CAIR Says Zohran Mamdani is Victory Turning Point in US Muslim Politics

The Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) called Zohran Mamdani’s vic­to­ry in the New York City may­oral elec­tion a “mile­stone” for Mus­lim polit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. On 4 Novem­ber 2025, the orga­ni­za­tion pub­lished a state­ment call­ing Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York a his­toric shift for Mus­lim polit­i­cal engage­ment and a major rebuke of Islam­o­pho­bia and anti-Pales­tin­ian sen­ti­ment in US pol­i­tics. The state­ment begins:

“We con­grat­u­late Assem­bly­mem­ber Zohran Mam­dani on his his­toric elec­tion as May­or of New York City and we con­grat­u­late the peo­ple of New York City, includ­ing many New York Mus­lims, for exer­cis­ing their right to vote in mas­sive num­bers. “The elec­tion of New York City’s first Mus­lim may­or rep­re­sents a his­toric turn­ing point for Amer­i­can Mus­lim polit­i­cal engage­ment. May­or-Elect Mamdani’s abil­i­ty to win while open­ly advo­cat­ing for Pales­tin­ian human rights and expe­ri­enc­ing a bar­rage of anti-Mus­lim hate also marks a his­toric rebuke of both Islam­o­pho­bia and anti-Pales­tin­ian racism in pol­i­tics. “We com­mend the col­lege stu­dents and oth­er young peo­ple in New York City who, just one year after being smeared and bru­tal­ized for protest­ing the geno­cide in Gaza, helped elect a may­or who vocal­ly oppos­es that geno­cide and sup­ports the right to peace­ful protest.

Read more: https://www.cair.com/press_releases/breaking-cair-cair-ny-call-zohran-mamdanis-victory-a-turning-point-for-muslims-in-politics-and-a-historic-rebuke-of-both-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-polit/

Key Points

• CAIR and CAIR-NY called Zohran Mamdani’s win a “his­toric turn­ing point” for Amer­i­can Mus­lims in politics.

• The vic­to­ry is seen as a direct rebuke of both Islam­o­pho­bia and anti-Pales­tin­ian sen­ti­ment in US pub­lic life.

• Mam­dani was elect­ed May­or of New York City despite fac­ing what CAIR claimed were broad cam­paigns of hate and anti-Mus­lim rhetoric.

• CAIR lead­ers urged increased grass­roots engage­ment, view­ing this as the start of broad­er Mus­lim polit­i­cal influence.

CAIR’s Multi-Decade Strategy to Build Muslim Political Infrastructure Bears Fruit

The Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), a group his­tor­i­cal­ly tied to Hamas and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, advo­cates for increased Mus­lim polit­i­cal par­tic­i­pa­tion, rep­re­sen­ta­tion in pub­lic office, and leg­isla­tive influ­ence while posi­tion­ing itself as a civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tion that holds gov­ern­ment offi­cials account­able on issues affect­ing Mus­lim Amer­i­cans, includ­ing Pales­tine advo­ca­cy and coun­ter­ing what it describes as Islamophobia.

It has col­lab­o­rat­ed with Jet­pac to pub­lish a direc­to­ry track­ing 189 Mus­lim elect­ed offi­cials across 30 states, includ­ing Zohran Mam­dani, who was list­ed as the founder of a New York chap­ter of Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine. The orga­ni­za­tion has sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly cul­ti­vat­ed polit­i­cal influ­ence with­in Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty struc­tures and gov­ern­ment appoint­ments, with Cal­i­for­nia Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty offi­cials work­ing for CAIR hav­ing authored vot­ing guides rat­ing Demo­c­rat law­mak­ers includ­ing Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris. CAIR con­grat­u­lat­ed Pres­i­dent-elect Biden on his vic­to­ry in Novem­ber 2020, vow­ing to hold his admin­is­tra­tion account­able on Mus­lim inclu­sion and civ­il rights issues, while Biden promised at an ISNA con­ven­tion that his admin­is­tra­tion would have Mus­lim Amer­i­cans serv­ing at every level.

The orga­ni­za­tion oper­ates sophis­ti­cat­ed state-lev­el leg­isla­tive advo­ca­cy cam­paigns tar­get­ing edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy, mobi­liz­ing hun­dreds of Mus­lims to lob­by state law­mak­ers on issues rang­ing from eth­nic stud­ies cur­ric­u­la to Pales­tine dis­cus­sions in schools. CAIR reg­u­lar­ly coor­di­nates vir­tu­al advo­ca­cy days at state capi­tols and meet­ings with state leg­is­la­tors, fos­ter­ing grass­roots mobi­liza­tion and pol­i­cy engagement.

In Sep­tem­ber 2025, Lin­da Sar­sour, an Islamist activist with Hamas fam­i­ly ties, claimed at the CAIR 2025 Lead­er­ship and Pol­i­cy Con­fer­ence that the Uni­ty and Jus­tice Fund, which she described as con­trolled by CAIR, was the largest insti­tu­tion­al donor to a pro-Mam­dani super PAC in New York. Mean­while, the Uni­ty and Jus­tice Fund PAC is run by Basim Elka­r­ra, the for­mer long­time exec­u­tive direc­tor of CAIR Cal­i­for­nia, and the trea­sur­er of CAIR Action, which mobi­lizes Mus­lim vot­ers across the country.

At the CAIR 2025 con­fer­ence, Elka­r­ra inter­vened to issue what he described as a “legal dis­claimer to pro­tect CAIR,” main­tain­ing that Uni­ty and Jus­tice had only been endorsed by CAIR with­out for­mal orga­ni­za­tion­al ties. Accord­ing to Quiver Quan­ti­ta­tive, the PAC received 10,000 USD from CAIR.

Exter­nal references:

• Lin­da Sar­sour: Mam­dani’s biggest finan­cial backer is Coun­cil on American–Islamic Relations
• Mus­lim group with ‘deep’ ter­ror­ist ties huge backer of Mam­dani cam­paign: documents
• UNITY & JUSTICE FUND — Fundrais­ing | Quiver Quantitative

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