By: Fern Sidman

The mayoral campaign of Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani—already the subject of intense scrutiny due to his self-proclaimed democratic socialism and vocal anti-Israel stance—now faces further turbulence after new revelations unearthed by The New York Post revealed troubling connections to extremist rhetoric during his college years.

According to a report that appeared on Tuesday in The New York Post, Mamdani co-founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Bowdoin College during his undergraduate studies—a group that, in November 2013, invited a controversial speaker whose inflammatory views on terrorism, Israel, and the United States have drawn widespread condemnation.

The speaker, As’ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese-American academic and professor at California State University, Stanislaus, has gained notoriety over the years for equating Israeli counterterror operations with large-scale terrorism, and for claiming the United States effectively “brought 9/11 upon itself.”

The Bowdoin SJP invitation brought AbuKhalil to campus to speak on “trends in the Middle East in the age of uprising,” a topic that, at face value, might appear academic. However, his ideological positions—well-documented even prior to the event—were anything but benign.

The New York Post report highlighted that in a 2006 blog post, AbuKhalil openly asserted that “Israeli terrorism—in scale and in magnitude—by far exceeds that of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. His rhetoric consistently blurred the lines between political critique and radical justification, portraying terrorist acts against Israel as a response to alleged imperial aggression.

Even more incendiary were his comments on the September 11 attacks. In a 2021 lecture, AbuKhalil claimed, “The US basically was hit on 9/11 by forces that were reactionary and fanatic and were raised and armed and sponsored by America and its allies.” While he briefly acknowledged the human toll of the attack, he continued: “There were many earlier 9/11s that the US inflicted on people around the world.”

Such statements deeply alarmed counterterrorism experts and Jewish advocacy organizations. Yet, at Bowdoin, the invitation went ahead—with Mamdani then a leading member of the campus SJP chapter.

While it remains unclear whether Mamdani personally invited AbuKhalil or attended the talk, his founding role in the organization and his silence on the matter since then have raised eyebrows. The New York Post attempted to obtain a response from the Mamdani campaign but received no reply.

AbuKhalil has also expressed admiration for George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. “I was honored to have known him,” AbuKhalil said in 2012, calling Habash “a great Palestinian leader” and acknowledging the profound influence Habash had on his own political ideology.

The PFLP is infamous for its embrace of international terrorism, including the hijacking of multiple commercial airplanes during the 1970s. Time magazine once dubbed Habash “the godfather of Middle East terrorism,” while the Anti-Defamation League has described the PFLP as one of the most violent factions to have emerged from the Palestinian resistance movements.

Given this backdrop, The New York Post report questioned whether Mamdani’s ties to AbuKhalil and his student activism reflect deeper ideological sympathies that could shape his policy decisions if elected mayor of New York City.

The revelations come at a particularly precarious time for Mamdani, who shocked the political establishment last month by winning the Democratic primary with a plurality of votes in a ranked-choice contest, outflanking better-known figures such as former Governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.

Despite the victory, support from Democratic leaders has been conspicuously lacking. Mamdani’s past statements—particularly his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and his documented defense of Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki in old tweets—have chilled enthusiasm among the party’s centrist wing.

Now, critics say the Bowdoin SJP controversy adds to a growing list of red flags.

“Zohran Mamdani needs to come clean with voters about his support for Islamic radicals and terrorists while at Bowdoin,” said longshot mayoral candidate and attorney Jim Walden, as quoted by The New York Post. “New Yorkers deserve a leader committed to combating hate—not enabling it.”

The Bowdoin SJP chapter, which Mamdani helped launch, has remained active in campus protests. As recently as this year, the group occupied a campus building in protest of the college’s investment practices and U.S. policy in the Middle East.

A press release from the group—quoted in the Bowdoin Orient and cited by The New York Post—read: “As Israeli aggression obliterates Palestinian homes and guns down children in Jenin, as unspeakable suffering continues in Gaza, and as America descends further into fascism, we ask: What type of institution does Bowdoin want to be?”

Such statements echo themes central to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, which has often framed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not as a diplomatic issue, but as a moral litmus test. Critics warn that this kind of rhetoric is not only incendiary but risks inflaming tensions in New York, home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world—some 1.3 million strong.

Adding to the scrutiny, The New York Post reported last week that Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, identified as both “African American” and “Asian” on a rejected Columbia University application—a move critics say reflects opportunistic identity politics.

Combined with his socialist platform, radical academic past, and alignment with extremist figures, Mamdani’s trajectory has alarmed a wide range of civic leaders.

“He may dress up the language in the rhetoric of compassion and justice,” one former city council member told The New York Post, “but make no mistake: this is someone who believes deeply in a worldview that many New Yorkers—especially those with personal connections to terrorism—find dangerous and profoundly un-American.”

Despite the growing controversy, Mamdani continues to lead in some polls ahead of the general election. He faces GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa and several moderate Democrats—including Adams, Cuomo, and Walden—running on independent lines.

The outcome of the race could determine more than the future of the city. As The New York Post editorial board noted last week, “New York City has always been a bellwether. If voters reward radicalism instead of rejecting it, the entire country could see its politics pushed further off the edge.”

For now, the city waits—with anticipation, anxiety, and more than a few unanswered questions—wondering what kind of leader Mamdani might be, and what shadows of the past may yet define New York’s future.