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Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing a Muslim problem with local Muslim activists planning to spill into the streets Tuesday night outside Gracie Mansion, where protesters will accuse the mayor of promoting what they describe as an extreme form of Islamism.
Meanwhile, Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, is also facing criticism from hardline anti-Israel activists who argue he has not gone far enough in support of Palestinian activism after taking office.
Anila Ali, president of the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council, said she plans to join Tuesday night’s protest because she believes Mamdani’s politics are alienating moderate Muslims and damaging relations between Muslim and Jewish communities in New York.
“With Mamdani in office, we feel our religion is now hijacked once again and is being used by these Islamists,” Ali told Fox News Digital in a video interview.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Anila Ali, president of the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council. Ali is among the organizers of a planned protest outside Gracie Mansion criticizing Mamdani over what demonstrators describe as extremist and divisive politics. Mamdani has also faced criticism from hardline anti-Israel activists who argue he has not gone far enough in support of Palestinian activism. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images; right photo courtesy of Anila Ali.)
Ali described herself as part of a post-9/11 movement of “moderate Muslims” who reject Islamist extremism and believe Islam is compatible with coexistence, religious freedom and life in America.
She described Islamism as a hardline political ideology that merges religion and politics, and she argued Mamdani represents a more radical version of Islam than the moderate faith practiced by many American Muslims.
She said moderate Muslims don’t identify with Islamist groups such as the Council on American Islamic Affairs (CAIR), which she accused of monopolizing public representation of Islam in America and promoting a hardline Islamist movement. Ali said many moderate Muslims feel increasingly sidelined by activist groups and political organizations they believe do not represent their faith or values.
“Zohran Mamdani is their success story. The Muslim Brotherhood, they backed him,” Ali told Fox News Digital in a video interview.
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However, criticism of Mamdani is not only coming from moderate Muslim and interfaith activists. Hardline anti-Israel activists have also criticized the mayor for not going far enough in support of Palestinian activism after taking office.
“When he said that Israel has the right to exist, I also clearly called that out,” anti-Israel activist Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian-American activist, told Fox News Digital last week. Kiswani is the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, which staged a Nakba rally in New York on May 15 where demonstrators chanted “globalize the intifada.”
Kiswani also criticized Mamdani for what she described as walking back his earlier defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada” and softening his stance on Palestinian activism after taking office.
“I don’t think he or any politician is doing enough in support of Palestinian liberation,” Kiswani said.
The divide has turned Mamdani into a local flashpoint in a broader political battle playing out across the United States, where anti-Israel activism, Islamist movements and far-left groups have increasingly merged into overlapping protest coalitions.
Ali said Mamdani’s support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, his comments surrounding Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and his defense of slogans such as “globalize the intifada” have alienated many moderate Muslims and worsened tensions between Muslims and Jews in New York.
Within Our Lifetime co-founder Nerdeen Kiswani speaks during a “Nakba 78” anti-Israel protest in Washington Square Park on May 15, 2026, in New York City, as demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags and Hamas flags gather behind her. (Asra Q. Nomani/Fox News Digital)
“They start with the Jewish people — that’s not where they’re going to end,” Ali said.
“But more importantly, what he’s done is he’s damaged interfaith relations. He’s damaged the image of Islam.”
Ali said that Mamdani still retains strong support from progressive and pro-Palestinian activist groups that helped fuel his political rise.
Tuesday’s protest outside Gracie Mansion, Ali said, is intended to show Muslims, Jews and Christians standing together against what she described as extremist Islamist politics masquerading as mainstream Islam.
“[Mamdani] starts teaching our kids, Muslim kids and American kids, Islamism 101,” Ali said, referring to what she described as efforts to normalize Islamist political ideology through activism and identity politics.
Pro-Palestinians gather at a ‘Stop the Sale of Stolen Palestinian Land’ protest against a ‘Great Israel Real Estate’ event at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on May 5, 2026. The NYPD increased security and established a perimeter around the synagogue on E. 67th and E. 68th Streets in New York City. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Ali also described Mamdani’s politics as part of a “red-green alliance” between Islamist activists and the far left.
She warned New York risks following the path of British cities such as Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester, which she described as overtaken by extremism and division. The cities have long been at the center of debates in the United Kingdom over immigration, Islamist extremism, segregation and multiculturalism.
“The radical Islamism, it’s just unbearable to see what’s happened to the UK,” she said.
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The protest is being organized by End Jew Hatred alongside a coalition of Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups, including the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council and the Catholic League.
CAIR acknowledged Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond.