Mamdani’s God Squad: The clerics, activists and political operatives who have his back
When New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani stepped to the microphone outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx last week near Yankee Stadium, his voice broke as he spoke about “the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after Sept. 11 because she did not feel safe.” Behind him, a Yemeni-American educator in sunglasses named Debbie Almontaser nodded. Almost two decades ago, in 2007, she was forced to resign as principal of a city school after defending a T-shirt with the slogan “Intifada NYC.” City officials viewed it as a call to violence. She said it was benign. Her case became a rallying cry for Muslim American activists who cast her as a victim of “Islamophobia.” FBI AGENTS FROM ’93 WTC ATTACK BLAST MAMDANI FOR EMBRACING RADICAL IMAM Now, Almontaser was back, this time as a senior advisor to Emgage Action and a board member of Yemeni American Merchants Association Action, two of 110 political nonprofits, community groups and political action committees backing Mamdani as he alleges “Islamophobia” against him. Recently, when critics questioned Mamdani’s ties to hardline Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, she sprang to action, helping to organize a protest to defend Wahhaj. That rapid, coordinated response captured the modus operandi of a network of political operatives and clerics intertwined with the shared mission of catapulting Mamdani into the mayor’s office. Mamdani’s background diverges from many of his co-religionists. In an interview, he said he is a Khoja Shia Muslim, part of a small, relatively liberal sect with roots in India. Many of his New York-area allies are religiously strict Sunni Muslims who practice more conservative interpretations of the faith. But they find common ground in politics. “It’s a sophisticated fusion of religion, politics and identity,” said Mansour Al-Hadj, a Washington-based researcher on Muslim political movements and extremism. “The same networks that once focused on community services are now mobilizing voters and producing candidates. This is how political Islam adapts inside democracy.” Mamdani’s God Squad includes about a few dozen key players who specialize in painting any critique as an attack on their faith, accusing critics of Islamophobia even as many of them have engaged in strident rhetoric against the U.S., Israel and capitalism. The Original Imam: America is “filthy and sick” Mamdani set off a firestorm Oct. 7 when he walked into Masjid At-Taqwa in Brooklyn and later posted a photo of himself beaming beside the mosque’s imam, or prayer leader, Wahhaj. The imam’s checkered past goes back decades. In a 1992 talk, he said American Muslims should elect an “emir” rather than choose between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Soon after, he served as a character witness in the trial of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called “Blind Sheikh” convicted for plotting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people. “You know what this country is?” Wahhaj said in 1995. “It’s a garbage can. Filthy. Filthy and sick.” In 2018, three of Wahhaj’s children were arrested after authorities found 11 malnourished children in a New Mexico compound tied to his family; a grandchild had died in what authorities described as an attempted exorcism. He told local news reporters, “Whatever they did wrong … it’s not acceptable to us.” The Youth Imam: Resist “by any means necessary” In New York, the Muslim American Society recently signed on to a letter to challenge “unmistakably Islamophobic, anti-Black, and xenophobic” attacks on Mamdani. Signatories included CAIR National, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New York chapter, Islamic Circle of North America’s New York chapter, the Islamic Center of Five Towns, Muslim American Society of New York, Muslim Community Network, Rockaway Islamic Center and a “Syosset Muslim Community.” Members of the Muslim American Society have long been quick to accuse others of Islamophobia even as they unabashedly call for violence against their perceived enemies. At an Eid celebration earlier this year, a cleric at the Muslim American Society cast Muslims as victims worldwide. Mohammad Badawi, youth director at the Muslim American Society, declared the local community’s joy would only be complete when Muslims are “victorious worldwide,” adding they would celebrate “after the destruction of the illegitimate Zionist occupiers,” Israel. He regularly organizes anti-Israel protests in a campaign against “injustice and oppression.” At one protest, Badawi urged youth to “fight back” against injustices “by any means necessary.” Abdullah Akl, a charismatic organizer with the Muslim American Society Youth Center, leads many protests under the banner of “Within Our Lifetime,” with founder Nerdeen Kiswani. Mamdani joined them before his run for mayor. Akl calls the street protests “sacred activism,” a mix of faith and resistance that will “free Palestine.” Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the Muslim American Society Youth Center has organized prayer protests on Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange and street protests for “Nakba Day,” calling the day Israel was created a “catastrophe,” and youth-led demonstrations outside BlackRock. Akl turned a subway car into a protest zone with chants of “Globalize the intifada… There is only one solution: intifada revolution.” When the New York Police Department arrested Akl and other activists, the Council on American-Islamic Relation’s New York chapter sent out a press release demanding their release. During the Oct. 7 protests this year against Israel, Akl shouted, “We did not act enough! We will show up, stronger than we did the first Oct. 7.” In response to criticism, he posted a message on social media, doubling down and saying, “Saying we didn’t act enough to stop a full blown genocide against palestinians [sic] is incitement?? Saying we need to be louder and protest more and continue to speak up for gaza [sic] is a crime? Zionist tears once again for the most documented genocide in modern history.” For decades, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has served as an aggressive and litigious watchdog for a host of Muslim figures and causes, often at the forefront of fighting legitimate bigotry. But CAIR has also courted controversy. Federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terrorism-financing case against the
Sherrill insists NJ a Dem stronghold ahead of Obama visit, rejecting GOP momentum: ‘Not a purple state’
New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill insisted Saturday that her state is a Democratic stronghold ahead of a campaign event with former President Barack Obama, in an apparent rejection of Republican momentum there. “New Jersey is not a red state. I love you guys, but New Jersey is not a red state,” Sherrill told supporters Saturday as she remains in a close contest with Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli heading into Election Day. “I’ve got some even better news, guys. New Jersey is not a purple state. . . . New Jersey is a blue state! That’s right. That is right. I have seen the polling numbers, guys. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. So when we vote, we win,” Sherrill added. “Let’s get out every vote and let’s show them the power of labor!” A recent Fox News poll of New Jersey likely voters put Sherill ahead of Ciattarelli 52% to 45% heading into the last few days of the campaign. Her seven-point lead is just outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. Earlier this month, Sherrill was ahead by five points, and in September she was up by eight points. FOX NEWS POLL: SHERRILL LEADS CIATTARELLI IN NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR’S RACE Among those who say they are extremely enthusiastic about voting this year, Ciattarelli is ahead by five points — but among those either extremely or very enthusiastic, it’s Sherrill by four. That’s because more Republicans feel extremely enthusiastic (52%) than Democrats (40%). Obama is expected in Norfolk, Virginia, earlier Saturday afternoon to campaign for Abigal Spanberger, a former House Democrat who is facing off against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the governor’s race there. The former president is then heading to Newark, New Jersey, for an event with Sherrill later Saturday. Obama has endorsed both candidates. OBAMA THE ‘CAMPAIGN CLOSER’ FOR DEMOCRATS IN TOP 2025 ELECTIONS AS PARTY AIMS TO REBOUND Sherrill also criticized President Donald Trump at her campaign event Saturday morning in New Jersey, saying, “We’re looking at a president of the United States that’s destroying jobs, who’s destroying our economy, who’s running a worldwide extortion racket so he can charge us all more money while he pockets billions of dollars.” “That’s not the way we want to run New Jersey. That’s not — we don’t want no king. That’s right. That is right. So that’s why I’m running for governor,” Sherrill added. “It’s not too much to ask to invest in workers. It’s not too much to ask to get a good wage. And so I have to tell you, it’s all on the line here. There are only two states in the nation with these races. New Jersey and Virginia,” Sherrill said. Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.
Rap star Nicki Minaj thanks Trump for addressing persecution of Christians in Nigeria
Rap superstar Nicki Minaj recently thanked President Donald Trump for shedding light on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!” TRUMP DESIGNATES NIGERIA AS ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ OVER WIDESPREAD CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION, KILLINGS Minaj is open about her Christian faith and said the president’s statement made her “feel a deep sense of gratitude.” “Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other,” Minaj wrote. “Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror [and] it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to the president [and] his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz thanked Minaj for “using your platform to speak out in defense of the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria.” “We cannot allow this to continue,” Waltz added. “Every brother and sister of Christ must band together and say, ‘Enough!’” The situation for Christians in Nigeria has become dire as entire villages have been burned to the ground, worshippers have been murdered at Sunday services and thousands have been displaced by Islamist groups sweeping through the country. CRUZ CLASHES WITH NIGERIA OVER HIS CLAIMS 50,000 CHRISTIANS KILLED SINCE 2009 IN RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE “Even being conservative, it’s probably 4,000 to 8,000 Christians killed annually,” Mark Walker, Trump’s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital. “This has been going on for years — from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias — and the Nigerian government has to be much more proactive.” Trump said he has directed Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the situation and report their findings to him. The president also said he would designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern” (CPC). According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in countries with that designation, the government has “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” which is defined as “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” This comes from the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. JIHADISTS MASSACRE 89 CHRISTIANS IN AFRICAN NATION, MANY SLAIN AT FUNERAL SERVICE “Nigeria is the most dangerous nation on Earth to follow Christ,” the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement. “For simply practicing their faith, Christians are actively being kidnapped, attacked and slaughtered. “With President Trump announcing he will be redesignating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the United States is making clear in one resolute voice: Religious persecution will not be tolerated. The scourge of anti-Christian violence and oppression of other religious minorities by radical Islamic terrorists is an affront to religious freedom. This is a critical step in mobilizing leadership and attention to confront evil extremism.” The committee vowed that once the government shutdown is over, its members will “continue moving full-year appropriations across the finish line to uphold your priorities. We know you’ll be ready at your desk with a pen in hand.” Fox News Digital reached out to Minaj’s representative for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
Former Miss Venezuela blames ‘socialism and open borders’ for her country’s devastating collapse
Americans unfamiliar with Venezuela may not know that in the not-so-distant past the nation was rich with oil and opportunity. Congressional candidate Carmen Maria Montiel remembers a Venezuela that brimmed with optimism — before decades of political and economic turmoil turned it into one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations. “Socialism and open borders,” Montiel told Fox News Digital in an interview, are what sent her country into decline. The Houston-area Republican won the Miss Venezuela title at age 19 in 1984 and later finished as a runner-up for Miss Universe. But long before her pageant fame, she says, Venezuela’s political foundations were already beginning to crack. CHINA CONDEMNS US MILITARY BUILDUP OFF VENEZUELA COAST AS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN REGIONAL AFFAIRS While the nation remained a democracy for decades, two socialist parties dominated power. “We got the influx of illegal immigrants, crime went up, drugs started to be a problem,” she said. “The first thing they destroyed was the healthcare system. Venezuela used to have one of the most wonderful healthcare systems — it was paid for, it was our social security. Because the country was so rich, it provided so many services to the Venezuelan people. And of course, no country has the infrastructure for a vertical growth of the population.” Montiel came to the U.S. for college in 1988, hoping the unrest at home would ease. Instead, she watched from abroad as Hugo Chávez led two coup attempts in 1992, and the country erupted in riots and looting. IS TRUMP’S ‘HEAT’ ON VENEZUELA THE START OF A WIDER CAMPAIGN FOR REGIME CHANGE? “I decided I’m gonna stay a little longer, see if things get better,” she said. “But they never did.” From Chávez’s failed coup to Nicolás Maduro’s current hold on power, Montiel sees a straight line — one she says runs through corruption, cartel influence and foreign alliances with Russia and Iran. “Communism always runs out of money,” Montiel said. “Even in a rich country like Venezuela, oil production collapsed, and what was left for them was crime. That’s why they joined the cartels — it’s a criminal communist regime.” ALLIANCE WITH US ‘DISMANTLED’ BY LEFTIST PETRO REGIME, COLOMBIA’S FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS U.S. officials have long accused members of Maduro’s inner circle of involvement in narcotics trafficking, particularly through the Cartel de los Soles — a network of Venezuelan military officers implicated in smuggling cocaine to North America and Europe. Washington has also sanctioned dozens of Venezuelan officials for corruption and ties to terrorist groups, though Caracas denies the charges. Montiel supports the recent U.S. military strikes targeting alleged drug-trafficking networks off Venezuela’s coast and believes they are justified given the threat she says the regime poses to the United States. “Venezuela presents a very high risk to the United States,” she said. “It’s the drug trafficking, the Tren de Aragua trafficking … the problems that many Venezuelan people escaped, now we’re facing in the United States.” WASHINGTON’S SHADOW WAR: HOW STRIKES ON CARTELS THREATEN TO COLLAPSE MADURO’S REGIME The Department of War has conducted 14 lethal strikes on vessels allegedly smuggling narcotics toward U.S. shores over the past two months. In Montiel’s view, dismantling cartel networks and exposing the Venezuelan military’s complicity are essential steps toward toppling the regime. “This is a criminal communist regime and we should never remove the word ‘communist,’” she said. At the same time, the U.S. has intensified pressure on Maduro, whom it does not recognize as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. The Justice Department is offering a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. Analysts have questioned whether the widening military campaign may have a deeper objective: pushing Venezuela’s socialist leader from power. A U.S. intervention aimed at removing Maduro would likely divide Americans still wary of foreign entanglements. But Montiel insists Venezuelans themselves would welcome it. “The people that are still in Venezuela are supporters of President Donald Trump because they’re screaming for freedom,” she said. “They’re screaming to get out of the situation.” Still, she acknowledges that removing the regime alone won’t rebuild the country. “The country is pretty much destroyed,” she said. “It’s worse than any third world country. It’s going to take probably 30 years to get Venezuela back to what it used to be.” Montiel is running in the Nov. 4, 2025, special election for Texas’ 18th Congressional district, a heavily Democratic Houston seat left vacant after the death of Sylvester Turner.
Video: Tanzania president declared winner amid deadly election unrest
NewsFeed Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been declared the winner of the country’s presidential elections amid deadly unrest which the opposition say has left hundreds of protesters dead. Published On 1 Nov 20251 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Canada’s Carney says he apologised to Trump over Reagan anti-tariff ad
Canadian PM says anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan ‘offended’ Trump, who has since cut off trade talks with Canada. Published On 1 Nov 20251 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney says he apologised to Donald Trump over an anti-tariff advertisement that has drawn the United States president’s ire and disrupted trade talks between the two countries. During a news conference in South Korea at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Saturday, Carney stressed that he is responsible for negotiating Canada’s ties with its largest trading partner. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “I did apologise to the president. The president was offended,” the prime minister said of the advertisement, which was produced by the Canadian province of Ontario. “I’m the one who’s responsible, in my role as prime minister, for our relationship with the president of the United States, and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the US government,” Carney added. “So, things happen – we take the good with the bad – and I apologised.” The US-Canada relationship has deteriorated over the past year amid Trump’s global tariffs push, which saw him impose steep duties on his country’s northern neighbour. Ontario’s commercial, which featured a 1980s speech by former US President Ronald Reagan in which Reagan said tariffs can lead to “fierce trade wars” and unemployment, worsened that already tense situation. The Trump administration suspended trade talks with Canada over the advertisement, which Washington has claimed misrepresented Reagan’s views and sought to unfairly influence a looming US Supreme Court decision on Trump’s tariff policy. Advertisement Last weekend, the US government also announced an additional 10 percent levy on Canadian goods after the commercial was not immediately pulled from broadcasts in the US. On Friday, Trump told reporters that he did not plan to resume trade negotiations with Canada despite getting an apology from Carney. “I have a very good relationship, I like him a lot – but you know, what they did was wrong,” the US president said. “He [Carney] was very nice, he apologised for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial. It was the exact opposite; Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they tried to make it look the other way.” The Ontario commercial used real excerpts of Reagan’s speech, but the statements were presented in a different order than how they were originally delivered. The US and Canada, which share the world’s longest land border, traded $761.8bn worth of goods last year, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. Adblock test (Why?)
Why has the Israeli army’s top lawyer resigned after leaking rape evidence?
The Israeli military’s top lawyer, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, has resigned after admitting to leaking footage showing the gang rape of a prisoner at the Sde Temain prison facility in August last year. The video of the rape had originally been leaked to the press in early August in the midst of a right-wing backlash following the arrest of a number of soldiers for the rape of a Palestinian prisoner. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list In her resignation statement on Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi blamed pressure from the right-wing on her rape investigation for her decision to leak the footage, claiming that she was countering “false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities”. In the leaked footage, soldiers can be seen grabbing and leading away a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner before surrounding him with riot shields to obscure the rape. “For 15 minutes, the accused kicked the detainee, stomped on him, stood on his body, hit him and pushed him all over his body, including with clubs, dragged his body along the ground, and used a taser gun on him, including on his head,” the original indictment stated. According to medical information obtained by the Israeli daily Haaretz, the victim suffered a ruptured bowel, severe anal and lung injuries, and broken ribs as a result of the assault. He later required surgery. What happened to the soldiers? At least nine soldiers were detained in connection with the man’s rape. All but five were released relatively quickly. In February, the remaining soldiers were indicted for “severely abusing” the detainee, but not raping him. The trial is ongoing. Advertisement A United Nations commission, reviewing the change of indictment and other instances of Israel’s use of sexual and gender-based violence, determined that the decision to downgrade the indictments, despite the evidence, “will inevitably result in a more lenient punishment” if there is a conviction. Why weren’t Israeli politicians calling for accountability? Because they determined that doing so was somehow unpatriotic. A number of Israel’s far-right politicians, including Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, were among those who stormed the Sde Teiman prison in protest at the arrest of the soldiers for rape. Israel’s hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared to address Tomer-Yerushalmi directly in July 2024, writing in Hebrew, “The Military Advocate General, take your hands off the reservists!” he said, referring to the soldiers accused of rape. Ben-Gvir’s fellow traveller on the far-right, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, was equally active on social media at the time, writing that the alleged rapists should be treated like “heroes, not villains”. Israeli minister of National Security and far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir called upon Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi to halt her investigation into the soldiers accused of rape ([Ahmad Gharabli/AFP] Returning to social media during the furore following the rape, Smotrich chose to ignore the credible accusations of rape and instead called for “an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world, and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them”. How have the critics reacted to Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation? Many of the loudest voices in defending the alleged rapists were equally vocal in welcoming the resignation of the woman responsible for sharing evidence of that rape. Writing on social media hours after Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation, Smotrich accused her and much of Israel’s judicial system of rank corruption, as well as launching what he called an “anti-Semitic blood libel” against their military. Ben-Gvir was no less critical of Israel’s judicial system in the leaking of the footage, writing: “All those involved in the affair must be held accountable.” Both ministers are active supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing attempts to weaken the judiciary and reduce its political oversight. Have other crimes been committed at Sde Teiman against Palestinians? At least 135 of the mutilated bodies returned to Palestinian officials in Gaza by Israel last week as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, had been held at Sde Teiman, documents that accompanied each corpse showed. Advertisement Several of the bodies had been left with blindfolds on, and some had their hands still tied behind their back. One had a rope around its neck. The same UN report that examined the reduced indictment against the soldiers also noted that detainees at Sde Teiman – including children – were regularly shackled, forced into stress positions, denied toilets and showers and beaten. Some were subjected to sexual violence, including the insertion of objects, electric shocks and rape. Adblock test (Why?)
Bihar Elections 2025: CM Nitish Kumar’s video message for Biharis ahead of polls, says, ‘I didn’t work for my…’
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday, i.e., November 1, released a video message for citizens of the poll-bound state, asserting he has served tham with “honesty and hard work” since he was first elected to the office in 2005.
India’s CMS-03 Satellite: New eyes and ears for the Indian Navy
India will launch its heaviest communication satellite, CMS-03, on 2 November 2025 from Sriharikota. This is a major step forward in India’s military space capability.
BIG TROUBLE for UPSC coaching centres! Heavy fine of Rs 800000 slapped on Dikshant IAS, Abhimanyu IAS for…
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalty on Dikshant IAS and Abhimanu IAS of Rs 8 lakh each, for indulging in misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.