As New York City Mayor has been embracing his Muslim faith amid Ramadan, he decided to break his religious fast with inmates who share his faith in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail, calling it “one of the most meaningful evenings” he’s had as mayor.Â
Although Mamdani has visited Rikers Island in the past as a state legislator, this marked his first visit as mayor of New York City.Â
Shortly before arriving, he reiterated his pledge to shut down the jail and have the city absorb the incarcerated population into its borough-based jails. He also hinted at plans to hire a facilitator to expedite those plans.
“This is me just being a Muslim New Yorker,” Mamdani said during the visit to Rikers, according to NPR. “There are some for whom that is a political act.”Â
Mamdani was joined during the visit by Yusef Salaam, a member of the so-called “Central Park Five” who were exonerated of a 1989 rape and assault. Salaam currently serves as a member of the Council.
Social media erupted after Mamdani’s X post, with many critics questioning his decision to visit inmates at Rikers, which is notorious for its violent criminals.
Mystery novelist Daniel Friedman, who according to his bio on Macmillan Publishers’ website, lives in New York City, noted, “You have to be an absolute monster to be sent to Rikers Island these days.”
“Offenders on Rikers all have long histories of doing things so horrible that even the woke, pro-crime judges and prosecutors in NYC dont want to be responsible for what theyll do if they let them go,” Friedman added.
Moshe Hill, a long-time Long Island resident and candidate for the Nassau County legislature, agreed with Friedman.
“Criminals in prison are just New Yorkers in custody, according to Mamdani. Why are they in custody? You don’t go to Rikers Island for nothing!” Hill quipped.Â
“Mayor likes to hang out with the people who victimize us. F—ing ridiculous,” Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt posted on X.
Meanwhile, Emmy-Award winning producer and columnist Daniella Greenbaum Davis made her own post, asking the if he had also visited the victims of he was meeting with.
“Visiting people in jail is admirable but just wondering if you’ve also visited their victims / the families of their victims?” she questioned. “Seems like there is a bizarre progressive determination to invert victimization I can’t quite understand.”
Among Mamdani’s celebrations during Ramadan was an , at the Museum of the City of New York. That also triggered some responses, including from a former college football coach and lawmaker, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.,Â
Tuberville shared a photo of Mamdani at the iftar alongside a photo of the Twin Towers on fire after planes hit them on Sept. 11, 2001. “” Tuberville captioned the post.Â
Tuberville has faced backlash over the post, but the GOP senator stood firm and Â
“I just go by his rhetoric,” Tuberville said.
“Hes made a lot of statements about his stance with Islam and radical Islam, all the things that go along with what he preaches every day. And Im just kind of repeating what hes saying,” the senator told D.C. News Nows Reshad Hudson.
“We dont need a division in this country. We need everybody to go with the Constitution, understand we have moral values. And if we all stick with those â I dont care if youre Muslim or Catholic or Baptist, it makes no difference,” he continued.
He added, “We need to make the country better; we dont need to divide it. Thats what hes doing in New York.”
