Mamdani forced to clarify viral story after social media comes with questions
New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani offered up a clarification on Monday about an anecdote that sparked controversy on social media related to an anecdote he told about his “aunt” not using the subway in New York City due to post-9/11 Islamophobia.
“I was speaking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who passed away a few years ago,” Mamdani told reporters on Monday, using the term “fuhi” which the New York Post reported means paternal aunt in Hindi and Urdu, after social media users had raised questions about the veracity of his story.
“I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” Mamdani, fighting back tears, told a crowd on Oct. 24 while outlining his concerns about Islamophobia and suggesting that criticisms of his anti-Israel positions are rooted in a disdain toward his Muslim faith.
Shortly after that clip hit the internet, a wave of criticism hit from conservatives and internet sleuths who poked holes in the story and suggested Mamdani had embellished it, pointing to his one direct biological aunt, Dr. Masuma Mamdani, listing on her LinkedIn that she worked and presumably lived in Tanzania from January 2000 to December 2003. Additionally, publicly available photos of Masuma Mamdani don’t show her wearing a hijab.
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The controversy reached the White House in the form of a post on X from Vice President JD Vance who expressed skepticism about the story.
“According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks,” the vice president wrote.
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Mamdani’s father Mahmood, who Zohran Mamdani says is the cousin of the deceased aunt, has faced criticism during the campaign for his past controversial statements as a professor at Columbia University, including a claim that Hitler was inspired by Abraham Lincoln, which resurfaced on social media in recent days.
Mahmood Mamdani also sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts and sanctions of Israel, and routinely accuses the Israeli government of committing “genocide”, Fox News Digital reported this summer.
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“Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” the elder Mamdani 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.”
Zohran Mamdani has pushed back in recent days against critics of his various anti-Israel policies and statements dating back to his time in college and suggested that those criticisms are rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry.
“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker,” Mamdani posted on X on Friday with a video that was viewed at least 24 million times. “And yet, for too long, we have been told to ask for less than that, and endure hatred and bigotry in the shadows. No more.”
School shooting conspiracy uncovered after trans teen built ‘shrine’ to mass murderers
A transgender high school student in Indiana accused of plotting a Valentine’s Day mass shooting has reached a plea deal, pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Trinity J. Shockley, 18, was charged in February in Morgan Superior Court with conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of intimidation to commit terrorism.
Shockley identifies as a transgender male and often goes by Jamie or Dex, according to authorities.
Court records show a plea agreement was filed Friday, with a hearing held Monday where Shockley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, a Level 2 felony. The two intimidation charges were dropped under the deal. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 24 at 10:15 a.m.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Morgan County Prosecutor’s Office for comment on the matter.
Under Indiana law, a person convicted of a Level 2 felony faces between 10 and 30 years in prison. The Indianapolis Star reported that Shockley’s attorney requested a sentence of no more than 12.5 years in prison and up to five years of probation.
As part of probation, Shockley must meet with mental health professionals, is prohibited from searching for school-shooting content and is barred from entering Morgan County school properties.
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Authorities said Shockley’s alleged plan to attack Mooresville High School was uncovered when the FBI in Indianapolis received a tip and contacted the Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department. The FBI later said it “swiftly coordinated” with local officials to investigate.
The tip indicated that Shockley planned a shooting, had access to an AR-15 rifle and had ordered a bulletproof vest. It also said Shockley was infatuated with Nikolas Cruz, who carried out the 2018 Parkland school shooting on Valentine’s Day.
A search of Shockley’s home by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department revealed a “shrine” to recent mass shooters, including Cruz, Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a Charleston church, and Ethan Crumbley, who carried out the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. Court documents said Shockley also kept a photo album and buttons featuring the shooters’ faces.
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Investigators found notebooks in which Shockley identified as “Dex… a transgender male [who has] a lot of homicidal thoughts.”
“These thoughts never seem to stop, you may believe that I am some edgelord, but in reality, I am just a loser,” Shockley wrote in a Dec. 16, 2024 entry, according to court documents. “I am grateful for my chance to live but in reality, I am scared of living. Is it the government you ask? No. It is this sad reality of living with piece(s) of s—… I hope whoever reads this takes acknowledgment and maybe use it for your massacre. :)”
In January, Shockley wrote about wanting to harm others and said people needed to be “killed” and “wiped away from humanity.”
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Authorities also uncovered Discord and Snapchat messages where Shockley, using the handle “Crazy Nikolaz,” described plans for “Parkland part two” and said, “I’ll be honest. I’m close to shooting mine up. I have an AR-15.”
Investigators said Shockley planned to carry out the attack at lunchtime “because that would present the most target-rich environment.”
According to court documents, Shockley later told police the plan was a joke.
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“[Shockley] stated that [Shockley] wanted to recreate [what] Cruz did, but [Shockley] would never do anything like that,” the documents said. “It was said out of rage. [Shockley] is trying to get help with it. [Shockley] wanted to be in home school because of how bad the thoughts got…”
Shockley also told police about being bullied after being hit by a suspected drunk driver in September 2022. The crash left Shockley with a fractured skull and brain injuries, according to a WRTV report.
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Detectives wrote that Shockley had sought mental health support from the school district, but the request was denied by Shockley’s father, who “did not believe in mental health treatment,” according to a school official.
MMA competitor cites Bible verse in stunning reversal in support for Trump
Controversial UFC fighter Bryce Mitchell appeared to change his tune when it came to President Donald Trump.
Mitchell, who has previously made antisemitic remarks when it comes to the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler, labeled Trump the “Antichrist” in a bewildering rant posted to his Instagram account on Friday.
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“I do not like the guy at all,” Mitchell said. “The first thing for me was he didn’t release the Epstein files. They’re even acting like they didn’t exist. And, of course, they’re sending Israel and Ukraine all of our tax dollars just like the numb-nuts before him did. Putting America last, and now he’s blaming the beef farmers for the price of beef. Hey, I’m not biased, man. He talked a good game, he tricked me. I was fooled. I admit it.
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“Now, let me tell you how bad I think this is though. This is really this bad, guys. I want y’all, if you’re a Christian, I want you to get into Revelation 13:3, and I want you to read that verse — yeah, about the Antichrist, about the one who was fatally wounded in the head; then he was miraculously healed and the whole world marveled at him and said, ‘No man can make war with him.’ Yeah, I do think that Donald Trump is that beast of Revelation 13:3. Yeah, go read it. Go read it.”
Mitchell said last year he would “take a bullet” for Trump as the president was campaigning against then-Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House. However, he labeled Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a possible Antichrist figure as well.
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He said in 2019 he would beat up politicians for Trump.
Super Bowl champion who delivered NFL’s most feared hits passes away at 78
George Atkinson, a Super Bowl champion and a member of the Raiders’ “Soul Patrol” secondary in the 1970s, has died, the team announced on Monday. He was 78.
Atkinson played for the Raiders from 1968 to 1977 and had a season with the Denver Broncos before he retired from the NFL. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and the 1968 American Football League Defensive Rookie of the Year.
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The Raiders’ organization mourned the loss in a statement.
“The Raiders Family is deeply saddened by the passing of George Atkinson, a life-long Raider whose physical style of play helped define an era of football,” the team said. “Selected by the Raiders in the seventh round of the 1968 Draft out of Morris Brown, George burst onto the pro football scene as an exciting defensive back and explosive returner, earning back-to-back AFL All-Star selections in his first two seasons.
“He later anchored the defense as a part of the famed ‘Soul Patrol’ secondary of the 1970s, helping lead the Raiders to unprecedented success as the Silver and Black advanced to five consecutive AFC Championship Games and won Super Bowl XI following the 1976 season. George’s contributions as a friend and mentor to everyone in the Raiders organization continued long after his playing career, and his genuine personality and wonderful sense of humor will be dearly missed by everyone who knew him. The prayers of the Raider Nation are with Denise, Brittany, Maya, Angela, Craig, and the entire Atkinson family at this time.”
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Atkinson’s two Pro Bowl selections came in the first two years of his pro career. He had four interceptions in his rookie season and two more in 1969.
He finished his career with 30 interceptions and two touchdowns in 144 games.
In 1976, the Raiders defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. Atkinson had six tackles in the game.
Atkinson was known for his fierce play on the field and delivering some of the biggest hits to his opponents. He and Jack Tatum were fearsome opponents for any offense.
“We never go out on the field with the intention of trying to hurt anyone but we go out with intentions of getting our jobs done,” Atkinson said at the time. “If you don’t want to get hit, it’s best not to show up when we play Sunday. I guarantee you will get hit.”
One of the most memorable hits came in the 1975 AFC Championship and the 1976 season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He knocked Lynn Swann out of both games.
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Then-Steelers coach Chuck Noll referred to Atkinson as part of the “criminal element” in the NFL after the second hit. Atkinson sued Noll for defamation but lost the suit.
DHS says ICE nabbed violent illegal alien that spent 21 years ‘ignoring America’s laws’
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a criminal illegal alien who is accused of assaulting a police officer and has repeatedly re-entered the U.S. after being deported.
Officials say Carlos Ramirez-Guzman, an El Salvadoran national, was arrested on Oct. 17 in Arlington, Virginia. He was previously deported in 2006, 2014 and 2016, yet managed to re-enter at an unknown time and place, evading inspection, admission or parole by immigration authorities.
In addition to his felony charge of reentering the U.S., officials say Ramirez-Guzman has amassed an “extensive criminal history” over the past two decades.
His alleged crimes include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer and resisting, obstructing or opposing an officer. He also faces charges of domestic battery, exhibition of a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct.
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“Carlos Ramirez-Guzman racked up an extensive criminal history over the last 21 years he has spent ignoring America’s laws,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“Not only has this man been removed from our country on THREE previous occasions, but he also has a violent criminal history of assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, domestic battery, and resisting arrest.”
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McLaughlin emphasized that Ramirez-Guzman’s long-running crime spree will finally come to an end under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
“GOOD RIDDANCE, you are not welcome in this country,” she added.
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Ramirez-Guzman will remain in ICE custody pending his removal from the United States.
In a post on social media, ICE also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service for assisting with the operation.
Tom Hanks celebrates wife Rita Wilson’s birthday by sharing photo of her in bathing suit
Tom Hanks is celebrating his beloved wife, Rita Wilson.
On Sunday, the Academy Award-winning actor took to social media to give his wife of 37 years a shout-out on her 69th birthday.
“This beautiful woman celebrates her birthday TODAY,” Hanks wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of Wilson smiling while wearing a bathing suit. “She is beloved by her husband.”
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Hanks added Wilson’s 2025 song “W.O.W. (Wild Ol’ Woman),” as a soundtrack to the post.
Fans were quick to share their praise for Wilson on social media.
“Looking pretty damn good, Rita, beautiful,” one fan commented on social media.
“You look awesome!” another wrote.
Hanks and Wilson have been together for 40 years, married for 37 and share two children together, Chet Hanks and Truman Hanks. The Oscar winner also has two children from a previous relationship, Colin Hanks and Elizabeth Hanks.
In 2023, they joked about the secret to their marital success with Fox News Digital.
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“Talking about it. Always letting the press know, that there is a secret, and we bottled it,” Hanks said, of what keeps his relationship with Wilson going.
Wilson couldn’t contain her laughter as Hanks joked, adding, “We’re not gonna tell anyone.”
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During an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in 2020, Wilson said she and Hanks — who met in 1981 while co-starring on “Bosom Buddies” — got along instantly.
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“First of all, I love a good storyteller. So anybody who could tell a good story, I’m down with that,” she said. “I love that. He makes me laugh all the time. He’s a great storyteller.”
SBA administrator says shutdown is having Democrats’ ‘intended effect’
Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler says Democrats are having a “disgraceful moment” as the government shutdown reaches what she calls liberals’ intended effect of hurting small businesses.
The federal government approached its fifth week of a shutdown after lawmakers failed to advance the continuing resolution a dozen times, according to a previous report. Disagreements over Obamacare remain at the forefront, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats push to extend expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, while Republicans say the issue should be addressed after the government reopens.
“Prior to this shutdown, as of September, small business confidence hit a seven-year-high, not since President Trump’s first term had small businesses felt so confident in the economy,” Loeffler told “Kudlow” on Monday. “That’s all thanks to President Trump’s economic agenda, which, by the way, is a supply-side agenda. … It’s free and fair trade. It’s low taxes. It’s deregulation. It’s access to capital.
“Because of their confidence, in 2025, the fiscal year we just wrapped up 27 days ago, the SBA broke through a 72-year lending record, surpassing $45 billion to 85,000 small businesses across this country,” she continued. “They were quite bullish heading into this shutdown, but look, this shutdown is having the intended effect by the Democrats. They want to hurt Main Street and that’s what they’re trying to do right now.”
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Loeffler, who told FOX Business the shutdown has “real economic consequences,” criticized Democrats for trying to “inflict pain” on “Main Street.”
“It’s $15 billion a week,” she explained. “It’s shaving one to two tenths of a percent off GDP. It’s 43,000 jobs lost in a month, potentially, according to the CEA. And where do those expenses that lost $15 billion come from, the 43,000 jobs? From Main Street, from small businesses, who 20% say that they rely on federal government workers as their customers or federal agencies or federal contracting.”
Loeffler says she has agreed with DOGE since day one and revealed the agency has taken down its headcount by about 52%.
“We have done more with less, just like a small business would do, and we’re going to continue to look for efficiencies because just like any private sector company, you can see the headlines over the weekend, large companies having layoffs saying, ‘Actually, we do better with fewer employees. We created too much complexity. We need to ensure that we’re efficient,'” she said.
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Democrats want big government that “stifles small business” and “crowds out innovation,” Loeffler argued.
“It’s important that we continue on with the DOGE efforts and being accountable to taxpayers,” she explained. “That’s what I’m going to do at the end of the year. I’m going to show taxpayers how accountable we were in this agency with their hard-earned tax dollars.”
Megan Fox turns heads in blood-inspired gown while revealing her ‘unhinged’ Hollywood past
Megan Fox made a striking return to the spotlight as she showed off a sultry, blood-inspired look at a special screening of her 2009 cult-favorite horror movie “Jennifer’s Body.”
The 39-year-old actress turned heads in a nude corset gown adorned with crimson gem embellishments shaped like droplets, creating the appearance of dripping blood.
The gems dangled from Fox’s lace-up bodice, which featured scarlet boning and a sweetheart neckline. The jewels were also scattered across the dress’s sheer tulle skirt, which had an asymmetrical, high-slit design showcasing her legs.
Fox accessorized with a matching red choker necklace and wore nude-toned transparent heels.
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The “Till Death” star styled her hair down in loose waves and her makeup included smoky eyeliner, peach blush and glossy nude lipstick.
Fox completed her glamorous gothic look with a blood-red manicure and a dark crimson pedicure.
The actress’s outing marked one of her first public appearances since giving birth to her daughter Saga Blade in March. Fox shares Saga with her ex-fiancé Machine Gun Kelly, 35. She is also mother to sons Noah, 13, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, 9, whom she shares with her ex-husband Brian Austin Green, 52.
Fox’s ensemble paid tribute to her bloodthirsty character in “Jennifer’s Body.” She played Jennifer Check, a high school cheerleader who becomes possessed by a demonic force after a local rock band sacrifices her in a failed satanic ritual meant to make them famous.
Jennifer then develops a taste for human flesh and begins seducing and killing teenage boys. Amanda Seyfried played Jennifer’s best friend Needy Lesnicki, who slowly realizes what is happening and tries to stop her.
During a Q&A session after the screening, Fox opened up about her struggles after skyrocketing to fame when she starred in the 2007 hit action movie “Transformers.”
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While reflecting on the advice that she would give her younger self ahead of filming “Jennifer’s Body,” Fox recalled that at the time she was enraged over her treatment by the industry and overwhelmed by the relentless pursuit of the paparazzi.
“Oh, I don’t know that I would give myself advice. I think where I was at that point in my life, so lost, so full of that rage that I had towards how I had been treated in the industry,” Fox said, according to People magazine.
“And how I was dealing with fame and the constant… at that time, before we started filming,” she added.
Fox recounted one instance in which she was taunted by a group of “ruthless” paparazzi after attending a premiere.
“I just left a premiere for something where I had to go — I’m obligated to go — and I remember the paparazzi were so ruthless back then — the way they would talk to women,” Fox remembered.
“And I walked out just to try to get to my car, and they’re all shooting,” she continued. “And one guy’s like, ‘Megan, why are you such a b—-?’ And another guy is like, ‘Megan, do you think you’re overrated? The internet says so,’ and I’m just trying to do my job.”
“I was asked to be at this premiere. I’m trying to get to my car. And so I had all of this grief and sorrow and also anger and rage that needed a place to go,” Fox continued. “And like I said, being able to just have the permission to be unhinged even in between takes or maybe the entire time we were there, that was very cathartic for me.”
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According to People, Fox was reflecting on a moment from earlier at the event in which she explained how she related to Jennifer and how portraying her helped uncover parts of herself she hadn’t previously explored.
“I read the script and I think it just resonated with me because there’s something about that, whether it’s just perceived or not, I felt like I was being persecuted at that time in my career, and I was struggling a lot with fame and kind of traumatized by fame,” she recalled.
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“And so I resonated with those deeper layers of… you know, before she becomes a monster, she’s just a teenage girl who gets sacrificed for somebody else’s gain,” Fox continued. “And that very much resonated because that’s kind of how I got… I came into this industry, I think I was 19 when I made my first big movie, and that, I felt like, was reflecting back these energies that existed inside of myself.”
Fox said that playing the role of the demon-possessed high school girl “also gave me a place to put those qualities of myself that are really unhinged, that are not appropriate to express every day of your life, but are still there nonetheless.”
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“And so there was something so fun about getting to tap into that darker feminine energy that no one really wants to allow,” she continued.
“That was very healing for me,” Fox said, per People. “Because I was really struggling at that time. And if I had been able to warn myself or give myself advice or have any sort of grounding or clarity, I don’t think you would’ve gotten the performance that you got.”
How Soros cash, socialists and radical imams fueled shocking political ascent
In late September 2017, Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour, once the darling of the Women’s March and the self-declared face of the “resistance” against Donald Trump, was facing mounting criticism for antisemitic remarks and her embrace of extremist views.
But, beaming in a photograph taken on a city sidewalk, Sarsour appeared unfazed, her iconic fist pumped in the air as she knelt shoulder-to-shoulder with campaign volunteers for City Council candidate Khader El-Yateem. The photo was posted by El-Yateem on the Facebook page he used to promote his campaign, which he lost, but among the smiling faces was a young organizer named Zohran Mamdani.
That photo would mark the start of a carefully constructed political project that, in less than a decade, would propel a now-34-year-old socialist newcomer to the precipice of running America’s largest city – even while campaigning with radical imams, some of whom have supported terrorists and terrorist financiers.
A Fox Digital investigation reveals that Mamdani’s rise was no accident. It was engineered.
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A database of 110 groups backing Mamdani exposes a tight inner circle of organizations that identify as Muslim or socialist, working hand-in-glove with 76 Democratic Party affiliates, allied groups and unions. Particularly important in this political machine are two networks – Sarsour’s MPower organizations and another constellation of groups called Emgage, with which she works closely.
The organizations have been generously funded. In total, billionaire George Soros’ Open Society philanthropies have given MPower and Emgage nearly $2.5 million in recent years, according to tax filings.
“We fund a range of civil society organizations that work to deepen civic engagement through peaceful democratic participation, counter discrimination including against Muslim Americans and advance human rights,” a spokesperson for Open Society Foundations told Fox News Digital. “The grants that you cite all occurred years before the mayoral race, and we are a nonpartisan organization that does not fund political candidates and their campaigns.”
Mamdani, Sarsour and the groups supporting Mamdani’s campaign didn’t return requests for comment.
MPower and Emgage have been part of a tight inner circle of 30 ethnic and religious groups, that also includes CAIR Action, the 501(c)(4) political wing of the 501(c)(3) Council on American-Islamic Relations nonprofit, the Islamic Circle of North America,“ “Muslim Action Coalition,” Yemeni American Merchants Associations Inc., the “Bangladeshi American Advocacy Group” and “Desis Rising Up and Moving.” They have pumped up Mamdani’s campaign with social media campaigns, canvassing, voters and buzz.
Altogether, they have annual revenues of about $24 million, and they have worked to promote Mamdani’s campaign with endorsements, fund-raising, social media campaigns and canvassing.
The result: a carefully constructed political career that mainstreams the socialist goals long embraced by Sarsour and fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
It’s a machine that is expressing itself in races from New York to Virginia, Minnesota, Texas and California with MPower and Emgage aligning with the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party to propel candidates who may share their views. In a campaign called “Defend and Advance,” Emgage SuperPac is pushing Mamdani and Democratic Virginia Lt. Governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi as its “star candidates.”
Emgage’s “Defend and Advance” roster of supported candidates and office holders includes Dearborn, Mich., Mayor Abdullah Hammoud.
“I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud recently told a Christian pastor who objected to a proposal to name a street in honor of a local man who had allegedly praised terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. “And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.”
Emgage’s donations include $175,000 from a group little-noticed by political observers but important in Islamist circles: Sterling Charitable Gift Fund, based in Herndon, Va. It is part of a network of groups that FBI agents raided in 2002 as part of wider investigations into the funding of Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas. Federal prosecutors ultimately didn’t file criminal charges against any officials at Sterling Charitable Gift Fund.
MEET MAMDANI’S RADICAL ADVISORY CIRCLE THAT INCLUDES COMMUNIST ACTIVIST, ANTI-ISRAEL ADVOCATES
Over almost a decade, Sarsour and her allies have orchestrated a network of well-financed and tightly connected socialist activists, radical imams, political organizers and nonprofit organizations funded with millions of dollars by major philanthropies, including Foundation to Promote Open Society, the Ford Foundation, Macarthur Foundation and the Tides Foundation.
The confluence of big philanthropy, partisan operatives and clerical authority has helped drive Mamdani’s ascent. Its architecture combines nonprofit activism with faith-based politics and the precision of a professional campaign operation.
“To the casual observer, Zohran Mamdani’s rise might appear meteoric – a story of grassroots energy and demographic change in America’s largest city,” said Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American Muslim who is running against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, with Omar supported by the same kind of political machine being unleashed to propel Mamdani to office.
“The data, the money trail and the affiliations, from the Democratic Socialists of America to the Islamists, tells a different story.”
“Mamdani’s ascent is the product of deliberate design: a sophisticated collaboration between socialist activism and Islamist organizing, lubricated by millions in foundation grants and political donations and normalized through a revolving door of political operatives and nonprofits who embrace Islamists, the destruction of the state of Israel and hostilities to the police, the U.S. and the West,” Al-Aqidi said.
The timeline of Mamdani’s rise tracks precisely with the growth of this network. In 2012, as a student at Bowdoin College, in Maine, he cofounded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus organization known for its rabid anti-Israel activism. By 2017, he was canvassing for El-Yateem’s campaign with Sarsour’s mentorship.
In 2018, Mamdani formally entered Sarsour’s orbit through the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, an organization she co-founded in 2013 to mobilize Muslim voters and elect progressive Democrats to local office. The Muslim Democratic Club of New York served as both incubator and amplifier for Sarsour’s political brand, one that fused progressive politics with an explicitly Islamist social identity. By December 2018, Mamdani joined the board, in an announcement in which the group said, “Help build Muslim power across the city with us!”
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With his new role, Mamdani gained access to an emerging infrastructure of influence: voter lists, donor networks and organizing muscle that would later power his campaign to a seat on the New York General Assembly. The Muslim Democratic Club endorsed Mamdani.
Around that time, Sarsour was building her own empire, founding MPower Change as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit housed at Neo Philanthropy Inc. Public filings show MPower Change took in at least $2.4 million between 2017 and 2024, the latest year available, with Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society giving her organization $1.125 million and the Macarthur Foundation funneling her $450,000. It would become a flagship digital organizing hub for not just Sarsour but Mamdani.
Meanwhile, Emgage Action was expanding its footprint nationally. Also backed by the Open Society network, Emgage Action received a share of $42.5 million that Soros’ foundations pledged to Muslim, Arab and South Asian civic groups beginning in 2021. It has received $1.8 million from the Open Society Policy Center and another $1.35 million from the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Together, MPower Change and Emgage created an unprecedented financial and political ecosystem, leveraging big philanthropy’s dollars and digital strategy to elevate candidates like Mamdani under the banner of Muslim empowerment.
In 2020, Mamdani won his first election to the New York State Assembly, with Sarsour’s explicit endorsement and fundraising help.
By 2020, Mamdani was being featured in Sarsour’s #MyMuslimVote summit, promoted by MPower Change as the face of a new generation of unapologetic Muslim progressives. By this year, his campaign for mayor became the culmination of that project — backed by PAC money, boosted by clerical endorsements and legitimized by an activist ecosystem that had spent a decade grooming him for this very moment.
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To push Mamdani toward the helm of the nation’s biggest city, the network extended far beyond activist circles. Central to Mamdani’s political ascent was a series of carefully cultivated relationships with clerics with some troubling views.
In January, Mamdani courted Imam Muhammad Al-Barr of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, visiting his mosque just months after Al-Barr had publicly prayed to “annihilate” Israel.
In May, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the longtime imam of Brooklyn’s Masjid At-Taqwa, personally donated $1,000 to the Unity and Justice Fund. More recently, Mamdani met with Wahhaj and called him “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community.”
Wahhaj, who served as a character witness in the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” later convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has a long history of calling for the exploitation of America’s democracy to further a conquest for Islam.
“You don’t get in politics because it’s the American thing to do,” he said in a videotaped 1991 sermon. “You get involved in politics because politics can be a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.”
Wahhaj has also denounced the U.S. government as “controlled by Shaitan,” the Arabic word for the devil, urged Muslims not to befriend “non-believers,” condemned homosexuality as “a disease of this society,” and supported Islamic laws that punish sex outside of marriage with 100 lashes and stoning. In 2011, Wahhaj urged Muslims to donate to the legal defense of the since-convicted Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist dubbed “Lady Al Qaeda” for attempting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Over the years, Wahhaj’s sermons have praised “jihad” without “a gun,” called for an Islamic America governed by sharia law and urged the creation of an “army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
Other imams now backing Mamdani’s mayoral run have also been controversial. Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, a cleric leading the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, co-founded the Muslim Alliance in North America, alongside Wahhaj. In 2005, Abdur-Rashid publicly defended Rafiq Sabir, an American doctor who joined al Qaeda and was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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In 2008, Abdur-Rashid defended Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian American professor whom the U.S. later deported to Turkey for “conspiring to provide services” to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Still in the U.S., Al-Arian’s wife joined the anti-Israel encampments at Columbia University.
In September, Mamdani appeared as the special guest speaker at Abdur-Rashid’s annual gala. A month earlier, Muslim Association of North America’s social media featured Abdur-Rashid visiting Wahhaj’s mosque, underscoring the continued collaboration between the two imams.
In Manhattan, Imam Khalid Latif, the executive director of the Islamic Center at New York University, has been another prominent Mamdani backer. Latif publicly endorsed Mamdani on Facebook in June, calling him “a bearer of compassion in a time where it is far too rare.”
In 2012, Latif led a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia that included Omar Mateen, who would later murder 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest anti-LGBTQ attack in U.S. history. He has denied radicalizing Mateen and he hasn’t faced the same type of allegations that surround the other imams.
For many Muslim political organizations backing Mamdani, these clerics are not liabilities but assets, serving as trusted gatekeepers to the city’s growing community of Muslim voters.
After Mamdani visited Wahhaj’s mosque earlier this month, he tweeted out a photo of the two with the caption: “Pleasure to meet Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders.” When a firestorm ensued, several allies rose to his defense: Sarsour, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the leaders at Emgage Action.
Sarsour shared a selfie with Mamdani, beaming, like they did back in 2017, and wrote, “May Allah continue to bless and protect you.”
A defiant Wa’el Alzayat, the executive director of Emgage Action, sent out a dispatch to followers on Tuesday, amid criticism for their political work, promising, “We are in this for the long haul.”
Back in Minnesota, Al-Aqidi closely watched the defense of Mamdani.
“For over a decade, Linda Sarsour and her network of allies have built the Mamdani machine piece by piece: the institutions, the donors, the narratives and now, the candidate. There was no way they were going to throw him under the bus for one photo with one imam whom they happen to love,” said Al-Aqidi. “Mamdani is the fresh face of a radical coalition, and I hope New Yorkers will reject him. Win or lose, one fact remains undeniable. His rise was not spontaneous. It was engineered and the machinery behind it is only getting stronger.”
Al-Aqidi said; “I hope New Yorkers will shut the Mamdani machine down.”