Zohran Mamdani, a 2018 U.S. citizen running for NYC mayor, evades condemning Sharia law and praises Hamas-linked figures like the "Holy Land Five," while referencing extremist slogans like "From the river to the sea." His 2017 rap glorified the Holy Land Foundation, later convicted in a terror-financing case. Advocating for $1B NYPD cuts while hiring private security, he holds Ugandan citizenship—where LGBTQ rights are criminalized—and faces accusations of prioritizing foreign ties over U.S. leadership. Critics warn his radical rhetoric and dual loyalties mirror London’s post-9/11 political risks, raising alarms about his eligibility and authenticity as a mayoral candidate. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to New York, New York, a city of ambition, resilience, and endless possibility.
But today we're not here to celebrate its triumphs.
No, today we're here to uncover a story.
A story of foreign ties, dangerous ambitions, and a man whose vision for this city could lead it down a perilous path.
His name?
Zohran Mamdani.
He's charismatic, some might say.
But beneath the surface lies a troubling narrative.
A man who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018, now vying for the keys to the greatest city in the world.
How did we get here?
And more importantly, where could this lead?
Let's start with a moment that's gone viral.
In an undated video, an attendee boldly asks, do you denounce Sharia law?
And what does Zorhan Mamdani do?
He dodges, he deflects, he repeats, what is Sharia law? over and over, refusing to take a stand.
Is this the kind of leadership New York deserves?
A man unwilling to denounce a system that raises question about its compatibility with American values?
But that's just the beginning.
Zohran Mam Dani has made no secret of his foreign obsessions, bragging that Palestine is a core part of his politics.
He's even vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on American Soul.
And then there are the photos.
Mam Dani with Imam Mohammed Al-Bar, a man who's openly praised Hamas, a group the United States recognizes as a terrorist organization.
He's talking about the Holy Land five.
In his rap song in 2017, he said, I'm in love with the Holy Lent Five.
So let's explain what the Holy Lent Fives are.
They are convicted criminals that have been convicted in 2008 for material support for Hamas.
In 2001, the Holy Land Foundation was actually dismantled.
In 2001, it was shut down.
And in 2008, it was they were convicted.
These five people were convicted for supporting Hamas.
He is saying that he is in love with those people and asking you to look them up.
So I say, absolutely look them up.
That guy is so radical.
He might be some sort of a Trojan horse, not just for Marxism, which is what he is actually saying, but for jihadism.
He is supporting the concept of this.
He refuses to acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
He's very coy about this, right?
So when he goes on national television, he goes, well, yes, Israel has the right to exist.
But when asked on the debate stage, do you think Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state?
He refuses to answer.
This is a terrible news, not just for Jews, for every single American and everybody who supports Western values.
It's horrible.
Imagine that.
A man with Hamas ties in City Hall.
The safety of New Yorkers and the integrity of our constitutional republic hanging in the balance.
I am someone who co-founded my colleagues for students and dozens in Palestine.
We must organize at every level.
It is our job to destroy imperialism, destroy the United States.
For greater empires of destruction have fallen before it, and so will these.
The struggle for Palestinian liberation was at the core of my politics and continues to be.
B-B-S!
And then there's the hypocrisy.
Zoran Mam Dani, the self-proclaimed true socialist, pushes to defund the police, branding the NYPD as racist and violent.
Yet while he'd got their funding, he's been spotted with private security detail.
He'd leave the streets lawless while guarding himself.
This isn't leadership, it's betrayal.
Are you for defunding the police?
Are you for a serious reform that people can see on the ground?
I am in favor of defunding the police.
Yes, what that means is that right now in New York City, we have a budget of close to $6 billion for the New York City Police Department.
Defunding The Police Debate00:08:01
And that is an astronomical figure.
Wow.
And I think that what we need to do is not chip away a million dollars or five million.
I think in this first year, we need to take a billion dollars out of that budget.
And I think that we need to reinvest that money into social services.
But perhaps the most puzzling part of Mam Danny's persona is his ability to shift and adapt depending on the audience.
From rapper to politician, Mam Danny's transformation is striking.
Another reminder that the world is full of actors.
Like Zelensky, who went from comedian to president, Mam Danny seems to be playing a role becoming whoever his audience wants him to be.
This is Zorhan Mamdani.
He's running for mayor of New York.
Here's what he normally sounds like.
We gather tonight in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
But in an interview in South Africa, he sounded a little different.
I actually created a playlist for Mira, who also happens to be my mother.
You know, nepotism and hard work goes a long way.
And in an interview with the Turkish American podcast, Mamdani sounded different again.
I'll be honest with you, brother Mansoum, is that at this point, not many people are thinking about it.
And here is Zoran during his rapper days.
You know, it would have been here earlier, but a worldwide tour is a worldwide tour is a worldwide tour.
This isn't authenticity.
It's a performance.
And New Yorkers deserve a leader who is consistent, transparent, and true to their values.
Not someone who plays a different character in every room.
One finds it's curious, doesn't one?
Mr. Mamdanny, a man who wishes to represent the interests of New York City, seems to hold on rather tightly to his citizenship with Uganda, a place whose reputation in certain circles is, shall we say, less than sterling.
It makes one wonder if a man is unwilling to part with a passport from such a complicated nation.
How can the people of New York be assured that their interests, and America's, truly come first?
It's the sort of detail that tends to linger in the mind.
Why would you keep a citizenship in Uganda, which is a country that outlaws the LGBTQ community?
You are a citizen of Uganda running for mayor.
Why wouldn't you say, I am going to give up my citizenship because I will not be the citizen of a country that would kill gay people.
Andrew Coma walked into an afternoon press conference loaded for bear, pouncing on a newly surfaced picture posted by Uganda Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kagaga.
The photo and another one that includes Zeram Momdani's dad were taken as the Queen's Assemblyman was flying home from a summer wedding at his family's home in Kampala.
It would be a total act of hypocrisy to be this citizen of a country that abuses LGBTQ people.
Kim Momdani did not address the Uganda officials' years-long anti-gay crusade.
And here's something else to consider: Zohran Mamdani is heavily favored by foreign-born voters.
While there's nothing wrong with immigrants participating in democracy, it raises questions when a candidate support base is so deeply tied to those who may not share the same long-term investment in American values.
And let's not forget, this is a man who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
Shocking that New York would even consider handing over the keys to the city to someone with such a short history in this country.
We came here to remake this state in the image of our people.
But the most troubling part?
His refusal to denounce dangerous rhetoric.
When confronted with the chant, Globalize the Intifada, he twists it into a vague justification, calling it a struggle.
A man who cannot or will not distance himself from such divisive language is not fit to lead a city as diverse and complex as New York.
I am someone who, I would say, am less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words, and that I think it is more evocative of a Trump-style approach to how to lead a country.
And I think especially when we've seen you uncomfortable, like the phrase globalize intifada from the river to the sea, does that make you uncomfortable?
Or do you think that's a different thing?
Okay, those are different.
Those are super different.
Not really different genres.
I'm sorry, I'm asking Zoran.
Then they're not really different to me.
And so some people are not different.
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 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 in 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 the permissibility of language is something that I haven't.
And here's the question that haunts us all.
What would the victims and the families of 9-11 think of all of this?
What would they say about a man with ties to a group like Hamas?
A man who refuses to denounce Sharia law, a man who cozies up to foreign ideologies that threaten the very freedoms they died defending.
New York was the epicenter of that tragedy, a city that bore the brunt of that attack on American values.
And now a man with such alarming connections wants to lead it?
It's unthinkable.
But if you ask Ma'am Danny, he's the victim.
Careful New Yorkers00:02:53
There's still, you know, this illusion, and it's partially a result of settler colonialism, that all of us can become New Yorkers, that all of us can settle into the city.
And yet there would be these moments where I would be reminded by someone whose intent was to tell me that you do not belong.
And one of those first moments was on 9-11, when before I knew what had happened, my teacher had pulled me and a Muslim classmate of mine out of the class and told us that something has happened and you may be bullied.
And I want you to tell me if that happens.
And frankly, I was lucky because most Muslim students in the city were not given that kind of care from their teachers.
And yet in that moment, I realized that I was not simply another classmate in a middle school.
I was distinct.
And there was a marker of that distinction on me.
And it was something that I would be reminded of again and again, something when I, when we came back from a trip abroad, being pulled aside at JFK by immigration agents in a double mirrored room, sitting me down on my own while my family was outside and asking me if I just attended a terrorist training camp and if I had intentions of attacking this country and, if so, what were those plans.
And it's something that has continued in the time since where, a few months ago, I went with a client of mine to a bankruptcy court and, as we're going into the court, the security guard takes me aside and pass me down with additional care and asks me multiple times if I have any weapons of mass destruction on me.
And in these moments, the sense of not knowing where home is, you know they're amplified by what I would see around me.
He's the victim.
Can you believe it?
Careful New Yorkers, take a look at London two years after they elected a Muslim mayor, and we are already there in some parts of the U.S.
And if
Glimmer of Hope00:00:13
you think this couldn't happen here, think again.
But here's the glimmer of hope.
New York, this city of resilience, diversity, and strength, has seen through charlatans before.