Shine a full light on Mamdani's record

Faroque A. Khan presents Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as a figure of faith and public service while omitting critical parts of his record “Mamdani’s win has many meanings,” Opinion, Nov. 19]. That silence is telling.

Khan says he was “appalled with the silence of our elected leaders” about what he calls the “ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Yet he offers not a single word about the Oct. 7 massacre — the kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder of Jewish civilians by Hamas. If “silence in the face of suffering” is truly intolerable, why was Khan silent about those victims?

Equally troubling is Khan’s selective description of Mamdani’s associations. He ignores Mamdani’s public praise for the Holy Land Five, leaders of a charity convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. He sidesteps the candidate’s support from groups linked to CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in that same case.

Khan omits Mamdani’s fundraising for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, defunded by the United States after revelations that some employees aided the Oct. 7 attacks.

And what about Mamdani’s embrace of Imam Siraj Wahhaj — whom federal prosecutors named an unindicted co-conspirator in 1993’s World Trade Center bombing?

Khan calls for moral clarity, but that requires acknowledging Mamdani’s ties to anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli organizations and individuals — instead of obscuring the truth.

— Michael Blitz, Glen Cove

The writer is a professor emeritus at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Faroque A. Khan never stated that Israel had a right to defend itself or try to eliminate Hamas so such a massacre would never happen again. The United States in World War II killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese and German civilians. Was that genocide? Remember: The Israel Defense Forces warned people in Gaza before they attacked Hamas-controlled buildings.

— Marshall Hubsher, Port Washington