New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) has appointed three officials who cofounded a Muslim group that blamed Israel for Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack to prominent roles in his administration. One of them is serving as Mamdani's head of faith-based partnerships, another as his chief of immigrant affairs, and the third as the leader of his judiciary advisory committee.
"Many NYers are feeling pain, fear, and anger after the horrific events in the Holy Land this weekend," the Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY) posted on X two days after the attack. "Especially as the Israeli apartheid regime have forced millions of Palestinians in Gaza to live under occupation for decades and an open air prison since 2007."
The group continued, bemoaning messages of compassion for the 1,200 civilians Hamas killed and 451 hostages it took back to Gaza.
"For NYers who believe in justice, these feelings are deepened by witnessing too many elected officials offering support for Israeli occupation's rampant violence as it openly declares & enacts its intent to engage in mass violence and genocide against Palestinians," the organization wrote as the Jewish state was still identifying its dead.
The club took the massacre as an opportunity to state that "75 years of Israeli occupation and oppression" had "led us to this moment" and argue that "we must achieve true justice and peace in the region, starting with ending the illegal, Israeli occupation immediately."
The group also shared the hashtag #NotOnOurDime, a reference to a bill Mamdani championed during his time as a state legislator that would prohibit nonprofits in the state from working with Israel.
MDCNY was founded in 2012 by Faiza Ali, Aliya Latif, Ali Najmi, and notorious anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. So far, all but Sarsour have found their way into prominent roles in Mamdani's administration.
Latif became the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Faith-Based Partnerships earlier this month, with the mayor announcing her appointment at an interfaith breakfast at which she urged city clergy to resist immigration enforcement. Latif has reposted accusations that Israel has committed a "genocide" on X, as well as reposting support for Marcellus Williams, a Muslim convicted murderer who was executed in September 2024. Williams was found guilty of stabbing a reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 43 times.
Latif appears to have maintained her close relationship with Sarsour—who has compared Zionism to white supremacy, supported Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, and helped foster a culture of anti-Semitism within the Women's March organization—according to her social media activity. Latif has described Sarsour as her "right hand," "sister," and "seeker-mother" in posts on X.
Mamdani's decision to appoint the MDCNY cofounders follows many similar hires the new mayor has made since taking office in January. As the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this month, Mamdani appointed Alvaro Lopez, a former official with the Democratic Socialists of America, as his Brooklyn borough director. Lopez called people who ripped down flyers of Israeli hostages "heroes" in a since-deleted post on X and wrote a "socialist strategy for Palestinian solidarity" in 2024 that included convincing voters that U.S. aid to Israel causes "declining living standards." Mamdani also hired Drashti Brahmbhatt, who led a campus movement calling on Brown University to divest from companies that do business within the Jewish state as a college student, to advise him on "100 Day Planning and Implementation."
Also this month, Mamdani replaced the executive director of the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism with a left-wing activist who has bashed Israel. As the Free Beacon reported at the time, Rabbi Moshe Davis, the former leader of the office, said he believed the mayor dismissed him because he is a "proud Jew" who supports Israel.
Another MDCNY cofounder, Faiza Ali, became commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs on Tuesday. Between 2007 and 2011, Ali worked for the New York branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization whose leader said he was "happy to see" Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. CAIR, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal case against a Hamas front group, has been designated a foreign terrorist organization in Texas and Florida.
During Ali's time with CAIR, she was a vocal supporter of the proposed "Ground Zero Mosque" two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. Ali dismissed critics of the project as un-American and said opposition to building a mosque so close to the location of the Sept. 11 attacks "reveal[ed] a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment." She also represented CAIR at a 2010 press conference promoting the project.
Ali also defended Zahra Billoo, a leader of a San Francisco Bay Area CAIR chapter, who refused to denounce "jihad" or "sharia" and posted that "blaming Hamas for firing rockets at [Apartheid] Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist."
Ali described criticism of Billoo as "attempts to silence WOC & Muslim women" and called Billoo "a fierce Muslim American civil rights leader."
The new immigrant affairs commissioner also appears to be close with Sarsour. The two took a smiling photo together at Mamdani's inauguration and have been pictured together on other occasions.
The third MDCNY cofounder appointed to Mamdani's administration is Ali Najmi, who is now leading the mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, a group that will play an influential role in the selection of local judges. Najmi, an election attorney who unsuccessfully ran for New York City Council in 2015, has also praised Sarsour on numerous occasions and defended her against what he described as "slander and falsities."
Sarsour, the only cofounder of the group not to receive a job from Mamdani, is nevertheless a strong ally of the mayor. At CAIR events during the 2025 mayoral race, Sarsour bragged that she convinced CAIR's political arm, CAIR Action, and a CAIR-endorsed super PAC to back Mamdani's campaign, the Free Beacon reported in November.
"The story is not just that it's random that Zohran ascended to this place," she said at a September CAIR event. "It's Muslim money."
After Mamdani's election, Sarsour declared that anti-Israel extremism "actually sends you to City Hall" and vowed to hold Mamdani "accountable," saying she would not let him "do whatever the hell he wants when he gets to City Hall."
None of the staffers nor a representative for Mamdani responded to requests for comment.
