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New York Metropolis socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani supplied up a clarification on Monday about an anecdote that sparked controversy on social media associated to an anecdote he instructed about his “aunt” not utilizing the subway in New York Metropolis as a consequence of post-9/11 Islamophobia.
“I used to be talking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who handed away a number of years in the past,” Mamdani instructed reporters on Monday, utilizing the time period “fuhi” which the New York Publish reported means paternal aunt in Hindi and Urdu, after social media customers had raised questions concerning the veracity of his story.
“I need to communicate to the reminiscence of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September eleventh as a result of she didn’t really feel protected in her hijab,” Mamdani, preventing again tears, instructed a crowd on October 24 whereas outlining his considerations about Islamophobia and suggesting that criticisms of his anti-Israel positions are rooted in a disdain towards his Muslim religion.
Shortly after that clip hit the web, a wave of criticism hit from conservatives and web sleuths who poked holes within the story and steered Mamdani had embellished it, pointing to his one direct organic aunt, Dr. Masuma Mamdani, itemizing on her LinkedIn that she labored and presumably lived in Tanzania from January 2000 to December 2003. Moreover, publicly out there images of Masuma Mamdani don’t present her carrying a hijab.
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New York Metropolis Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters on Manhattan’s Higher East Aspect on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Fox Information Digital/Deirdre Heavey)
The controversy reached the White Home within the type of a publish on X from Vice President JD Vance who expressed skepticism concerning the story.
“Based on Zohran the actual sufferer of 9/11 was his auntie who bought some (allegedly) unhealthy seems,” the vp wrote.
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New York Metropolis Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks throughout an interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” at Fox Information on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Mamdani’s father Mahmood, who Zohran Mamdani says is the cousin of the deceased aunt, has confronted criticism throughout the marketing campaign for his previous controversial statements as a professor at Columbia College, together with a declare that Hitler was impressed by Abraham Lincoln, which resurfaced on social media in current days.
Mahmood Mamdani additionally sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israel group that helps boycotts and sanctions of Israel, and routinely accuses the Israeli authorities of committing “genocide”, Fox Information Digital reported this summer time.
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New York Metropolis Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, spoke to supporters at a canvass launch occasion in Prospect Park on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox Information Digital)
“Suicide bombing must be understood as a characteristic of contemporary political violence relatively than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 guide Good Muslim, Unhealthy Muslim: America, the Chilly Battle, and the Roots of Terror.
“We have to acknowledge the suicide bomber, before everything, as a class of soldier.”
Zohran Mamdani has pushed again in current days towards critics of his varied anti-Israel insurance policies and statements relationship again to his time in faculty and steered that these criticisms are rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry.
“The dream of each Muslim is just to be handled the identical as another New Yorker,” Mamdani posted on X on Friday with a video that was considered no less than 24 million instances. “And but, for too lengthy, we’ve been instructed to ask for lower than that, and endure hatred and bigotry within the shadows. No extra.”