(RNS) — Since Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June, conspiracy theories involving his Muslim faith have ranged from highly questionable to bizarre.
One theory was that he plans to introduce radical Islam to the city. A stranger one was that he was culpable in the shooting deaths of four people in a Park Avenue office building on July 28. Neither theory has been supported by evidence.
“The cop killer in NYC who just killed an NYPD officer was a Mamdani supporter,” Laura Loomer, the far-right commentator and adviser to President Donald Trump, posted on X. “@ZohranKMamdani is inspiring a generation of pro-Islamic cop killers. This is why you don’t elect Muslim immigrants to office.”
Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, a conservative Christian organization, said Mamdani’s victory signaled a takeover of Western values by Muslims.
“It’s not Islamophobia to notice that Muslims want to import values into the West that seek to destabalize our civilization. It’s cultural suicide to stay silent,” Kirk wrote in a June 25 X post.
The same day, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X a picture of the Statue of Liberty covered in a black burqa. Her colleague Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, called Mamdani “Zohran ‘little muhammad’ Mamdani” in an X post questioning his path to citizenship and calling for his deportation.
A Charlie Kirk post on X about Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh. (Screen grab)
Such attacks mirror th …