The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Ohio chapter described the election of New York City’s new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, as both a “coup” against the Democratic Party elites and a “referendum” on Palestinian and Lebanese “resistance,” framing the victory as a political and ideological revolt against the American establishment.
Khalid Turaani made the remarks on Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV the day after Mamdani’s election, according to a video released by MEMRI. The comments cast the win as a revolt against the U.S. political order and a symbolic triumph for anti-Israel movements, echoing his claim that the result punctured the party hierarchy.
“I believe [Zohran] Mamdani represents an opposition to the entire American deep state,” Turaani said. “Through this historic victory, which is unprecedented in modern times, Mamdani has defeated the traditional Democratic Party.”
He cited Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s refusal to endorse Mamdani as evidence of the establishment’s hostility, calling the New York Democrat “a Zionist, first of all, and a Jewish New Yorker” who withheld support despite representing the same city.
“So Mamdani’s [victory] constitutes a coup against the entire political establishment, which is represented by someone like Andrew Cuomo,” Turaani continued. “It is also a coup against the Democratic Party, which tried, and succeeded in 2015, to push aside Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who was a similar case to Zohran Mamdani.”
Turaani warned that the Democratic Party elite “will do everything in their power to make Zohran Mamdani fail,” insisting that “they do not want the face of the Democratic Party to be a socialist.”
He then tied the mayoral outcome directly to Middle East politics, declaring, “New York City is an extremist Zionist fortress of support for the Israeli occupation state. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Zohran Mamdani’s election constitutes a referendum over the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance.”
CAIR was one of the largest institutional funders of Mamdani’s campaign, contributing $120,000 through its Unity and Justice Fund to the main PAC supporting him. Post-election polling showed 83 percent of Mamdani voters cited the Palestinian issue as their primary motivation — a result his team embraced as validation of its strategy to place Middle East politics at the center of a local race.
Mamdani’s longtime political ally and mentor, activist Linda Sarsour, echoed that sentiment at a recent CAIR conference, boasting that “Muslim money” helped secure his victory and vowing to “hold him accountable” from outside City Hall to ensure his administration advances their shared agenda. Internal Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) working group memos similarly outline plans to pressure Mamdani to maintain his anti-Israel policies once in office.
Turaani himself has drawn scrutiny for his own associations. Last month, he moderated an online conference hosted by the Beirut-based Al-Zaytouna Center that featured Majed al-Zeer — designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2024 as “the senior Hamas representative in Germany” and a key figure in “the terrorist group’s European fundraising.” The event also included convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier Sami al-Arian and other Hamas-linked figures.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently renewed his call for a federal investigation into CAIR and the revocation of its nonprofit status, citing “ties to terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.” CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case — whose leadership, known as the “Holy Land Five,” were themselves senior CAIR figures convicted of funneling money to Hamas.
Mamdani co-founded Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin College, has backed BDS since 2014, and in a 2017 rap praised the “Holy Land Five,” leaders of the Holy Land Foundation convicted in 2008 of funding Hamas. He campaigned alongside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, has repeatedly refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and declined to call for Hamas to disarm after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
