The man who is most likely to be the next mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, makes no secret of his support for the Islamic jihad against Israel. He has made that clear in numerous contexts, most notoriously in his repeated refusals to condemn the phrase “Globalize the Intifada,” which refers to two instances of the large-scale killing of Israeli civilians in the past. “Globalize the Intifada” means to take the murders of Jewish civilians worldwide. That’s what Zohran Mamdani is refusing to condemn. Israel, however, is not the only target of Islamic jihadis that Mamdani has come out against.
Mamdani really doesn’t make a secret of where he stands. He’s pro-jihad, at least against Israel and India. Much of this support is couched within his posturing about how Muslims are supposedly routinely victimized in the United States. During a campaign stop at a mosque, Mamdani told a story about how “a brother of mine, Asad” took a photo of him at a campaign event and posted it on social media with the caption, “Alhamdulillah [thanks be to Allah], the first Muslim elected official to run for mayor.” Mamdani went on to claim that “a member of the New York Post responded. He said, ‘Is it true that they did not allow pagers into the event?’"
The candidate then went on to explain that this was a reference to Israel’s blowing up of pagers belonging to the jihad terrorist group Hizballah, asserting that “scores of Lebanese civilians, including a young girl by the name of Fatima” had been killed in this operation. His hatred for Israel was as clear here as when he famously refused to condemn the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.”
Mamdani then claimed improbably: “And we know that to be Muslim in public life in this city and in this country, is to face these kinds of responses, and to be called a terrorist no matter where it is, where you go.” He emphasized that they had an opportunity “to prove that Muslims don’t just belong in New York City, we also belong in city hall.” Mamdani clearly thought this was a winning line, as he used it in at least one other mosque as well.
Yet on another occasion, Mamdani demonstrated that he was more of a politician than a fanatical believer when he spoke at a Gurduwara, a Sikh temple, and left wearing a bandanna with a Sikh emblem tied over his head. It was unlikely that a doctrinaire Muslim would have worn any garment bearing a symbol of another faith, although Mamdani was just trying to get votes. Still, given that his wife didn’t wear hijab, it seems that Mamdani is effectively more of a secular leftist than a Muslim hardliner.
Nevertheless, as Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani explains, his support for the jihads against both Israel and the India was unmistakable. In May 2025, Mamdani told a town hall that his family was from the Indian state of Gujarat and that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually wiped out the entire community of Gujarati Muslims. Taking full flight into victimhood fantasy, Mamdani claimed that Modi “helped to orchestrate what was a mass slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat, to the extent that we don’t even believe that there are Gujarati Muslims anymore. When I tell someone that I am, it’s a shock to them that that’s even the case.”
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This was a reference to riots that erupted in Gujarat in 2002. A Hindu journalist recounted:
On February 27, 2002, the delayed Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from the holy city of Ayodhya was stopped by a massive mob of Muslims less than one kilometer from the Godhra station. The strength of this mob ranged between 500 to 2000. Baying for Hindu blood, the Muslims had chalked out a plan of setting this train ablaze. The jihadis were armed with swords, bombs and other explosives. After barging into the train’s coach (number S-6) by cutting the connecting vestibule, they doused the compartment with petrol and set it alight.
In the resulting blaze, fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims were killed. Hindus began to fight back, and ultimately 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed. Many Hindus were tried for murder, and the Indian government paid reparations to the victims’ relatives. But Modi, who was governor of Gujarat at the time, has received widespread criticism from Muslims for not acting quickly enough to restrain the Hindus.
This was the incident to which Mamdani was referring as a virtual genocide of the Muslims across the entire state of Gujarat. Nothing like that happened, and his hysterical posturing recalled nothing more than the same posturing that Mamdani and others have engaged in regarding the nonexistent genocide in Gaza.
Mamdani’s adherence to Islamic strictures may not be whole or exact, but he has clearly embraced the Islamic jihads against both Israel and India. Whether he also backs the jihad against the United States will likely become clear during his tenure as mayor.
