New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been branded “disgusting” after breaking his Ramadan fast with prisoners at one of the city’s most notorious jails.
Mr Mamdani visited Rikers Island jail, marking the first occasion a New York mayor has observed Ramadan at the facility.
“It was a night that will stay with me for quite some time,” he said on Friday.
He described the evening as among his most significant since assuming office.
“This is me just being a Muslim New Yorker,” Mamdani grinned during the visit. “And I think there are some for whom that is a political act.”
Councillor Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park Five – a group of five individuals wrongfully convicted of raping a jogger in New York’s Central Park in 1989 – accompanied the mayor alongside Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards.
But the Rikers visit sparked fierce criticism from law enforcement figures.
“He actually visited inmates on Rikers but hasn’t visited any victims of the heinous crimes some of these guys have committed,” one NYPD veteran of 20 years said. “I think it’s absolutely disgusting.”
“We clearly know he doesn’t like us. He’s already made his stance clear on that.
Zohran Mamdani visited Rikers Island jail, marking the first occasion a New York mayor has observed Ramadan at the facility
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“Even after we get clear extensive video of the guy trying to knife the police officers in Queens, he visited the criminal’s family in that case too,” the police veteran told the New York Post.
He was referencing the Mayor’s decision last month to meet the family of Jabez Chakraborty, who was shot by police whilst attacking officers with a 13-inch carving knife.
“He can go visit the inmates at Rikers, but he can’t go visit a cop who gets injured? That’s not right,” another law enforcement source said, pointing to officers hurt during an Isis-inspired attack outside the Mayor’s home earlier this month.
Social media users joined the chorus of condemnation following the Mayor’s post about his Rikers visit.
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The Mayor was seen praying with inmates at the notorious jail
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“You have to be an absolute monster to be sent to Rikers Island these days,” wrote New York-based mystery novelist Daniel Friedman on social media.
“Offenders on Rikers all have long histories of doing things so horrible that even the woke, pro-crime judges and prosecutors in NYC don’t want to be responsible for what they’ll do if they let them go,” he added.
Newsmax presenter Rob Schmitt blasted: “The Mayor likes to hang out with the people who victimise us. F***ing ridiculous.”
Emmy-winning producer Daniella Greenbaum Davis questioned whether Mamdani had also visited the victims of those he dined with or their families.
Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama shared an image of Mr Mamdani at an iftar alongside a photograph of the Twin Towers ablaze
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And Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama went even further, sharing an image of Mr Mamdani at an iftar alongside a photograph of the Twin Towers ablaze on September 11, 2001, captioned: “The enemy is inside the gates.”
Mr Tuberville defended his post after it sparked a fierce backlash.
“I just go by his rhetoric,” the senator told DC News Now. “He’s made a lot of statements about his stance with Islam and radical Islam.”
“We need everybody to go with the Constitution, understand we have moral values.”
The Rikers iftar was one of 17 such dinners Mr Mamdani attended across the city through Thursday.
