Radical Roots: Anti-American, Anti-Israel Father

Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, the only child of Marxist scholar Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair – both of whom were of Indian descent. Zohran’s middle name was given to him by his father, in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister (1957-1960) and then president (1960-1966) of Ghana. A socialist and Pan-Africanist, Nkrumah in 1962 was awarded the Soviet Union’s International Lenin Peace Prize – an honor given by a Soviet government-appointed panel in recognition of individuals who had “strengthened peace among peoples” by advancing the totalitarian agendas of the Kremlin. In 1963 Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity, which aimed to eliminate colonialism and neo-colonialism from Africa.

Since 1999, Mahmood Mamdani has been employed by Columbia University as a Professor of Government, International Affairs, Anthropology, Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies, and African Studies. He also served as the director of Makerere University’s Institute of Social Research from 2010 to 2022, and as chancellor of Kampala International University in Uganda from 2020 to 2023.

During a 2022 panel discussion hosted by the Asia Society, Mahmood Mamdani stated that Adolf Hitler had drawn his “inspiration” for the genocide of Jews directly from Abraham Lincoln. “With the Civil War,” said the professor, “Abraham Lincoln generalized the solution of reservations; they herded American Indians into separate territories. For the Nazis, this was the inspiration – Hitler realized … that genocide is doable. It is possible to do genocide, that’s what Hitler realized.”

Characterizing America as the “genesis of what we call settler-colonialism” across the globe, Mahmood Mamdani argued that “nationalism and colonialism” were two faces of the same proverbial coin, and that the goals of the Allied forces during World War II were indistinguishable from those of the Nazis. “The Nazi political project was shared by the Allies,” he said, “and that political project was to turn Germany into a ‘pure’ nation — a ‘pure’ nation rid of its minorities. When the Allies defeated the Nazis and went into Eastern Europe, they began to create ‘pure’ nations. To ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe of Germans – move them back into Germany. One crime doesn’t wipe out another.”

Objecting to the use of the term “suicide bomber” to describe Muslims who blow themselves up with explosive devices in an effort to kill Jewish civilian bystanders in their vicinity, Mahmood Mamdani claims that such murderous operatives are no different from professional “soldier[s] whose objective is to kill.” “Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” the professor wrote in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. “We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier.”

Consistent with his personal anti-Semitic sympathies, Mahmood Mamdani currently sits on the advisory policy council of the Gaza Tribunal — an anti-Israel organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative dedicated to financially crippling the state of Israel and making its long-term survival impossible. Further, the Gaza Tribunal accuses Israel’s government of committing “genocide” against Palestinians.

According to a report in which the Washington Free Beacon chronicled Mahmood Mamdani’s academic arguments on an array of topics, Mamdani views Israel as “the logical conclusion of Nazism.”

In June 2025, Fox News reported that Professor Mamdani, while teaching a course titled “Settlers and Natives,” articulated his belief in “the necessity of violence in anticolonial struggle.”

In 2025 as well, Professor Mamdani locked arms with a number of fellow faculty members in an effort to prevent a small group of Jewish students from entering a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel encampment on Columbia University’s campus.

Radical Roots: Anti-Israel Mother

Zohran Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is an Indian-American, Oscar-nominated film director, producer, and writer. Like her husband, she supports the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement dedicated to Israel’s permanent dissolution as a Jewish state.

In July 2013, Ms. Nair, citing her opposition to Israel’s alleged mistreatment of Palestinians, declined an invitation to be a “guest of honor” at the Haifa International Film Festival. “I will not be going to Israel at this time,” she said in a statement. “… I will go to Israel when occupation is gone. I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when apartheid is over.”

In November 2021, Ms. Nair signed an Artists for Palestine UK petition denouncing Israel for having designated six leading Palestinian nongovernmental organizations – the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees — as “terrorist” groups linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a pro-Palestinian, Marxist-Leninist terror group based in Damascus, Syria.

In 2025, Ms. Nair signed onto an open letter exhorting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bar Israeli actress Gal Gadot from attending that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. The letter said, in part:

“As Members of the Academy, we are writing to express deep concern over the inclusion of Gal Gadot in any official capacity at this year’s Academy Awards events. Given her vocal and unwavering support for [Israeli] actions that have resulted in gross human rights violations, her presence at an event that seeks to celebrate the art of storytelling, diversity, and humanity would be both inappropriate and deeply offensive to many.

“Gadot has openly and repeatedly expressed her support for Israel’s military actions against Palestinians, a stance that aligns her with a system that has caused immeasurable pain and destruction. This is especially troubling in light of the International Court of Justice’s determination that there is a plausible case for genocide against the Palestinian population. …

“Her public stance in support of a regime accused of war crimes and systematic oppression is not just a political statement—it is a direct endorsement of violence against innocent civilians. …

“We urge you to reconsider the decision to have Gal Gadot present at the Oscars. This is a moment to choose integrity over complicity and to recognize the pain and resilience of all communities fighting for justice and equality. We believe the Academy must take a firm stance against complicity in oppression. …”

Zohran Mamdani’s Privileged Youth

Zohran Mamdani lived in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, until he was five, at which time he and his parents moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father taught African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

Two years later, the Mamdani family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There, Zohran attended the Bank Street School for Children, a high-priced private institution. (Note: As of early 2025, annual tuition rates at this school ranged from $37,554 per pre-school child, to $68,793 per eighth grader.)

From 2006 to 2010, Zohran Mamdani attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. Throughout his youth in New York City, the boy lived in the housing facilities of Columbia University, where his father was employed as a professor.

In 2025, Mamdani reflected upon his youth in an interview with The New York Times, saying: “I would say I had a privileged upbringing. I never had to want for something, and yet I knew that was not in any way the reality for most New Yorkers.”

Self-Identifying as Both “Asian” and “Black”

When Zohran Mamdani applied for admission to Columbia University in 2009, he identified himself on his application forms as both “Asian” and “Black or African American.” When Columbia ultimately decided not to admit him, he enrolled instead at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in the fall of 2010.

Students for Justice in Palestine

During his years at Bowdoin (2010-2014), Mamdani co-founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an anti-Israel advocacy group that supports the Hamas-inspired BDS movement.

In 2013, Bowdoin’s SJP chapter invited the radical Lebanese-American political science professor As’ad AbuKhalil, to address the student body.

• Nicknamed the “godfather of Middle Eastern terrorism,” AbuKhalil is a BDS leader who openly and proudly acknowledges that the movement’s objective is to permanently destroy the Jewish state.
• In 2019, AbuKhalil said that the Trump administration’s reported desire to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization showed America to be an “arrogant” nation that – in light of the fact that it was “killing more civilians [in Afghanistan] than the Taliban” – “certainly should not have the moral authority to judge and label an organization on the basis of the criteria of terrorism.” “This is very much like the Israelis when they themselves declare their enemies and the people who want to resist their occupation as being terrorists,” he added.
• In 2021, AbuKhalil accused the U.S. of having brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself, saying: “We have to remember that the U.S. basically was hit on 9/11 by forces that were reactionary and fanatic and were raised and armed and sponsored by America and its allies in the Middle East. People forget that 9/11 is a repercussion of the Cold War when the U.S. made its bed, and clearly with the religious fanatics of the Muslim world. This is a time where socialists around the world in Chile, in the Arab world and everywhere were under attack by the U.S. Reactionary forces in support. But there were many earlier 9/11s that the U.S. inflicted on people around the world.”

In 2014, the year Zohran Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College, the school’s SJP took to Facebook to share an article about Rasmea Odeh and demand “justice” for her. A longtime organizer with the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Odeh famously masterminded a February 1969 PFLP terrorist attack in which two Israeli university students were killed by a bomb blast in a Jerusalem food market. When Odeh stood trial for her role in the bomb plot, she was convicted on all charges and sentenced to spend the rest of her life in an Israeli prison. She was freed in 1979, however, as part of a deal in which she and 77 other Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails in exchange for a single Israeli soldier who had been taken hostage in Lebanon. Odeh eventually immigrated to America in 1996 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005 — falsely and illegally denying, on both occasions, that she had ever previously been convicted of, or incarcerated for, a crime. In 2014 a federal jury in Detroit convicted Odeh of immigration fraud because of those denials and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, prompting Bowdoin’s SJP to call for her exoneration in the name of “justice.”

College Graduate

Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies.

Blaming the FBI for Radicalizing American Al-Qaeda Leader

In 2015, Mamdani took to Twitter to allege that the FBI’s post-9/11 surveillance of the late Anwar al-Awlaki — an American imam who thereafter went on to become a leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — was responsible for al-Awlaki’s decision to join AQAP. “Why no proper interrogation of what it means for @FBI to have conducted extensive [surveillance] into #al-Awlaki’s private life?” Mamdani wrote on Twitter. “Why no further discussion of how #al-Awlaki’s knowledge of [surveillance] eventually led to him to #alqaeda?”

But as political analyst John McCormack has pointed out: “[T]he FBI had good reason to investigate al-Awlaki soon after 9/11. In 2000, he ministered to two of the 9/11 hijackers [Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar] at the San Diego mosque where he [al-Awlaki] was an imam, and also after he had relocated to a mosque in northern Virginia in 2001…. The FBI investigations found that al-Awlaki had ‘closed-door meetings’ with the hijackers in California, according to the congressional report on 9/11, and the commission reported that ‘Hazmi eventually showed up at [al-Awlaki’s] mosque in Virginia, an appearance that may not have been coincidental.’”

Foreclosure Prevention Counselor

After completing his college education, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention and housing counselor for low-income, non-white homeowners in Queens, New York.

Rap Musician

Mamdani also spent some time during his post-college years as a rap music performer. Dubbing himself “Young Cardamom,” he collaborated in 2016 with Ugandan rapper HAB on a musical recording titled Sidda Mukyaalo, which means “No going back to the village” in the Luganda language of the African Great Lakes region. That same year, Mamdani produced the soundtrack for his mother’s film, Queen of Katwe, and he was subsequently nominated for a 2017 Guild of Music Supervisors Award. In 2019, he released a single titled Nani under the moniker “Mr. Cardamom.”

Democratic Socialist

Mamdani began to identify as a “democratic socialist” after the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, another self-identified democratic socialist, whom he greatly admired. The following year, Mamdani joined the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest socialist organization in the United States. In its relentless quest to “end capitalist exploitation,” DSA calls for: abolishing all prisons; defunding all police forces; passing reparations legislation on behalf of black Americans; creating “social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure”; providing free college for all; canceling all student-loan debt; permitting access to taxpayer-funded abortion services for all; enacting a government-run, single-payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system; “combat[ing] the massive carbon footprint of the U.S. military-industrial complex by struggling to dismantle U.S. empire”; closing all U.S. foreign military bases; paying “reparations” to other nations “for the human and environmental destruction caused by U.S. corporations”; guaranteeing access to “public housing for all”; opening America’s borders to all comers; and ending all immigrant detentions, deportations, and enforcement actions.

Naturalized American Citizen

Mamdani was naturalized as an American citizen in 2018, becoming a dual citizen of both the United States and Uganda.

Shia Muslim of the “Twelver” Branch

Mamdani is a Shia Muslim who identifies with that faith’s so-called “Twelver” branch, whose belief system is centered on the idea that Twelve infallible Imams who descended from the Prophet Muhammad were divinely preordained to wield spiritual authority over humanity. Dr. Michael A. Youssef, founding pastor of the Atlanta-based Church of The Apostles, has written about the theological and practical significance of Twelver Islam as follows:

“Shiites comprise only 10-15 per cent of the Muslim world. Iran, however, has been a Shiite stronghold since 1501….

“Twelver Shiism is centered on the belief in the Twelfth Imam (the Mahdi). According to Twelver belief, there were twelve Imams (rightful successors to Muhammad, all from Ali’s lineage). The twelfth was Muhammad al-Mahdi, who supposedly went into occultation (miraculous hiddenness) as a child in the 9th century. Twelvers believe the Twelfth Imam is still alive and will one day come forth to impose Islamic rule over the world.

“Here’s where Iran’s present-day nuclear doctrines meet Iran’s ancient theological doctrines. Some factions within Iran’s clerical leadership believe that the Mahdi’s return will be hastened by global destruction and war. These radical scholars teach that apocalyptic war is a necessary requirement for the Mahdi to be revealed. In this view, Iran’s struggle against Israel and Western civilization is part of a divine plan for the return of the Mahdi.

“This theological doctrine makes a nuclear-armed Iran unthinkably dangerous. During the Cold War, the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept nuclear superpowers from attacking each other, because any nuclear attack would invite annihilation.

“But if Iran’s leaders believe that nuclear war would hasten the return of a long-prophesied messiah-figure, they would actually be highly motivated to start a nuclear war, regardless of the consequences. Iran’s apocalyptic clerics have a powerful incentive to pull the nuclear trigger—the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and the establishment of a global caliphate.”

Entering the World of Politics

Mamdani first became involved in New York City politics in 2015 when he volunteered for Ali Namji, a local defense attorney who ran – unsuccessfully — in a special election for New York’s 23rd District seat in the City Council. Namji’s official online profile says: “Mr. Najmi has defended many individuals charged with very serious crimes in New York City. He has had success defending high level felonies and misdemeanors and providing his clients with a second chance.”

In 2017, Mamdani worked for the failed campaign of yet another New York City Council candidate, Khader El-Yateem — a Palestinian-American community organizer and Democratic Socialists of America member. In August 2017, El-Yateem helped pressure the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island to remove a plaque commemorating Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a Fort Hamilton cemetery.

In 2018, Mamdani managed the New York State Senate campaign of leftwing columnist/reporter Ross Barkan. Over the years, Barkan had contributed to such publications as the Village Voice, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, the Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, Jacobin magazine, and the New York Observer. After having written for the Observer from 2013 to 2016, he resigned from the newspaper upon learning that it was endorsing presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Barkan later told the press that with the Trump endorsement, “a line had been crossed and I thought it was time for myself to depart.”

In 2019, Mamdani was a field organizer for attorney and fellow democratic socialist Tiffany Cabán‘s campaign for Queens County District Attorney.

Supporting BLM & the Removal of a Christopher Columbus Statue

During the weeks of nationwide protests and riots that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd’s infamous May 2020 death in Minneapolis, Mamdani – in solidarity with the many Black Lives Matter activists from coast to coast who were demanding the removal of statues depicting historical figures whom they smeared as racist oppressors – used his social media platform to post a photo of himself raising a middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus with the caption: “Take it down.” Just days before Mamdani issued his post, rioters had toppled a Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia; beheaded another Columbus statue in Boston, Massachusetts; and torn down yet another outside the state capitol building in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Elected to NYS Assembly

Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, defeating four-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in a Democratic Party primary before running unopposed in the general election.

“Unapologetic about Our Socialism” / “Seizing the Means of Production”

While appearing virtually at a February 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America conference aimed at mobilizing young people to become politically active, Assemblyman Mamdani said: “What the purpose is about this entire project — it’s not simply to raise class consciousness, but to win socialism. And obviously, raising class consciousness is a critical part of that, but making sure that we have candidates that both understand that and are willing to put that forward at every which moment that they have … We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism.”

Mamdani then proceeded to name a pair of additional issues that socialists like him “firmly believe in”: (a) the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” (BDS) movement, and (b) the “end goal of seizing the means of production.” The term “means of production,” a cornerstone of Marxist dogma, refers to the physical, non-human elements that are used to produce goods and services. These elements include such things as land, factories, machinery, tools, and raw materials. Mamdani further stated that the ascendancy of socialism would facilitate the advancement of desirable policies like “sex work being decriminalized.”

Re-Elected as an Open Socialist in 2022 & 2024

Mamdani was re-elected to the New York State Assembly in 2022, without opposition in the general election. On his campaign website, he stated: “This election isn’t about a single candidate — it’s about a movement. As a democratic socialist, I know that we’ll never win the rights we all deserve — rights to healthcare, housing, education, nutrition, childcare, and public power — without a grassroots movement of the working class rising up to demand them. Another world is possible, but only if we fight for it together.”

Two years later, Mamdani again won re-election without opposition from any other candidate.

Posting a Video Parody Mocking Jews

During the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah’s “Festival of Lights” celebration in 2024, Mamdani posted on social media a video titled “Hey Hannukah,” from the 2015 parody album Punjabi Christmas Album Hits by the so-called Geeta Brothers — a creation of Sikh-Canadian comedian and musician Jus Reign. The video showed two Indian men wearing exaggerated wigs and dancing to Punjabi music in front of a menorah, lighting the menorah, and spinning dreidels. In response to Mamdani’s decision to post the video, the Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism wrote on X: “Our holidays and traditions are sacred and not for your comedic pleasure @ZohranKMamdani — this is sick.”

Marriage

Mamdani married American animator, illustrator, and ceramic artist Rama Duwaji in a private ceremony at New York City Hall in February 2025.

NYC Mayoral Campaign (2025)

On October 23, 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for the 2025 mayoral race in New York City. Following is an overview of his positions on a number of key issues related to that campaign:

Anti-Capitalism, Pro-Communism

In a June 2025 interview with CNN anchor Erin Burnett, Mamdani was asked: “Do you like capitalism?” He replied: “No, I have many critiques of capitalism. And I think ultimately the definition, for me, of why I call myself a democratic socialist is the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King decades ago. He said, ‘call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country.’ And that’s what I’m focused on, is dignity, and taking on income inequality.”

On July 17, 2025, Fox News posted a newly resurfaced video in which Mamdani had spoken favorably about the “abolition of private property.” Said Mamdani in the clip: “My platform is that every single person should have housing, and I think, faced with these two options, the system has hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, right? For what? And if there was any system that could guarantee each person housing, whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it, you know, just a statewide housing guarantee, it is preferable to what is going on right now.”

In a June 29, 2025 interview on NBC News, Mamdani said: “I don’t think that we should have billionaires, because frankly it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. And ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”

Housing

Freeze the Rent:
Mamdani pledged that if he were to be elected mayor, he would “immediately freeze the rent for all [rent-]stabilized tenants” in New York City.

Build Affordable Housing:
Mamdani vowed to “put our public dollars to work and triple the City’s production of permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes – constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.”

De-Commodify Housing:
In a 2021 instructional video titled “How Socialists Solved the Housing Crisis” — which was posted to YouTube by the leftwing Gravel Institute — Mamdani explained that New York City’s housing shortage could be solved by transforming housing from a private commodity into a public one:

• “Why do so many people end up homeless?” he asked in the video. “It’s not because there aren’t enough homes to go around, there are plenty of empty homes. No. It’s because housing people is not a primary goal of developers or landlords. Their goal, simply put, is to make a profit. And it’s much more profitable to build luxury homes for the rich, than decent homes for the poor. This gives us a big shortage of homes for ordinary working people…. This is a terrible way to organize a housing market.”
• “At the root of all of this suffering,” Mamdani elaborated, “is the fact that in this country, housing is treated as a commodity, not a right. It’s a consumer product, just like clothes or cars, that private businesses can sell on the market to make a profit.” Arguing that “housing doesn’t have to be seen as a market at all” – but rather as “a fundamental right, like education or healthcare” – he called for “the government” to “fully commit to a new era of social housing,” and “to guarantee [that] everyone has a home and the market plays a much smaller role in the construction and distribution of housing.”
• “[W]e’ll have to go beyond the market,” added Mamdani. “We can establish community land trusts to gradually buy up housing on the private market and convert it to community ownership. We can give tenants a right of first refusal to buy out their landlords when buildings go up for sale, and we can fully commit to a new era of social housing — ending subsidies for luxury housing development, and using our wealth to build beautiful, high-quality social housing projects that offer good homes and strong communities to everyone. We won’t de-commodify housing overnight, but we know what we have to do, and we have history to guide us. And we know how we’ll get there. Through a movement of the multi-racial working class organizing for the better world we know is possible.” (Note: The unity of the working class is an articulation of classical Marxist thought. As Marx himself famously wrote in his Communist Manifesto: “Workers of the world, unite!”)
• “If we want to end the housing crisis,” Mamdani summarized, “the solution has to be moving toward the full de-commodification of housing. In other words, moving away from the status quo in which most people access housing by purchasing it on the market, and toward a future where we guarantee high quality housing to all as a human right.”

Property Tax Hikes on the “Richer and Whiter”

Mamdani complained that as a result of New York’s “arcane” and “inequitable” property tax system, “the city’s wealthiest pockets pay just a fraction of their just tax bill because assessed values are artificially capped to stay low while actual market values soar.” The solution, he said, would be to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Criminal Justice

Department of Community Safety:
Claiming that policing and incarceration do not promote safe neighborhoods nearly as effectively as “dignified work, economic stability, and well-resourced neighborhoods,” Mamdani said that, as mayor, he would create a “Department of Community Safety” (DCS). Funded by a $1.1 billion budget, this department’s mission, he explained, “will be to prevent violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety” – e.g., “investing in citywide mental health education and services” as well as enhanced social welfare benefits — rather than pursuing a punishment-focused, carceral approach. “Police have a critical role to play,” said Mamdani’s mayoral campaign website. “But right now, we’re relying on them to deal with our frayed social safety net — which prevents them from doing their actual jobs.”

Disparaging Police Officers:
During an appearance on a July 2020 podcast, Mamdani said: “Police do not create safety. For many, many people across this city and this state, police actually create and amplify violence…. You just look at the history of the NYPD, and you see that we have invested in a system that functions in many ways to punish poor black and brown people across this city and across this state — frankly, across this country. And there are so many responsibilities we have given to police that, frankly, should have nothing to do with their departments…. [I]f somebody is jaywalking, if somebody is … going through domestic violence — there are so many different, different situations that would be far better handled by people trained to deal with those specific situations, as opposed to an individual with a gun.”

Defunding the Police & Prisons:
On June 8, 2020 – exactly two weeks after the May 25 death of George Floyd following his physical altercation with a Minneapolis police officer, Mamdani tweeted that reforming America’s police departments would be insufficient. Rather, he said: “We want to defund the police.” In another tweet later that same month, Mamdani wrote: “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 … NO to fake cuts – defund the police.” Five months after that, he tweeted that “queer liberation means defund the police.”

In 2020 as well, Mamdani called for the wholesale dismantling of America’s prison system, writing: “As socialists, we believe people should not have to endure violence & coercion of a criminal-legal system that props up the exploitation of the market by surveilling, caging & killing those fighting to survive under capitalism. We can abolish that system.” Money that theretofore had been allocated to prison construction and other forms of punishment, he said, should be redirected to fund social welfare programs benefiting nonwhite communities “that have been impacted by mass incarceration.”

Mamdani again doubled down on these positions when he said in 2021: “Our prison system relies on dehumanization and brutality, so the goal must be to abolish this exploitative system entirely. We must #DecarcerateNow.”

In his 2025 mayoral campaign, Mamdani called for the abolition of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), which was formed in 2015 to prevent violence and chaos at public protest sites.

City-Owned Grocery Stores

Pledging to “create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit,” Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website said: “Without having to pay rent or property taxes, [these stores] will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers. They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing. … [We] should redirect public money to a real ‘public option.’” The key to these stores’ success, Mamdani said in a June 2025 campaign video, would be to “operate without a profit motive.”

LGBTQIA+ Issues

Lamenting that “queer and trans people across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment,” Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website declared that “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people” – particularly in light of “[President] Trump’s assault on trans rights.” “The Mamdani administration,” added the website, “will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide; making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city; [and] creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”

Also on his campaign website, Mamdani pledged to “inves[t] $65 million in public providers to provide gender-affirming care to New Yorkers who seek it.” Such “care” would include procedures like breast removal, genital mutilation and removal, penis construction, chemical sterilization, facial feminization and masculinization, hormone treatments, and the administration of puberty blockers.

Moreover, Mamdani promised to: (a) invest millions of dollars into programs like “gender-affirming” telehealth services; (b) “investigate and hold public hearings on hospitals that deny trans youth their rightful healthcare and hold them accountable to the law”; and (c) protect “healthcare providers from legal persecution for receiving or providing gender-affirming and reproductive care.”

Single-Payer Healthcare & Abortion Rights

Mamdani was a vocal advocate for the New York Health Act, calling for the establishment of a single-payer, government-run healthcare system in New York State.

He also pledged to “create a new corps of outreach workers” to “connect every New Yorker in need of reproductive care to affordable, quality support.” Those workers, said Mamdani, “will support patients in understanding the public resources available to them: how to find insurance, apply to programs, access financial assistance, and claim their health benefits.”

Gun Bans & Restrictions

On May 24, 2022, Mamdani tweeted: “We need to ban all guns.”

That same year, he voted in support of requiring a license to possess a semiautomatic rifle.

According to VoteSmart.org, Mamdani as a New York State Assembly member voted in favor of: (a) requiring anyone applying for handgun licenses to disclose the contents of their social media accounts (2022); (b) expanding the circumstances under which “red flag laws” could be used to allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily restrict certain people’s access to a firearm if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others (2022); (c) outlawing the purchase of bullet-proof vests by civilians (2022); (d) requiring federal firearms licensees to post warning signs in their stores about the dangers posed by guns (2024); and (e) placing new restrictions on the marketing of guns (2024).

Israel & the Middle East

Supporter of Boycotts during His College Years:
Mamdani’s animus toward Israel dates back many years. During his senior year at Bowdoin College — where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter — he endorsed the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israeli academic institutions. “Israeli universities are both actively and passively complicit in the crimes of both the Israeli military and the Israeli government in all its settler-colonial forms,” Mamdani wrote in an op-ed in Bowdoin’s student newspaper. “Israeli universities give priority admission to soldiers, discriminate against Palestinian students, and have developed remote-controlled bulldozers for the Israeli Army’s home demolitions.” Further, Mamdani called on Bowdoin to join the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement and thereby “put pressure on Israeli institutions to end the oppressive occupation and racist policies within both Israel and occupied Palestine.”

Praising the “Holy Land Five”:
In 2017, Mamdani released a rap song titled “Salam,” in which he praised the so-called “Holy Land Five” — leaders of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a pseudo-charity that was in fact a terrorist ally of Hamas. Among the song’s lyrics were these: “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up.”

Supporting BDS:
Mamdani, like his father, is a longtime supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative dedicated to financially crippling the state of Israel and making its long-term survival impossible. During a 2021 interview with the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, Mamdani exhorted leftwing activists to demand that local political candidates be transparent about their stance on BDS. “Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore,” he said. “There are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.”

“My support for BDS is consistent with the core of my politics, which is nonviolence, and I think that it is a legitimate movement when you are seeking to find compliance with international law,” Mamdani said at a May 2025 forum at the UJA-Federation of New York.

“Not on Our Dime!”:
In May 2023, Mamdani was the lead sponsor of a bill called the “Not on Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act,” which aimed to “prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity” in the so-called West Bank – i.e., Judea and Samaria. As Mamdani wrote in an email to the Forward at that time: “Charities should not fund war crimes — it’s that simple. The stated U.S. foreign policy is that settlements are illegal — this bill seeks to bring New York state policy in line with that goal.”

A later iteration of the “Not on Our Dime” bill also prohibited donations to groups that supported alleged Israeli “fundraising for war crimes in both the West Bank and Gaza.” To promote this legislation, NotOnOurDime.com wrote in May 2024:

“The ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza has spurred a proliferation of US-based ‘charitable’ organizations fundraising to support the Israeli military and violent settlers.

“New York-registered organizations are at the heart of this, sending tens of millions of dollars to fund war crimes waged by Israeli military units devastating Gaza and emboldened settlers expelling Palestinians from their homes.

“By allowing these groups to masquerade as charities, New York State is subsidizing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.

“It’s more urgent than ever to stop this flow of money, which is why we launched the Not On Our Dime! Campaign.

“We first introduced this bill in May of 2023, which was the most violent year on record for Palestinians in the West Bank, with an exclusive focus on prohibiting NY charities from funding Israeli settler violence.

“In May 2024 – one year later – we are expanding the bill’s scope in light of the surge in NY-based charitable organizations fundraising to support the Israeli military, which both domestic and international courts as well as legal experts have said is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza….

“Join us in uplifting the Not on Our Dime!: End NY Funding of Israeli War Crimes campaign to ensure not another dollar is spent on subsidizing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.”

Disbanding a NYC Council for U.S.-Israeli Economic Ties:
During a PIX11 mayoral forum in June 2025, Mamdani said that if he were to become mayor of New York City, he would disband the council that incumbent mayor Eric Adams had created to strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Israel.

Accusing Israel of “Genocide”:
Shortly after the Gaza-based terror group Hamas carried out a massive surprise attack that killed some 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023 – prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war against Hamas — Mamdani issued a statement that promoted moral equivalence, condemned Israeli political leadership, and made no mention of Hamas: “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path to a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”

That same day, Students for Justice in Palestine, the national organization whose campus chapter Mamdani had founded at Bowdoin College during his student days, instructed its various chapters to celebrate the “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”

On October 13, 2023, Mamdani was arrested while participating in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City – one of numerous protests demanding that Israel cease its military actions in Gaza. Moreover, he posted on his X social media page: “We are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza right now — and the manufacturing of consent for sending even more US arms to Israel. Now is the moment for all people of conscience to call for a ceasefire and no more military funding.”

In October 2024, Mamdani said he believed that Israel was in fact committing genocide.

In an April 2025 interview, Mamdani was asked how he had arrived at the conclusion that Israel was guilty of genocide. He replied: “Genocide is not just a crime of action, it’s also a crime of intent. And what led me to make that remark was a fear based on the statements we received from a number of Israeli leaders that characterized Palestinians in language more befitting animals than people, and actions that had been taken to shut down civilian access to basic goods such as electricity, for example.”

Advocating Netanyahu’s Arrest:
In a 2025 interview, Mamdani stated that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were ever to visit New York City, he should be arrested in accordance with the International Criminal Court’s warrant for his arrest.

Refusing to Sign a Pro-Israel Resolution:
In May 2025, Mamdani declined to lend his signature to the New York State Assembly’s annual resolution condemning the Holocaust and celebrating the anniversary of Israel’s 1948 founding. Specifically, he said he objected to the resolution’s assertion that Israel “continues to strive for peace with security and dignity for itself, its neighbors and throughout the world in order to fulfill the prophecy of becoming a light unto the nations.” He also told reporters: “I haven’t been signing on to any resolutions that have been coming through my Assembly email this year as my focus has been on the substance of what we actually legislate on and on running for mayor.”

Declining to Affirm Israel’s Right to Be a Jewish State:
During a Democratic mayoral debate in June 2025, Mamdani said: “I believe Israel has the right to exist.” “As a Jewish state?” the moderator asked. Mamdani answered: “As a state with equal rights.”

During another interview that same month with Fox 5, Mamdani explained why he was uneasy with the prospect of recognizing Israel as a “Jewish” state. “I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else,” he said. “… Equality should be enshrined in every country in the world. That’s my belief.”

“Globalize the Intifada” & “From the River to the Sea”:
During a June 17, 2025 interview, the host of The Bulwark Podcast asked Mamdani if the phrases “Globalize the Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea” “make you uncomfortable.” (Note: “’Intifada’ is a term signifying militant violence designed to advance the Islamic cause. And “From the River to the Sea” refers to the Islamist quest to purge every last Jew from the land situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.) Mamdani replied:

“You know, I know people for whom those things mean very different things. And 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. And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word [Intifada] has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle.’ And as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning. And I think that’s where it leaves me with a sense that what we need to do is focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, and the question of permissibility of language is something that I haven’t ventured into.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, took issue with Mamdani and wrote in a post on X: “Globalize the Intifada is an explicit call for violence. Globalize the Intifada celebrates and glorifies savagery and terror.”

But Mamdani was unfazed by such critics. In a June 29, 2025 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, he repeatedly refused to condemn, or distance himself from, the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.” Some key excerpts from Mamdani’s exchange with host Kristen Welker:

WELKER: “I want to ask you about an issue that has divided New Yorkers in recent weeks. You were recently asked about the term ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ if it makes you uncomfortable. In that moment, you did not condemn the phrase. Just so folks understand, it’s a phrase that many people hear as a call to violence against Jews. There’s been a lot of attention on this issue. So, I want to give you an opportunity to respond, here and now. Do you condemn that phrase, ‘Globalize the Intifada’?”

MAMDANI: “That’s not language I use. The language that I use, and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city, is that, which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights. And ultimately, that’s what is the foundation of so much of my politics, the belief that freedom and justice and safety are things that have meaning and have to be applied to all people, and that includes Israelis and Palestinians.”

WELKER: “But do you actually condemn it? I think that’s the question and the outstanding issue that a number of people, both of the Jewish faith and beyond, have. Do you condemn that phrase, ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ which a lot of people feel is a call to violence against Jews?”

MAMDANI: “I have heard from many Jewish New Yorkers who have shared their concerns with me … about this moment of anti-Semitism in our country and our city. I’ve heard those fears and I’ve had those conversations, and ultimately they are part and parcel of why, in my campaign, I’ve put forward the commitment to increase funding for anti-hate programming by 800 percent. I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech, in the manner especially of that of Donald Trump….”

WELKER: “But very quickly, for the people who care about the language and who feel really concerned about that phrase, why not just condemn it?”

MAMDANI: “My concern is to start to walk down the line of language and making clear what language I believe is permissible and impermissible, takes me into a place similar to that of the President [Trump] who is looking to do those very kinds of things, putting people in jail for writing an op-ed, putting them in jail for protesting. Ultimately, it’s not language that I use. It’s language I understand there are concerns about. And what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words and my actions.”

Immigration & Sanctuary City Policies

The official website of Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign accused President Trump of “tearing at the fabric of New York City” by “attack[ing] immigrant New Yorkers” and “deploy[ing] ICE agents to pluck [them] from their families.” To address these matters, Mamdani vowed to:

• “get ICE out of all City facilities and end any cooperation” with federal immigration agents;
• “ensure that no City resources are used for immigration enforcement”; and
• “increase funding for immigration legal services to provide representation for people and communities targeted by mass deportation.”

In a June 2025 Interview, Mamdani was asked to articulate his “position on New York City’s sanctuary city laws” – i.e., statutes that require city employees to refrain from notifying the federal government about the presence of illegal aliens living in their communities. He replied: “The Trump administration is waging war on the First Amendment and our constitutional rights as it continues to abduct New Yorkers from across our city. Any effort to cooperate with these efforts is a moral stain on our city. We should strengthen our sanctuary city laws.”

In a June 2025 interview with The Guardian, Mamdani said he would “unabashedly stand up for our sanctuary city policies which have kept New Yorkers safe, and use every tool at the city’s disposal to protect our immigrants.” “There is no option of surrender,” he added.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press that same month, host Kristen Welker asked Mamdani: “Let’s talk about immigration and deportation. Are you committed to keeping New York as a sanctuary city?” Mamdani replied: “Absolutely. Because ultimately, we’ve seen that this is a policy that has kept New Yorkers safe for decades. It’s a policy that had previously been defended by Democrats and Republicans alike until the fear-mongering of this current mayor [Eric Adams]. And it’s a policy that we’ve seen ensures that New Yorkers can get out of the shadows and into the full life of the city that they belong to. And it’s one that I will be proud to stand up for.”

“Well,” Welker retorted, “you know the border czar, Tom Homan, has said that he is planning to deploy ICE agents to New York worksite enforcement, to essentially increase and enhance the number of ICE agents here. If that happens on your watch, how do you plan to handle it?” Mamdani answered: “We have to stand up and fight back, and we haven’t seen that from our current mayor, who has instead been working with the Trump administration to assist in their goal of building the single largest deportation force in American history…. Those days are going to come to an end when I’m the mayor. The NYPD’s job is to create public safety in the city, not to assist ICE agents in their mission to attack the very fabric of this city.”

Early Childhood & Education

No-Cost Childcare:
Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website said: “Zohran will implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years, ensuring high quality programming for all families. And he will bring up wages for childcare workers … to be at parity with public school teachers.”

Charter Schools & Voucher Programs:
Charter schools, which are exempt from many state and local regulations, often serve as outstanding alternatives to substandard public schools — particularly in poor urban areas. School voucher programs, meanwhile, allow low-income, mostly-minority parents to take the taxpayer money normally allocated for their child’s education in a failing public school, and use it instead to cover the cost of tuition at a high-quality private school of their choice. But Mamdani, in accord with the official Democrat Party position, opposes funding for both charter schools and voucher programs because they siphon resources away from public schools.

Environment

Green Schools in NYC:
Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website said he would “partne[r] with the school system and community leaders” to: (a) “Renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades to accelerate NYC’s energy transition and improve learning conditions”; (b) Build 500 green schoolyards, turning heat-absorbing asphalt into vibrant green spaces for students and community members”; (c) “Create at least 15,000 union jobs for the people who build, maintain, and run our schools”; (d) “Transform 50 schools into resilience hubs, year-round community facilities that provide resources and a safe space during emergencies”; and (e) “Prioritize out-of-date facilities and combat environmental racism in NYC.”

Minimum Wage of $30 Per Hour

Mamdani pledged that as mayor, he would “champion a new local law bringing the NYC wage floor up to $30/hour by 2030” – and thereafter increase that wage “based on the cost of living and productivity increases.”

Transportation

In 2023, then-Assemblyman Mamdani co-introduced a bill to impose a weight-based vehicle-registration fee designed to dissuade New Yorkers from purchasing heavy, gas-guzzling vehicles that also tend to cause a disproportionate amount of damage and injuries in crashes.

Mamdani advocated for a fare-free pilot program for Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses, which was put in place for five separate New York City bus routes between September 2023 and August 2024.

Mamdani in 2025 vowed that, if elected mayor, he would “permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and [providing] dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way.” On July 3, 2025, The New York Times reported that Mamdani “has vowed to make the city’s bus service — a network of 348 routes that carries 1.4 million passengers a day — free for all” if elected.

Mamdani in 2025 supported the imposition of a “congestion pricing” framework that – in an effort to reduce traffic and carbon emissions — charged drivers a substantial fee to bring their cars into many parts of Manhattan.

In a June 2025 interview, Mamdani was asked – in light of the fact that the state-run MTA had lost an estimated $600 million in revenue due to subway- and bus-fare evasion in 2022 — how the NYPD should enforce transit fares. He replied that police should not issue summonses for fare nonpayment, saying: “Only a third of the almost one million adult New Yorkers who are eligible access Fair Fares. At its core, this is an economic crisis, and we must address it as such.”

Taxing Corporations & the Wealthy to Fund His Political Agendas

“The wealthy have seen a steep decline in their tax rates over the last 60 years,” said Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website, “but no one has sought to rob the poor and give to the rich as much as Donald Trump,” whose “signature [first-term] accomplishment was a tax cut for corporations and millionaires.” To “fight back and protect everyday New Yorkers” from Trump’s policies, Mamdani proposed to: (a) “ta[x] the wealthiest New Yorkers” to the point where they “pay their fair share,” and (b) “pursue a corporate tax increase for the most profitable businesses operating in New York.”

Claiming to Be a Victim of Islamophobia

During his 2025 mayoral bid, Mamdani frequently referred to his minority status as a Ugandan-born Muslim immigrant. In a June 2025 interview with an interfaith panel, he spoke about the racism and prejudice that he and his family members had allegedly experienced after 9/11, twenty-four years earlier. “It’s a fear that I remember all too well as a young Muslim man growing up in New York City,” Mamdani claimed. “My aunt, who was a doctor and who wears a hijab, felt like she could not exist in public life anymore.”

In another June 2025 interview with CBS News, Mamdani tearfully said: “I get messages that say things like ‘the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.’ I get threats on my life and on the people that I love, and I try not to talk about it.”

Endorsers of Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign

An early and prominent endorser of Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign was Senator Bernie Sanders, who wrote on Instagram: “At this dangerous moment in history, status quo politics isn’t good enough. We need new leadership that is prepared to stand up to powerful corporate interests & fight for the working class. Zohran Mamdani is providing that vision. He is the best choice for NYC mayor.”

Other notable individuals to endorse Mamdani’s mayoral campaign were: Jamaal Bowman, Bill de Blasio, Ella Emhoff (stepdaughter of Kamala Harris), Letitia James, Hakeem Jeffries, Michael Moore, Jerrold Nadler, Cynthia Nixon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Emily Ratajkowski, Al Sharpton, Nydia Velazquez, and Elizabeth Warren.

Organizational endorsers of Mamdani’s campaign included: the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Citizen Action of New York, Jewish Voices for Peace Action, Make the Road New York Action, the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, The Nation, the NYC Democratic Socialists of America, the Service Employees International Union, the Sunrise Movement, UNITE Here!, the Working Families Party, and the Movement for Black Lives — an anti-capitalist, anti-police coalition that is a partner of the Marxist, anti-white, Jew-hating Black Lives Matter movement.[1]

Winning the NYC Primary (2025)

In June 2025, Mamdani finished first in an eleven-person primary race for the Democratic mayoral nomination, outpacing runner-up Andrew Cuomo by nearly 13 percentage points in New York City’s “ranked choice” voting system. Incumbent Democrat mayor Eric Adams did not participate in the primary, as he chose to run for re-election as an independent.

In a post on X, Rep. Ilhan Omar celebrated Mamdani’s triumph. “Congratulations @ZohranKMamdani!” the congresswoman wrote. “This is an incredible victory and testament to the people powered campaign you put together. Thank you NYC for not letting the bigots and corrupt billionaires prevail. This victory also belongs to you.” “As you’ll get ready for the general election, know that we will all be cheering you,” Omar added. “Alhamdulillah!” (Note: Alhamdulillah is an Arabic word that translates to “All praise is due to Allah.”)

Former President Bill Clinton wrote on X: “Congratulations @ZohranKMamdani on your victory in yesterday’s primary election and a well-run campaign. I’m wishing you much success in November and beyond as you work to bring New Yorkers together to tackle the city’s challenges and shape a stronger, fairer future.”

Allegations of Mamdani’s Affinity for Terrorists

In June 2025, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (Tennessee) wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging the Department of Justice to investigate Mamdani under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), a law that permits the revocation of a person’s naturalized citizenship if he or she is found to have concealed or lied about associations with terrorist groups during the naturalization process. Wrote Ogles in his letter:

“According to public reports, including a June 21, 2025, New York Post article, Mr. Mamdani expressed open solidarity with individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses prior to becoming a U.S. citizen. Specifically, he rapped: ‘Free the Holy Land Five / My guys.’ The Holy Land Foundation was convicted in 2008 for providing material support to Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Publicly praising the Foundation’s convicted leadership as ‘my guys’ raises serious concerns about whether Mr. Mamdani held affiliations or sympathies he failed to disclose during the naturalization process.”

Citing also Mamdani’s recent refusal to disavow the slogan “Globalize the Intifada,” Ogles argued that this “pro-terrorist rallying cry” and “call to expand violent attacks on civilians to the United States and around the world” – when considered alongside Mamdani’s past support for the Holy Land Five — “warrants formal scrutiny.” “The naturalization process depends on the good-faith disclosure of any affiliation with, or support for, groups that threaten U.S. national security,” said Ogles. “If Mr. Mamdani concealed relevant associations, that concealment may constitute a material misrepresentation sufficient to support denaturalization under federal law.”

Footnotes:

1. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/05/rep-aoc-backs-zohran-mamdani-as-her-top-pick-after-debate-00388946 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/14/aoc-rallies-against-cuomo-gerontocracy-00406346
   https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/06/24/hollywood-celebrities-back-democratic-socialist-zohran-mamdani-for-new-york-city-mayor/
   https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyc-mayoral-frontrunner-zohran-mamdanis-182309899.html
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/25/ilhan-omar-praises-zohran-mamdanis-victory-in-nyc-primary-alhamdulillah/
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/25/ilhan-omar-praises-zohran-mamdanis-victory-in-nyc-primary-alhamdulillah/
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/26/marlow-mamdani-is-a-true-radical-endorsed-by-clinton-and-de-blasio/