At midnight on the new year’s eve, when the world celebrated the beginning of the year 2026, New York City (NYC) – the world’s leading financial hub – witnessed history with its Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani taking oath in a private swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony’s historical significance is not just marked by Mamdani being the first Muslim to hold the mayoral position, but more so by the fact that he took his oath on Quran – the supreme theological text in Islam, even though during his election campaign he significantly presented himself to be ‘half-Hindu,’ claiming to trace his roots not only from his ‘Gujarati Muslim’ father, but also from his ‘Punjabi Hindu’ mother.
Unfortunately though, for the New Yorkers, that the first headline that their newly sworn-in mayor made was not about radically beginning to tackle the affordability crisis in the NYC, or announcing zero fare for MTA buses, or freezing subway fares, as loudly promised by him during his election campaign, but it was about him penning down a hand-written letter addressing Umar Khalid – a terror sympathizer – who is currently under judicial custody in India, in a case where he is accused of being one of the main conspirators of executing the deadly anti-Hindu pogrom that took place in New Delhi in the February of 2020.
Who is Umar Khalid that Mamdani whole-heartedly supports
Umar Khalid is purported to be a ‘student activist’ who has ‘risen’ to relevance from the ranks of politically-charged Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. Khalid’s father is the former president of the Welfare Party of India (WPI) – a political party in India, launched in 2011 with the support of a known radical Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
Umar Khalid first came into limelight during the reported ‘anti-national’ sloganeering incident that took place on 9th February 2016. Umar Khalid’s role in the sloganeering in support of Afzal Guru – a convicted terrorist in 2001 terror attack on Indian parliament – was considered significant in the case, as per the inquiry report on the said incident.
Umar Khalid has never shied away from supporting the armed struggle of Islamist terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. In July 2016, barely five months after his alleged role in support of terrorist Afzal Guru attracted national attention, Umar had expressed his admiration for Burhan Wani – a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen – for ‘picking up guns’ and ‘shooting.’ Pertinently, Hizbul Mujahideen is a designated terrorist organisation, not just in India, but also in the United States of America.
Presently, he is incarcerated for his alleged role in conspiring to unleash one of the worst anti-Hindu riots in the heart of Delhi in the guise of protests against the citizenship law. Pertinently, the Supreme Court of India on 5th January 2026 denied bail to Umar Khalid observing that his role stood on a “higher footing in the hierarchy of participation.”
Zohran’s hidden Islamism – Far from democracy
Zohran Mamdani’s personal letter that he dedicated to Umar Khalid within a few hours of his historical oath ceremony is not just a part of his supposed political activism, but a large and open display of his Islamist ideology in the guise of supporting ‘human rights.’ Unsurprising as it must be for many socio-political enthusiasts, Zohran’s solidarity letter for Umar is not an extraordinary political remark, but just another incident making to the list of numerous other glaringly ironical political positions to which the cohort of Islamists and liberals limits itself.
Zohran’s claim of himself being a stalwart of democratic values stands in stark contrast to his open solidarity for an individual whose archives are full of supporting terrorists and advocating for armed struggle against the state of India. Mamdani’s solidarity for Umar when seen in light of his own past conduct of joining a political rally where organisers used anti-Hindu slurs, calling Hindus “dishonest thieves who should go drink cow urine,” is a glaring example of his Hinduphobic and Islamist credentials.
Unfortunately also for the term “democratic” – denoting equity, justice and good conscience – that Zohran claims to champion, it has become the most misused phrase in the modern world. In no rational world the adjective of being ‘democratic’ may be used to describe someone who stands in solidarity with sympathizers of terrorists and terrorism like Umar Khalid. In supporting Umar, Zohran has outrightly abandoned his rightful claim to be considered a democratic politician. Zohran’s past conduct of falsely claiming the complete eradication of Gujarati Muslims further takes away any legitimacy that could be deposed on him.
Conclusion: A confirmation of his Islamist ideology
Ever since Zorhan Mamdani made headlines for contesting New York City’s mayoral elections, his political opponents have accused him of being an Islamist. Pertinently, Zohran has never outrightly denied these accusations and by extending solidarity for Islamists and terror sympathisers like Umar Khalid he has now lost any benefit of doubts which otherwise could have been attributed to the veracity of his democratic credentials. Zohran Mamdani is a classic example of how wearing perfectly white collars, occasionally visiting temples, and repeatedly calling oneself a ‘democratic’ politician does not help covering up one’s false claims, the hidden hinduphobia and definitely not the out and out support for terror sympathizers.
