{"id":33650,"date":"2025-07-02T21:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33650\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T21:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:57:14","slug":"zohran-mamdani-misinformation-debunked-antisemitism-immigrant-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33650\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani Misinformation, Debunked: Antisemitism, Immigrant Status"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s now official: New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is the Democratic nominee<\/a> for mayor of New York City<\/a>, having toppled disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a>, the establishment pick, in a wild primary that has already had seismic effects throughout the party. A 33-year-old Democratic Socialist, he will go up against the Republican nominee, Curtis Silwa, a scandal-ridden Mayor Eric Adams<\/a>, and, potentially, Cuomo again<\/a> in November, looking to become the first Muslim, first Indian-American, and first millennial leader of the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

\n\tMamdani\u2019s momentous campaign has provided a promising template for progressive candidates focused on kitchen-table issues. Initially an underdog with little name recognition, he built a powerful ground game of grassroots volunteers who knocked on over a million doors \u2014 and was a near-constant presence in the streets of the city himself as he walked the five boroughs meeting voters. The enthusiasm for his messaging on making New York more affordable for all by freezing rent hikes, building affordable housing, strengthening social services, eliminating bus fares, and creating city-owned grocery stores helped drive a surge in voter registration, while his team\u2019s social media savvy ensured that these policies made a big splash across the internet.<\/p>\n

\n\tNaturally, Mamdani\u2019s success has been met with bruising attacks, some from the centrist segment of his own party, others from right-wingers who paint him as a dangerous far-left radical. Once he had eclipsed Cuomo, it was inevitable that Donald Trump<\/a> would go after him, and the president spared no time smearing and threatening<\/a> the upstart candidate. By now, the waters have been thoroughly muddied with misinformation<\/a> about Mamdani, much of it characterized by Islamophobic hate. Below, we debunk some of the most viral and persistent lies so far.<\/p>\n

\t\tMamdani is not in the country illegally <\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is among the more flagrantly false claims about Mamdani, floated on Tuesday by the president himself. \u201cA lot of people are saying he\u2019s here illegally,\u201d Trump<\/a> said<\/a> at a press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>, adding, \u201cYou know, we\u2019re going to look at everything.\u201d The comments seemed to echo a call last week from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) to denaturalize and deport Mamdani, whom he gave the racist nickname \u201clittle Muhammad\u201d in a post<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tMamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents and lived for a short time in South Africa before his family moved to New York in 1998, when he was seven years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018<\/a>. While it\u2019s true that Trump\u2019s Justice Department is moving aggressively to strip citizenship from naturalized immigrants<\/a> \u2014 there are some 25 million living in the country \u2014 and the administration even wants to block the constitutional right of birthright citizenship<\/a>, Mamdani is a legal resident, plain and simple. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe president of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cNot because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE<\/a> terrorize our city.\u201d He called Trump\u2019s comments \u201can attack on democracy\u201d that menaced New Yorkers, adding, \u201cWe will not accept this intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tHe does not have any connection to 9\/11 or jihadist terrorism <\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MAGA right responded to Mamdani\u2019s primary victory with a blitz of Islamaphobic fury<\/a> that had nothing to do with anything he has ever said or done, as a politician or otherwise. Donald Trump Jr.<\/a> shared<\/a> an X post that suggested New Yorkers were \u201cvoting for\u201d another 9\/11<\/a>. Rep. Nancy Mace<\/a> posted a photo<\/a> of Mamdani attending an Eid service at the Parkchester Islamic Center in the Bronx with the caption: \u201cAfter 9\/11 we said \u2018Never Forget.\u2019 I think we sadly have forgotten.\u201d Commentators Charlie Kirk and Benny Johnson also invoked<\/a> the specter of the 9\/11 attacks<\/a> \u2014 which occurred when Mamdani was nine years old and living in New York himself. He has no connection to the terror plot and has never expressed support for it or the extremist group Al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tLikewise, there is no basis to claims from Trump zealots, including Laura Loomer<\/a>, that Mamdani is a \u201cjihadist Muslim\u201d or has ties to Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood and can be arrested on terrorism charges<\/a>. Insinuations that he would impose Sharia law on New York \u2014 as from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>, who posted an AI<\/a>-generated image of the Statue of Liberty wearing a black burka \u2014 also lack any grounding in reality. All in all, these are just a rehash of the xenophobic outbursts that dominated cable news in the aftermath of 9\/11 itself and eventually mutated into birther and \u201csecret Muslim\u201d conspiracy theories about Barack Hussein Obama<\/a>. Which, not incidentally, launched Trump\u2019s political career.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMamdani has meanwhile faced criticism for certain lyrics from his years as a rapper in the 2010s<\/a>. On \u201cSalaam,\u201d a track he released as his MC persona Mr. Cardamom, he shouted out his support for the so-called \u201cHoly Land Five,\u201d Palestinian-American organizers for what was at one point the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. The group was convicted in 2008 of providing material support to the militant group Hamas<\/a>, designated as a terrorist organization. The advocacy group Human Rights Watch has argued<\/a> that the defendants in the landmark War on Terror case \u201cwere never accused of directly funding terrorist organizations or terrorist attacks, nor were the Palestinian charities they funded accused of doing so,\u201d and other civil rights attorneys have found significant fault<\/a> with how the charges were prosecuted. <\/p>\n

\t\tMamdani hasn\u2019t actually said or done anything antisemitic<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the primary race tightened, Cuomo appealed to New York\u2019s significant Jewish population by telegraphing strong support for Israel<\/a> and arguing that antisemitism was a defining issue of this election cycle<\/a> \u2014 as if to suggest his leading opponent harbored some innate loathing for Jews. After Mamdani won, prominent Democrats offered baffling remarks in the same vein. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) appeared on CNN to declare<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t associate myself with what he has said about the Jewish people,\u201d though he failed to specify anything offensive Mamdani had supposedly said. In an even more outrageous incident, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) responded positively to caller during a radio interview who ranted about fictional \u201cthreats facing the Jewish community from Zohran Mamdani,\u201d with the senator going as far as to imply that Mamdani had supported \u201cglobal jihad.\u201d (Her office later said she \u201cmisspoke<\/a>,\u201d and Gillibrand apologized to Mamdani<\/a> during a phone call Monday night.) On social media, Elisha Wiesel, the son of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, shared<\/a> a video<\/a> in which he urged New Yorkers not to vote for Mamdani, after showing footage of Adolf Hitler and Nazi concentration camps.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe claims of antisemitism seem focused around his stance on Israel: Mamdani cofounded a chapter of the activist group Students for Justice for Palestine at his college, and has advocated for equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians in Israel, as well as an end to the war in Gaza. When confronted with questions about why he had not co-sponsored an annual New York state Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution, he answered that he had\u00a0voted for the symbolic measure every year<\/a>, and backed the allocation of more funds to survivors. He said his office had a\u00a0blanket policy<\/a>\u00a0of not signing resolutions emailed to his office. Since taking office in 2021, he has also made public statements commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day each year.<\/p>\n

\n\tMany Jewish New Yorkers supported Mamdani\u2019s run, organized on his behalf, and endorsed him, including the city\u2019s highest-ranking Jewish politician, Comptroller Brad Lander, who condemned Cuomo for the \u201cweaponization of antisemitism<\/a>.\u201d Mamdani, meanwhile, used his candidacy to speak about the threat posed by rising antisemitism and his plans to increase city funding to combat hate crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe did not call to \u2018globalize the intifada\u2019<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the ongoing attempts to portray Mamdani as an Islamist extremist, one phrase has become a sticking point. During a June appearance on The Bulwark podcast FYPod a week before the primary election, Mamdani was asked if he was \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with the slogan \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d usually interpreted as a call to make Palestinian liberation a worldwide movement through a mass uprising against Israeli oppression. The word \u201cintifada,\u201d which in a more literal translation means \u201cto shake off,\u201d or \u201cstruggle,\u201d has also been used to describe violent rebellion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo me, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights,\u201d Mamdani said, remarking that it would be Trumpian to try to police such language. \u201cAs a Muslim man who grew up post-9\/11, I\u2019m 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross social media, this exchange was indeed twisted by right-wing media<\/a> to push the falsehood that Mamdani had personally called to \u201cglobalize the intifada.\u201d Then, on a Meet the Press appearance Sunday, he repeatedly declined to condemn the phrase in an interview when host Kristen Welker brought it up. \u201cThat\u2019s not language that I used,\u201d Mamdani said<\/a>, truthfully. \u201cThe language that I used and the language that I will continue to use to lead the city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights.\u201d Nonetheless, that same day, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared to indicate that he incorrectly believed Mamdani had used the phrase, saying<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.\u201d Jeffries, whose congressional district encompasses several Brooklyn neighborhoods, has yet to endorse a mayoral candidate.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe\u2019s not a communist<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt hardly matters what your actual politics are if you run as a Democrat and Trump has his sights on you: He\u2019s going to call you a communist<\/a>. If a lifelong centrist like Joe Biden<\/a> couldn\u2019t escape the label<\/a>, what hope does a young progressive have? Sure enough, Trump trashed<\/a> Mamdani as a \u201c100% Communist Lunatic\u201d on Truth Social as soon as it became clear that he had run away with the primary. \u201cWe\u2019ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,\u201d the president fumed. Other conservatives followed suit, denouncing Mamdani as a would-be authoritarian far to the left of Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a cheap scare tactic, the Communist Boogeyman line is far older than Trump himself, and Mamdani\u2019s promises to expand childcare and fight for a $30 minimum wage don\u2019t exactly sound like a vision for some Stalinist dystopia. He is not aiming for government takeovers of private industry and property<\/a>, and his proposed taxes on the top one percent are meant to subsidize social programs in a way that resembles socialism as it exists in various European countries. His criticism of wealth inequality \u2014 he has said \u201cI don\u2019t think we should have billionaires<\/a>\u201d \u2014 does not define him as a communist.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo, I am not,\u201d Mamdani said<\/a> in his Sunday interview on Meet the Press, in response to Trump calling him a communist. \u201cI have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I\u2019m from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I\u2019m fighting for. I\u2019m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s now official: New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,18462,28052,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,19500,277,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-33650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-islamophobia","10":"tag-misinformation","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-racism","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114785880836611328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}