America Interrupted.
In our previous article we delved into the problematic stances and public relations that have marred Zohran Mamdani’s mayorship. Now we are going to examine his allies and their policies leading to America Interrupted.
The American way.
As discussed previously, the New York City and American way is liberty. Ever since the Revolutionary War, America has had an unquenchable thirst for independence. The Civil War, which ended slavery, cost an estimated 620,000 lives or more on both sides. In World War II, more than 400,000 American servicemembers died defeating fascism, and American soldiers were among those who liberated the Nazi camps.
We’ve faltered at times, but have always returned to our principle of liberty.
What makes America exceptional.
In his America 250 address on July 3, Mamdani said, “We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger and more powerful than everyone else.” He continued, “The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.”
He pits “nothing being fixed into place” against America being “richer, stronger” and “more powerful” as though these are mutually exclusive. America is exceptional, financially and geopolitically, because we are not governed by unreasonable, rigid laws or kings.
Indeed, wealth in America is so attainable for many precisely because nothing is fixed. The government doesn’t elevate some or hold down those it doesn’t favor. Everyone legally has the same access to wealth generation because of our founding principle of liberty.
America is so free that non-citizens thrive building businesses here. A study published by MIT and Census Bureau researchers found that immigrants are about 80 percent more likely to found a firm than U.S.-born citizens. A separate National Bureau of Economic Research paper found that immigrants account for roughly a quarter of new employer businesses in the U.S.
Casting aside old friends.
Along with making America Interrupted, Mamdani is alienating our best ally in the Middle East, Israel, the region’s leading democracy. Yet Mamdani goes out of his way to malign it, and many in New York City’s Jewish community feel targeted. He refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” The intifadas were Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the first beginning in 1987 and the second, marked by waves of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, beginning in 2000.
Israel is also an economic powerhouse. Did you know it gives an economic boost to New York City? According to a 2025 report by the United States-Israel Business Alliance, 590 Israeli-founded companies directly created more than 27,000 jobs in New York City. New York City and Israel share deep economic ties, yet this couldn’t matter less to Mamdani.
By abandoning our principles and our allies we risk making America Interrupted.
The company you keep making America interrupted.
Hasan Piker is a popular Twitch streamer who offers political commentary, and he and Mayor Mamdani are friends. Twitch is an online streaming platform. In 2019, Piker said on one of his streams that “America deserved 9/11.” He later apologized, but has since made several more concerning comments.
Piker’s streams lean heavily anti-capitalist. He has called Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of this world” and said he would never criticize him. Piker later said those comments were partly made in jest after a run-in with police at Tiananmen Square, but he stood by calling Mao “a great man of history.”
Mao’s rule cost tens of millions of lives, most of them in the famine caused by his Great Leap Forward.
Birds of a feather.
Then there is Mamdani’s other ally, children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel. She is a vociferous critic of Israel and promotes the claim that Israel is committing genocide against Gazans. She is certainly entitled to that view under free speech. Antisemitic comments on her platforms are another matter.
In January, users noticed that Ms. Rachel’s Instagram account had liked a comment saying “Free America from the Jews.” When people rightly called her out, she posted a tearful apology video saying she had meant to delete the comment and hit “like” by accident. Perhaps it was an accident. But one has to wonder how many such comments are sitting on her pages for that to happen.
When politicians are nestling with public figures this close to anti-Semitic discourse, is it a sign of America Interrupted?
America Interrupted.
More troubling than the media personalities Mamdani surrounds himself with are his political allies. Abdul El-Sayed and Mamdani have both given vocal support to each other’s campaigns. The last few months have unveiled scandals and statements that give one pause.
Abdul El-Sayed is a prominent progressive running for the Senate in Michigan as a Democrat. He looks and sounds like the standard, affable American politician. When you dig a little deeper, though, the charming veneer wears thin.
Much like Mamdani, he has refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Critics also say he has not clearly distanced himself from the Muslim Brotherhood.
What is the Muslim Brotherhood?
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist political movement founded in Egypt in 1928. It promotes Islamic doctrine as the basis for society, law, and government, and has historically built influence through education and charity.
It is not merely a religious movement. Certain branches have resorted to violence, and in January 2026 the United States designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization and sanctioned the Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for their support of Hamas. The Brotherhood’s leaders say they renounce violence, and the Egyptian and Lebanese branches have rejected the designations.
Islamism is arguably antagonistic toward American principles. Violence against opposing figures or ideas is definitely antithetical to them.
What are Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?
El-Sayed denies having any. But his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, has made multiple public statements about their family’s connections to it. In 2012 she wrote, “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.” A year later, she posted that she was praying for family members in Egypt who support the Brotherhood, telling them to lie low and stay safe.
El-Sayed and Abdelhadi share a mother but grew up in separate households. When NBC News asked him about the posts, El-Sayed called them “hearsay evidence from a tweet” and said he had never had those conversations with his mother. That isn’t proof that El-Sayed supports the Muslim Brotherhood, but it does indicate an uncomfortable proximity to it.
What gives more pause is a letter. Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, was elected president of Egypt in June 2012 and removed in July 2013. In November 2012, days after Morsi granted himself sweeping new powers, a statement backing him was published on the Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate. It listed 46 signatories describing themselves as leaders of the Egyptian community in the United States. The 33rd name was “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” of New York, which the Washington Free Beacon reports is the same El-Sayed, then a medical student at Columbia. Translated from Arabic, it states:
“We, leaders of the Egyptian community, support the revolutionary decisions taken by the president, and we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.”
It was overtly calling on Morsi’s government to use state power against the press. El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment about the letter.
Can Abdul El-Sayed truly support the American enterprise if he once endorsed such authoritarian actions?
Barely legal.
Then there is El-Sayed’s relationship with Mohammad Ali Elahi. Elahi is an Iranian-born Shiite imam at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. According to the Washington Free Beacon, he hosted El-Sayed at a campaign event at his mosque this June and has donated to his campaign.
Elahi has documented connections with Iran’s religious and political establishment. A 2024 report by researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism described his relationships with Iranian officials. Elahi has voiced support for Hezbollah, an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
Iran is considered a foreign adversary by the United States government. El-Sayed isn’t breaking any law by campaigning with Elahi. But that a Senate candidate would welcome such company at all is a sign of America Interrupted.
Will an Abdul El-Sayed win mean America Interrupted?
No one knows the future, but history is a good predictor. Leaders who tolerate authoritarian and Islamist ideas in their orbit tend to normalize them. Could a vote for Abdul El-Sayed be a vote for America Interrupted? We can’t say, but you must decide for yourself when you vote on November 3rd.
As always, the team at Brooklynites.NYC thanks you for reading.
Read our previous article on Zohran Mamdani and other posts:
https://brooklynites.nyc/new-york-city-on-edge/
https://brooklynites.nyc/what-does-free-mean-a-question-for-americas-250th/
https://brooklynites.nyc/atwitter-over-the-new-york-bird-expo/
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_El-Sayed
https://www.jns.org/u.s.-news/harris-associates-with-iranian-operative-who-lauds-hezbollah
https://english.ahram.org.eg/UI/Front/Inner.aspx?NewsContentID=74427&utm_source=perplexity
https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2024-10/Full%20Report_compressed.pdf?utm_source=perplexity https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-tragedy-of-egypts-mohamed-morsi/?utm_source=perplexity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Morsi
https://wng.org/opinions/the-democratic-socialists-and-religion-1792648324?utm_source=perplexity
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