NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing furious backlash after breaking his Ramadan fast with Muslim jailbirds on notorious Rikers Island \u2013 and describing it one of his \u201cmost meaningful\u00a0evenings\u201d since taking office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a night that will stay with me for quite some time,\u201d the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor gushed Friday on X about his <\/a>under the radar and historic visit on Monday, which by Saturday sparked a firestorm of outrage. <\/p>\n NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani ignited his latest political firestorm this week by breaking his Ramadan fast with Muslim jailbirds on notorious Rikers Island \u2013 and dubbing it one of the \u201cmost meaningful\u00a0evenings\u201d he\u2019s experienced since taking office. NYCMayor\/X<\/p>\n \u201cPeople sharing what little they have: breaking bread, offering prayer, making space for one another\u2019s dignity even in the hardest place,\u201d he continued, posting photos alongside Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards, gladhanding with dozens of detainees as they gobbled packaged meals for iftar, the breaking of the fast.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the first time a NYC mayor has celebrated Ramadan at Rikers. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the most meaningful evenings that I\u2019ve had as the mayor of New York City,\u201d the soft-on-crime socialist pol told NPR earlier in the week.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cThis is me just being a Muslim New Yorker,\u201d said Mamdani, who has made a point to emphasize and promote his Muslim identity as mayor. \u201cAnd I think there are some for whom that is a political act, and there are a million or so of us here in this city for whom it is simply a day-to-day existence.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani marked the occasion by reiterating a campaign pledge to shutter the city-run, scandal-scarred Rikers Island jail complex, and by praying and breaking fast with Muslim men. NYCMayor\/X<\/p>\n Critics bashed the mayor\u2019s visit \u2014 one of the 17 iftar dinners he attended across NYC through Thursday \u2014 as shameless pandering.<\/p>\n \u201cHe actually visited inmates on Rikers but hasn\u2019t visited any victims of the heinous crimes some of these guys have committed,\u201d said an NYPD veteran of 20 years. \u201cI think it\u2019s absolutely disgusting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe clearly know he doesn\u2019t like us. He\u2019s already made his stance clear on that. Even after we get clear extensive video of the guy trying to knife the police officers in Queens, he visited the criminal\u2019s family in that case too!,\u201d raged the police veteran.<\/p>\n He was referring to Mamdani last month visiting the family of\u00a0Jabez Chakraborty<\/a>, the man shot by a police officer in Queens as he attacked the cop and his partner with a 13-inch carving knife.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can go visit the inmates at Rikers, but he can\u2019t go visit a cop who gets injured?\u00a0That\u2019s not right,\u201d said another law enforcement source, referring to cops\u00a0hurt earlier this month responding to an ISIS-inspired attempted terrorist attack<\/a> outside the mayor\u2019s home at Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think next year there\u2019ll be nobody to visit because he\u2019s going to let everybody out of jail. Maybe he was going there to tell them we\u2019re reducing everybody\u2019s sentences,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n Dozens of packaged meals were set up for Rikers Island detainees Monday as they joined Mamdani in an iftar dinner. NYCMayor\/X<\/p>\n