Just hours before New York City voters head to the polls on November 4, 2025, a bombshell report has dropped, painting a troubling picture of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
A comprehensive study by The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), exclusively covered by Fox News Digital, scrutinizes Mamdani’s background, statements, and associations, raising serious red flags about his potential impact on communal harmony in the Big Apple, as Fox News reports.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor and a self-described socialist, first caught attention as the founder of a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter during his time at Bowdoin College.
The ISGAP report, titled "Zohran Mamdani: From SJP to Gracie Mansion?", dives deep into his ideological roots, including the contentious views on Israel held by his father, a Columbia University professor.
It also highlights Mamdani’s refusal to outright denounce the inflammatory slogan "globalize the intifada," opting instead to merely "discourage" its use—a stance that many find insufficient given the charged nature of the phrase.
Further, the report accuses Mamdani of minimizing the horrific October 7 Hamas attack while labeling Israel’s subsequent actions as "genocide," a characterization that has fueled heated debate.
Adding to the controversy, Mamdani has pushed legislation that ISGAP claims would penalize New York charities supporting Israel, a move seen by critics as punitive and divisive.
Last month, in October 2025, hundreds of rabbis publicly opposed his candidacy in a letter, insisting that Jewish Americans must speak out against discrimination and urging voters to reject him at the ballot box.
Despite this significant pushback and viral footage of Mamdani using sharp rhetoric against Israel, he still commands a strong lead in the polls heading into the election on November 4, 2025.
Recent actions have only intensified scrutiny, including Mamdani’s October 2025 photo-op with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn cleric tied to defending figures involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which outraged law enforcement circles.
The ISGAP report also flags other troubling connections to radical elements, alongside a $100,000 campaign donation from a super PAC linked to The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization named in a past terror-financing trial as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Yet, Mamdani has garnered endorsements from groups like the United Bodegas of America in the Bronx on October 29, 2025, and appeared with Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network’s House of Justice in Harlem on November 1, 2025, showing a broad, if controversial, support base.
"It is incumbent on voters to understand the ideological context that Zohran Mamdani comes from and espouses," Charles Asher Small, founding director of ISGAP, told Fox News Digital. Let’s unpack that: understanding a candidate’s worldview isn’t just academic—it’s critical when their ideas could reshape a city as diverse as New York.
"The antisemitic discourse of Mamdani will inevitably lead to increased hate and violence," Small added to Fox News Digital. If words indeed pave the way for actions, as Small warns, then NYC could be gambling with its already delicate social fabric by ignoring these signals.
