist group and included condemnation of Israel only.
He lamented "Netanyahu's declaration of war" — but there was no
condemnation of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks which had murdered
hundreds of Israeli civilians attending a music festival as well as
hundreds in kibbutzim near the Gaza border. Dozens of hostages had been
taken just the day before, many of whom were then murdered.
Just earlier this month, Mamdani also defended his use of the divisive phrase “globalizing the intifada.”
The investigation by Just the News — which
reviewed thousands of social media posts, looked at little-noticed
public interviews, and unearthed statements which have often gained next
to no attention — shows the history of Mamdani making his way through a
Sarsour-affiliated network which was key to eventually making him the
Democratic nominee to lead the nation’s largest city.
The history of Mamdani and Sarsour
They have both said they met each other during the
unsuccessful city council campaign of Palestinian-American Pastor Khader
El-Yateem, a campaign which Just the News found Sarsour helped run and in which Mamdani also played a key leadership role.
Sarsour glowingly endorsed
Mamdani’s run for the state assembly in the NYC borough of Queens in
2020, and Mamdani was happy to accept the endorsement, thanking her
repeatedly, touting the endorsement, and campaigning with her.
Sarsour also repeatedly endorsed and advocated for
Mamdani’s recent campaign for mayor, and the two appeared at events
together repeatedly in 2025. The two also appeared at multiple leftwing
activism events together in the years between Mamdani’s successful state
assembly run and his decision to run for mayor.
Mamdani has cited his membership with the Muslim Democratic
Club of New York (MDCNY), which had been led for two terms by none
other than MDCNY co-founder
Sarsour, as formative in his political career — and Mamdani was a board
member for the MDCNY just after Sarsour’s presidency ended.
While he was with the MDCNY, Mamdani and Sarsour appeared in multiple photos together as she remained a regular presence
with the club. MDCNY repeatedly touted Mamdani’s campaign for mayor
this year, including hosting Mamdani for campaign events, including
alongside Sarsour.
Mamdani also appeared to have been affiliated with Sarsour’s MPower Change advocacy group, Just the News found, with Mamdani being tagged on social media
as a member of the pro-Muslim group run by Sarsour. MPower hosted
Mamdani after he won his assembly race in 2020 and, as the leader of
MPower, Sarsour was a major advocate for Mamdani in 2025.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has
a close affiliation with Sarsour and repeatedly has her appear at
events as a lecturer or keynote speaker, also poured money into
Mamdani’s mayoral race this year, according to campaign finance records.
Mamdani, Sarsour, the MDCNY, MPower, and CAIR did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Just the News.
Team Cuomo noticed, but few voters knew
Christopher Leon Johnson, who listed himself as part of
“Team Cuomo” on Instagram, also shared a series of posts in April 2025
showing Mamdani and Sarsour together at the MDCNY.
One post had Johnson saying Mamdani was “currently at the Muslim Democratic Club of New York post-Eid Event in Manhattan this evening.” The posts by Johnson show multiple photos of Mamdani speaking at the MDCNY, including multiple photos of Sarsour gazing fondly as Mamdani spoke.
He also posted more pictures of her up front as Mamdani
gave his address, with multiple photos of Mamdani and Sarsour laughing
together in front of the crowd, and video of Sarsour leading “Zohran!
Zohran!” chants at the front as Mamdani smiles.
NYC mayor's race a "fight for Palestinian freedom"
Mamdani and Sarsour appeared at a January 2025 campaign event for Mamdani put on by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action. JVP is a well-organized anti-Israel activist organization.
“The fight for Palestinian freedom starts at the local
level. That’s why JVP Action has endorsed Zohran Mamdani to be the next
mayor of New York City,” JVP said.
“Zohran is serious about justice for all people, from NYC to Palestine.
And he is building a common-sense campaign to bring down the rent,
create accessible and free public transit, and ensure our tax dollars
fund our communities at home — not genocide abroad.”
The group urged
its followers to “come meet Zohran and hear from Linda Sarsour … about
his historic campaign.” A disclaimer on Instagram said that this was
“paid for by Zohran for NYC, a candidate for NYC Mayor.”
JVP Action said last week they had endorsed Mamdani, and that post was also paid for by Zohran for NYC. Sarsour said in the Instagram comments for the post that “I love you all so much.”
The MDCNY also shared an “MDCNY post-Eid Celebration” post on Facebook in April 2025. The video
shows Mamdani speaking with Sarsour up at the front of the room with
him. Another post from the group, apparently from the same event, shows
Sarsour at the front of a large group leading a “Zohran #1!” cheer.
In the lead up to Mamdani declaring his mayoral run last
year, Sarsour, Mamdani, the Democratic Socialists of America, and other
groups all united to share an anti-Israel animated graphic created by Mamdani’s now-wife, Rama Duwaji, in June 2024.
Sarsour shared it with a caption which said “New York Listen Up. Palestine is on the ballot.” Mamdani, the DSA, and other groups shared
it with a caption claiming that “New York charities send over $60
million every year to fund Israeli war crimes, and that number is only
growing. It’s time to bring an end to this.”
Sarsour: Wage "jihad" on Trump
Sarsour infamously posted a tweet
in 2011 which downplayed the concerns about the radical Muslim
Brotherhood taking over Egypt, saying, “Yo the Muslim Brotherhood knows
how to parrrttaaay! So much for radical islamists taking over!” She tweeted in 2012 that "nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
Zionism is generally defined as the belief that the Jewish people should be allowed to have a national home in the biblical land of Israel. Sarsour tweeted
in 2015 that a photograph of a child apparently preparing to throw
rocks at Israeli police was “the definition of courage.” She also said
in a 2017 speech that it was important to wage “jihad” against the
Trump White House. She soon backpedaled on the meaning of the word
"jihad" by claiming that critics were taking her words out of context as
she emphasized her commitment to nonviolence.
Sarsour also said in a 2018 speech
that “I am an unapologetic pro-BDS, one-state solution supporting,
resistance supporter here in the U.S.” A so-called “one-state solution”
would likely result in the ending of the Jewish character of the nation
of Israel.
As for “BDS,” then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
in 2020 that “the United States strongly opposes the global
discriminatory boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign (Global
BDS Campaign) and practices that facilitate it, such as discriminatory
labeling and the publication of databases of companies that operate in
Israel or Israeli-controlled areas.” Pompeo added that “anti-Zionism is
anti-Semitism” and so “the United States is, therefore, committed to
countering the Global BDS Campaign as a manifestation of anti-Semitism.”
During a 2017 speech before the Islamic Society of North America, Sarsour reportedly referred to Imam Siraj Wahhaj as "my favorite person in this room.” Wahhaj had appeared on the DOJ’s list of possible unindicted co-conspirators
in its criminal case against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian
Muslim cleric and prominent terrorist leader known as “the blind
sheikh,” who was convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sarsour also has a history of praising the Nation of Islam,
which has been led for decades by Louis Farrakhan. The Nation of Islam
includes a belief in the superiority of black people over white people,
including the view that white people were created by an evil scientist
6,000 years ago. Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam for three
decades before Farrakhan and considered himself a messenger of Allah,
called white people "devils."
Farrakhan, who has led the group for decades, is known for his racist and anti-Semitic
rhetoric. He said in 1984 that “Hitler was a very great man,” and in
2018, he referred to Jewish people as “termites.” In 2015, he said that
“white people deserve to die.” Farrakhan also forged a relationship with the Church of Scientology, and famously helped organize the 1995 Million Man March on Washington, D.C.
Sarsour, who spoke in 2015 at the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, tweeted
in 2012 that “when we write the history of Islam in America, the Nation
of #Islam is an integral part of that history.” She again tweeted in 2014 that one “can't learn or teach about the history of Islam in America without talking about the Nation of Islam.”
Sarsour also appeared on the front cover of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam newsletter in a January 2019 issue on “Sister Power.”
Despite her anti-Zionist and pro-BDS views, Sarsour has
tried to dispel the notion that her rhetoric rises to the level of
antisemitism. In 2018, she apologized for being slow to condemn
antisemitism at a rally. “We should have been faster and clearer in
helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting
anti-Semitism. We regret that,” she said in a statement.
But the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has directly accused Sarsour of fomenting antisemitism, referring to “the antisemitic statements and actions by Ms. Sarsour” and accusing the New York Times of overlooking her most extreme rhetoric in a 2022 article.
“Ms. Sarsour sought to exclude Zionists from what was
supposed to be an intersectional movement, claiming it was impossible
for one to be a supporter of Israel’s right to exist and a feminist at
the same time,” ADL wrote in its letter to the Times.
“She repeatedly has demonized supporters of the Jewish state and used
inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, despite the fact that such slander
indisputably encourages real-world antisemitism.”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law also released a lengthy analysis about “Linda Sarsour’s Problematic Views on Zionism and Anti-Semitism.”
The center, which describes
itself as “an independent, unaffiliated, nonprofit corporation
established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people
and promote justice for all,” stated
that Sarsour “has posted numerous tweets that seem to echo anti-Semitic
tropes popular among anti-Israel activists” and noted that her public
commentary “illustrates Sarsour’s deeply felt hatred for Israel and its
supporters.”
CAIR, Sarsour, and Mamdani
Sarsour has played a key role with CAIR for many years, including as the keynote speaker at numerous CAIR events. CAIR was key in funneling money to Mamdani’s mayoral race this year.
The FBI and DOJ have noted
that “the evidence at trial” in its Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case
“linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist
organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the
case.” In that 2004 case, several key figures associated with HLF were
indicted on charges related to terrorism financing and money laundering, culminating in convictions in 2008 for supporting a designated terrorist organization. According to The New York Post, Mamdani "once rapped about his ‘love’ for Hamas terror-funding group ‘Holy Land Five’."
The Texas synagogue hostage-taking by British citizen Malik
Faisal Akram in January 2022 was the latest example of a long-standing
obsession among global jihadist groups with freeing convicted Pakistani
terrorist Aafia Siddiqui — a goal shared by CAIR.
Akram was following a path laid out by terrorist groups
such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Taliban, which have all
sought to use hostages to free the jihadi heroine, a virulent
anti-Semite convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years for attempting
to shoot and kill U.S. military members in Afghanistan. When detained in
Afghanistan in 2008, she allegedly was in possession of notes referring
to a “mass casualty attack” in the United States and a list of New York
City landmarks.
CAIR mildly condemned
the hostage-taking in 2022, saying that “this antisemitic attack
against a house of worship is unacceptable” and that CAIR and Siddiqui’s
family want her freed through “legal and non-violent means only” but at
the same time defended Siddiqui as “wrongly convicted.”
CAIR’s Dallas Fort-Worth chapter had held a rally
in September 2021 at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort-Worth
where Siddiqui is imprisoned, less than a half-hour drive from the
synagogue. CAIR-Texas then held a discussion in November 2021 advocating for Siddiqui’s release — featuring Sarsour.
As an assemblyman in May 2023, Mamdani was captured in a video declaring he “welcomes members from … the Council of American Islamic Relations… to the Assembly Chamber.”
Framing murder as heroic: "Israel does not have that right to self-defense"
Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR, praised the
Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 during a speech the month after
they occurred in 2023.
"The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the
walls of the concentration camp, on October 7,” Awad said in November
2023, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and
throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their
land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of
Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend
themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that
right to self-defense,” CAIR's leader reportedly said.
The Biden White House, which had announced earlier in 2023 that it was partnering with CAIR to combat antisemitism, released a statement saying that "we condemn these shocking, anti-Semitic statements in the strongest terms."
CAIR Action on Tuesday urged voters to pick Mamdani, posting
on Instagram, “It’s Election Day! Remember to vote for the CAIR Action
endorsed candidate: ZOHRAN MAMDANI FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY!”
Awad said in a 2024 podcast that the goal of CAIR Action was to “elevate the influence of the Muslim community.” CAIR also defended Mamdani during the campaign this month.
Sarsour’s Instagram profile this year said “Let’s Make Zohran Mayor!” with a link
going to an ActBlue page to “Donate to New Yorkers for Lower Costs.”
The webpage for “New Yorkers for Lower Costs” is direct in its goal — “SupportZohran.com”
“This year, you can rank up to five candidates for Mayor.
If you want a candidate who is focused on lowering your cost of living,
rank Zohran Mamdani first and do not rank Andrew Cuomo. Make your vote
count!” the website said.
New Yorkers for Lower Costs spent $847,046 to support Mamdani and $416,089 to oppose Cuomo, according to financial records. Sarsour donated
$2,500 to the group in June. A disclosure line on the website said that
among the top three donors to the group was the Unity & Justice
Fund.
The Unity & Justice Fund was formed by CAIR last year and donated $100,000 to the Mamdani-supporting group, as reported by the Free Beacon. Campaign records show
the CAIR-linked group donated $25,000 to New Yorkers for Lower Costs in
May and $75,000 to the Mamdani-supporting group in June.
Awad said in a 2024 podcast
that CAIR had launched the Unity & Justice Fund in order to and to
"use money to protect the interests of the [Muslim] community.” After
Mamdani’s victory on Tuesday, Awad said that the result from the primary was “a win for Palestine.”
CAIR had announced in November 2024 that “activist Linda Sarsour plans to emcee at its upcoming 30th anniversary banquet.” She was also a banquet speaker for CAIR-Chicago and the keynote speaker for CAIR-Massachusetts that month.
CAIR has also worked closely with Sarsour’s MPower group over the years.
Mamdani campaigned with Sarsour in 2020
Sarsour also endorsed Mamdani during his successful 2020
run for the state assembly, urging her supporters to help send Mamdani
to the legislature in Albany. Mamdani was thrilled about the endorsement
and praised her as he accepted it.
Later in May 2020, Mamdani held a virtual campaign event with Sarsour, and the candidate tweeted, “Join us for a digital rally tonight at 7pm with @lsarsour to learn how you can help.”
The “One Month Out Digital Rally with Linda Sarsour” shared on Mamdani's social media accounts featured a poster with Sarsour and Mamdani.
Sarsour tweeted
in June 2020 that she was “so proud of @ZohranKMamdani. He’s leading so
far but no matter what happens he’s a winner and made our community so
proud. Let’s do this fam!” She tweeted again that month that “I want the
whole world to know how proud I am of @ZohranKMamdani. That’s all.”
Mamdani replied with a red heart emoji.
After his win in the state assembly race, Sarsour’s MPower
group hosted Mamdani to discuss his victory during the “My Muslim Vote
Summit” in December 2020. “Don’t miss out on key insights from one of
our special keynote speakers and Democratic Winner for NY’s 36th
District @zohrankmamdani,” Sarsour’s group said as it shared a poster of Mamdani. The group also said “don’t miss out on key insights from our very own @lsarsour” as it shared a poster of Sarsour as well.
The affiliated MPower Action group tweeted
in December 2020 asking people to join their group and the MDCNY “to
hear from new Muslim electeds to learn ‘Why They Ran’ + their plans for
policies that achieve justice for our communities!” Mamdani was included
in the event promotion, and the group shared quotes from Mamdani from the discussion.
Mamdani's "hunger strike" in support of Palestinians
Once in office, Mamdani continued to interact with Sarsour
on social media. When sharing a picture of a pro-Palestine march in June
2021, he tweeted,
“To the organizers, speakers, and everyone who came out — thank you for
your solidarity & love.” Among those tagged was Sarsour.
“We are proud of YOU!” Sarsour replied, and Mamdani replied in turn with a yellow heart emoji.
Mamdani also participated in a hunger strike outside the White House with Sarsour in late November and early December 2023. The Washington Post wrote
at the time that “Mamdani and others wanted to starve themselves to
represent the Palestinians starving in Gaza, in hopes of bringing their
message to the U.S. president’s home.”
A reporter with JD Forward tweeted in late November 2023 that Mamdani and Sarsour were among those attending a candlelight vigil outside the White House.
“Yesterday we ended our five-day hunger strike,” Mamdani said
on Instagram in early December 2023. He included a photo of himself
behind a podium with a sign that read “Biden, you are starving Gaza.
Permanent ceasefire now!”
Sanitizing the phrase “Globalizing the Intifada”
Mamdani told the leftwing Jacobin
magazine that “I started organizing around solidarity for Palestinians.
I co-founded my college’s Students for Justice in Palestine.” Mamdani
started his chapter of the pro-Palestine group when attending Bowdoin College.
This month, Mamdani was asked about chants about
“globalizing the intifada” — and defended the phrase. “To me,
ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality
and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” Mamdani said on The Bulwark podcast last week.
“And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word
has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” Mamdani
said, and added that “as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all
too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be
distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum criticized Mamdani’s
remarks last week. "Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
to sanitize 'globalize the intifada' is outrageous and especially
offensive to survivors," the museum wrote
in an X post. "Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under
its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history."
The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point detailed just how deadly the Palestinian-led intifadas were.
“With the onset of the Second Intifada in 2000, Hamas
attacks dramatically increased. Between 2000 and 2005, 39.9 percent of
the 135 suicide attacks carried out during the Second Intifada were
executed by Hamas,” the West Point center assessed.
“According to the Global Terrorism Database, Hamas killed 857 people
and injured 2,819 between 1987 and 2020. Intended to terrorize not only
the targeted individuals but also the general Israeli population, Hamas
attacks have been indiscriminate in nature.”
Housed in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, the privately-funded CTC
says it "is uniquely situated at the nexus of theory and practice,
which enables it to serve as a focal point and an independent voice on
terrorism and counterterrorism policy and strategy."
Mamdani's storm of anti-Semitic postings on social media
Mamdani has also tweeted repeatedly about supporting the BDS movement.
He tweeted
in August 2020 that “#BDS is a righteous movement for liberation, one
supported by queer people & Jewish people & socialists &
abolitionists & all those who know another world is possible.” He
sought to link BDS and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in a June
2021 tweet,
where he said, “We are paving a new path, one where we stand against
injustice & apartheid whether in Ferguson or Palestine. I'm proud to
stand with electeds & organizers that are making this call. #BLM or
#BDS — it's all about justice.”
Mamdani also told
former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan in December 2024 that “as mayor, New York
City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu” and lamented that “Netanyahu
issued military commands from this very city.” Netanyahu reportedly approved
the September 2024 Israeli strike in Lebanon from his hotel in New York
which killed Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to The Times of Israel.
The future mayoral nominee also met with popular far-left online streamer Hasan Piker during the campaign. Piker had said in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11."
Mamdani has also repeatedly accused Israel of committing a genocide, tweeting out the allegation dozens of times. Mamdani began accusing Israel of a genocide two weeks after the Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023.
“I will always be clear in my language and based in facts: Israel is committing a genocide,” Mamdani said on social media in October 2024.
The Sarsour playbook: Criticism of Mamdani labeled Islamophobia
Mamdani has also targeted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a U.S. advocacy group which describes
itself as “Proud Pro-Israel Americans” and says that it “brings
together Democrats and Republicans to advance our shared mission.
Building bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is an
American value we are proud to champion.”
While donning a keffiyeh, Mamdani said in a February 2024 speech
that “we are here today because AIPAC is suppressing American public
sentiment. We are here today because they are subverting American
democracy!” He also expressed his opposition to Zionism when he tweeted in 2023 about the “rightful criticism of Israeli settler colonialism, Zionism, & the NYPD.”
Mamdani also said
in a June 2025 mayoral debate that “I believe Israel has the right to
exist as a state with equal rights.” Cuomo then interjected, “Not as a
Jewish state.”
When asked earlier this month why he didn’t respond more viscerally to antisemitism, Mamdani told reporters
that “there is no room for antisemitism in this city and this country” —
but he claimed that when he speaks with emotion he is characterized as a
“monster” and called it “the very sad burden of what it means to be the
first Muslim candidate to run for mayor.” In social media posts of
Mamdani's speech, one sarcastic commenter
saw the irony that mainstream media missed: "'There's no room for
anti-Semitism, also globalize the intifada!', love when Dems have a
coherent, non-contradictory set of ideas."
Mamdani sings about his love for convicted terrorism funders
Before formally entering the political scene, Mamdani tried
his hand at a rap music career, including a number of songs that
lamented what he saw as the difficulty of being Muslim in America and
that praised a group of American Muslims convicted for their support of
terrorism. At one point, Sarsour made it clear she was a fan.
He released a heavily auto-tuned electronic rap track titled “Salaam” in March 2017 which remains on his SoundCloud page. The song was first unearthed
by social media poster Canary Mission, who pointed out that Mamdani
sang about — with praise — that Mamdani sent his "love" to them.
Mamdani tweeted in March 2017 that the song was “about being Muslim in America today” and in April 2017
that it was “about being Muslim in NYC today.” The song does not appear
to have taken off, as eight years later it has merely nine likes on
SoundCloud.
“No ban, no wall, build it up, we’ll make it fall” the
lyrics say in a clear reference to Trump’s immigration restrictions
placed on a number of Muslim-majority countries in his first term and to
Trump’s vow to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. The lyrics
continue, “Me llamo [my name is] Zohran // My love to the Holy Land Five
// You better look ‘em up.”
The Justice Department in 2004 announced
an indictment against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development and seven of its senior leaders “for providing and
conspiring to provide material support to Hamas.” Five of the Holy Land
Foundation’s leaders were convicted for this crime in 2008, and they
were sentenced to decades in prison in 2009.
Mamdani said
in a 2017 interview that “Today, Muslims are the monsters. The artwork
[for his music] draws on that too, showing the discrepancy between a
lady in a hijab and her shadow.” Mamdani went by the stage name “Mr. Cardamom” as he made more music.
“.@MrCardamom just won the internet today,” Sarsour tweeted in April 2019. “I LOVE THIS. #Nani” Sarsour was sharing a New York Times article about one of Mamdani’s songs. Mamdani retweeted Sarsour’s tweet and also replied to it with a crying emoji and three red heart emojis.
“Mr. Cardamom” soon told his followers to check out his
state assembly campaign. “I’m running for NY State Assembly here in
Astoria and I’m doing it bc [because] I spend each day at work coming up
against the legacy of Albany’s bankrupt policies,” Mamdani tweeted from his current X account in October 2019.
“Mr. Cardamom” quote-tweeted in a November 2019 post, saying,
“You know I'll be forever spicy, but I'm taking a break from being a
spice to answer the question of what happens when a B-list rapper runs
for office. Come through @ZohranKMamdani if you want answers.”
Sarsour and Mamdani “friends” as far back as 2018
Sarsour was counting Mamdani as among her “friends” in
2018, and there are indications that Mamdani was affiliated with her
MPower Change group that year. Sarsour referred to Mamdani as one of her
“friends” who she was “proud of” in a June 2018 tweet, saying, “Special shoutout to the fabulous … @zokwma.”
She was sharing a City and State New York article
titled “Muslims in politics celebrate the end of Ramadan” which
featured Mamdani. “I think a lot of people mistakenly think of it as a
thing that you suffer through,” Zohran was quoted as saying. “It’s
actually a beautiful time.”
The outlet said that “this is the first time that Mamdani
is observing Ramadan fully in many years” and quoted Mamdani as saying,
“I've been surprised to find that I wanted to keep going. I initially
thought that I would just count the days down. I'm hardly looking
forward to a time without Ramadan.”
Mamdani also appeared to be a member of Sarsour’s MPower in 2018.
The leftwing New York Communities for Change identified Mamdani as a member of the group in a November 2018 tweet.
“Amazon works with ICE. Amazon has pitched facial
recognition to ICE. Amazon has fired workers for observing Ramadan. How
can we be a sanctuary city or state when we are giving billions to a
company that wants to make it easier to deport us?” the group quoted
Mamdani as saying, identifying him as “@zokwma from @MPower_Change.”
Mamdani said in an October 2020 interview with the Muslim Caucus that his membership in the MDCNY was critical in motivating him to run for office as a state assemblyman.
A look at the posts from the MDCNY shows that Mamdani and
Sarsour crossed paths multiple times in the group, and they appear in
selfies together. The MDCNY identified Sarsour in 2015 as being a board member and as having been the group’s two-term president.
Mamdani: Ramadan "drew me to socialism"
“When thinking about what motivated me to run for office,
you know, I had been involved in local politics here in New York City
for a few years. I had worked on a city council campaign, a state senate
campaign, a district attorney campaign,” Mamdani said in 2020. “And I
did all of this work through two different organizations — one was the
Muslim Democratic Club of New York, and one was the Democratic
Socialists of America - New York City branch. And through that work, I
met many people who were similarly invested in bringing about a better
world for the people around us.”
Mamdani added, “It’s not a very big jump from me in being
Muslim and understanding what the beauties of socialism are, because for
me one of the most beautiful things about Islam is Ramadan.” Mamdani
said it was the “framework” and "lens" of Ramadan which “kind of in many
ways drew me into socialism.”
Mamdani’s affiliation with the MDCNY dates back to at least February 2018, when the group tweeted,
“Congrats @zokwma on receiving the Community Empower Award! Thank you
for your dedication to our community and continuing the fight for
Justice! #MuslimVote #MuslimVote2018 #MuslimDems.”
The group listed Mamdani as being a member of the board beginning in early 2018.
“Congratulations to the newly elected 2018 Muslim Democratic Club of NY (MDCNY) Board Members!” the MDCNY posted
in April 2018. “MDCNY is the first city-wide Muslim American Democratic
club in the country, dedicated to empowering the Muslim community
though political activism. Join our movement.” The post shows a smiling
Mamdani with other board members.
The MDCNY posted
on Facebook in March 2019 that they were “so proud of the community
we’re building. Shout out to MDCNY members for holding space last night
to reflect on New Zealand and the impact of Islamophobia.” The
photograph showed a group with Sarsour and Mamdani sitting at the front
of the group photo.
A Facebook post
by the group from May 2019 — captioned “MDCNY board!” — included a
selfie that Sarsour took with Mamdani and other MDCNY board members.
Multiple other posts from December 2018, May 2019, and December 2019 also show Mamdani’s participation with the MDCNY.
The group has tweeted positively about Sarsour numerous times
and has attempted to defend her against criticism. “Islamophobia was a
driver in the attacks on @lsarsour which has become mainstreamed,” the
MDCNY tweeted in 2022.
“Happy #spicy35 Birthday to MDCNY Board Member Linda
Sarsour and thank you for serving as our President for back to back
terms!” the MDCNY said
on Facebook in March 2015. “Here's to 35 more years of consistent,
strategic civic engagement in NYC Muslim communities. #MuslimDems.” The
photo included in that post is a selfie of Sarsour with a birthday cake
and other MDC leaders.
The MDCNY shared multiple posts showing their campaign efforts for Mamdani this year.
The group posted
in April 2025 that “the Purisics and Ibrics are committed to organizing
their family and the Bosniak community to rank Zohran Kwame Mamdani #1
for Mayor. Relational organizing is effective and powerful. Every vote
they get for Zohran is built on truth and trust.”
Numerous other posts by the group in May 2025 and June 2025 show the MDCNY
working to get Mamdani elected. There are also dozens of photos of the
MDCNY showing its members campaigning for Zohran in a Facebook group album titled “#NYC4Zohran - Rank Zohran #1 for Mayor.”
Mamdani says “Defund the Police” then backtracks
Mamdani tweeted repeatedly about the need to “Defund the Police" — a position he tried to back away from
when he ran for mayor this year. The twist that Mamdani put out in his
calls to defund the New York Police Department is similar to the
messaging by Sarsour — the duo sought to blame Israel for alleged police
brutality in the United States.
Sarsour reportedly said
in 2018 during a speech for the Islamic Society of North America annual
convention that ADL was an “organization that takes police officers
from America, funds their trips, takes them to Israel so they can be
trained by the Israeli police and military, and then they come back here
and do what? Stop and frisk, killing unarmed black people across the
country."
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, said in 2017 that “we profoundly reject Linda Sarsour’s positions that delegitimize Israel.”
“She repeatedly has demonized supporters of the Jewish
state and used inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, despite the fact that
such slander indisputably encourages real-world antisemitism,”
Greenblatt said of Sarsour in 2022.
Mamdani tweeted
in June 2020 that “we don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD
is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we
need is to #DefundTheNYPD.” And he tweeted in November 2020 that “queer liberation means defund the police.”
Mamdani even pushed back
when Cuomo said in 2020 that defunding the police didn’t really mean
defunding the police, with Mamdani insisting that the slogan meant
exactly what it said.
But the future mayoral candidate made it clear that there was an anti-Israel bent to his “Defund the Police” arguments.
"Our city and state governments have partnerships with
Israeli municipalities and the state and that we can hold our
governments accountable by really going after those partnerships...with
the goal of dismantling them,” Mamdani said in a June 2021 podcast.
“When I think of partnerships, I think of how the NYPD [New
York Police Department] and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] have had a
relationship for many years. A relationship that has meant, you know,
tactics of oppression crossing from one country to the other, and that
has meant an increased, you know, surveillance and oppression of
marginalized people wherever they may be. And I think that the Jewish
Voice for Peace had a spotlight on this relationship," he said.
Mamdani attempted to make similar allegations in an Instagram post in June 2021 promoting a rally titled, “From Steinway to Ferguson to Sheikh Jarrah: Defund State Violence.”
Mamdani urged his supporters to “bring masks, posters, flags, and keffiyehs.” Al Jazeera has noted
that the keffiyeh was “the personal trademark of Yasser Arafat, the
late Palestinian leader” and that “the keffiyeh has been adopted
globally…to support the Palestinian cause.”
The Sunnyside Post reported
at the time that Mamdani and others had organized the rally and that
“they are calling for the local divestment from the NYPD and for the
federal government to stop funding the Israeli military.” The outlet
said that “Mamdani … will be speaking at the rally along with Linda
Sarsour.”
“We take to the streets to stand against the idea that violence against some creates security for others,” Mamdani said in a statement
to the outlet. “The calls to defund the NYPD and end military aid to
Israel are rooted in the same belief that true safety comes from an
investment in our communities.”
Mamdani posted a video of himself leading the protesters in a chant in which he attempted to link the leftwing BLM and BDS movements.
“When I say ‘BLM’ I want you to respond with ‘BDS’ because
these are the intertwined calls for justice and for liberation,” Mamdani
told the hundreds of protesters, then leading them in a
call-and-response where he shouted “BLM!” and then shouted back “BDS!”
Mamdani was leading the chants in front of a giant banner
about the need to “Disarm,” “Defund,” and “Abolish” the NYPD. He
declared that “there are no more boundaries to this fight.”
In response to these allegations made by Sarsour and Mamdani, the ADL said
that "this charge has been propagated by ideological critics of Israel
who seek to inject alleged Israeli – and at times American Jewish –
complicity into issues of American societal injustice" and that "those
who make this spurious argument have focused more on tarring Israel than
promoting real solutions to confronting and transforming systemic
American inequities and abuses."
Mamdani, Sarsour, and Father El-Yateem
Both Mamdani and Sarsour pointed to the unsuccessful 2017
Democratic primary campaign of Father Khader El-Yateem — a democratic
socialist and Arab-American leftwing activist who ran for New York City
council — as the moment they met.
Mamdani tweeted in 2020 that “I met @lsarsour on the @KhaderElyateem campaign.” When endorsing Mamdani’s run for mayor, Sarsour posted
that the “last time I was ever this excited was when I helped run the
campaign of Pastor Khader El-Yateem in Brooklyn and we only lost by 380
votes! That’s where I met Zohran and that’s when I knew he was a star!”
Sarsour and El-Yateem were close to each other. The Nation noted
that El-Yateem had “served on the board of the Arab American
Association of New York, one of the main organizing bodies for New York
City’s Arabs, alongside Linda Sarsour.” Sarsour is the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.
El-Yateem ran for a New York City Council seat in the Democratic primary in 2017 and came in second place. He backed the BDS movement aimed at Israel during the campaign.
The documentary “Brooklyn Inshallah” is about El-Yateem’s campaign, and it prominently features Sarsour, with the trailer for the documentary showing a close-up of Sarsour crying in the audience as she reacts to a speech by El-Yateem.
“I support BDS. And I will say this publicly, I say it to
everyone. It is an issue of justice. It is a nonviolent resistance
against the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” El-Yateem said
in 2017. “So am I supporting BDS? 100 percent. Because I believe that
it is the only nonviolent way to help Israel become a better democracy
in the Middle East.”
El-Yateem was also a member of the DSA, and said in 2017 that “I am proud to be endorsed by DSA, and I am proud to be a member.”
Mamdani said in a 2023 interview with City and State New York that “it was a campaign that changed my life.” He had also told Jacobin in a 2021 interview
that “I ran the paid canvass for that campaign, and that was the
beginning of my work within local politics in New York City in a serious
way.”
“He was a socialist, he was pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions), and he was running for local office,” Mamdani said of
El-Yateem. “These are all things that I had been told could never exist
simultaneously in a person. And their existence was not a cause for fear
or anxiety among so many but, in fact, of inspiration.”
The young self-described democratic socialist will face
multiple opponents in the mayoral general election this November:
scandal-plagued incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who will be running as an
independent; Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, the founder of NYC’s
Guardian Angels, who got blown out by Adams in the 2021 mayoral race;
independent Jim Walden; and potentially even Cuomo again if the former
governor decides to mount his own independent bid.
Although public polling on the topic
is scarce at this point, in the heavily Democratic metropolis, Mamdani
may be the favorite to win the general election in America's largest
city if he can continue to convince the legacy media that his
anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian statements should be ignored.
