Sharpton claims Islamophobia in NYC mayoral race, supports Mamdani campaign

The Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday denounced what he called the “ugly Islamophobia” that has swept New York’s mayoral race, accusing some of calling every Muslim a terrorist in order to attack Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Sharpton, an MSNBC host and progressive activist, was speaking at an event he was hosting for Mamdani in Harlem, and the mayoral candidate was also throwing jabs — accusing President Donald Trump of defaming and destroying welfare programs. The democratic socialist drew parallels to the Reconstruction-era agency created to help newly freed slaves to make his point.

The two men were joined by Pastor Miles Travis Boyd, whose mother died on September 11, as well as other religious leaders.

“I am outraged by the abhorrent Islamophobia that has been used in this campaign to act like every Muslim is a terrorist and act like something horrible, because what happened to us on 9/11 is an insult to the intelligence of all New Yorkers,” Sharpton told a lively crowd at the House of Justice, his National Action Network headquarters.

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Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani with Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network House of Justice in Harlem on November 1, 2025. (Ryan Murphy/Reuters)

“If you can’t get a vote on your record, don’t pit us against each other,” he added.

He argued that just because you show up at someone’s campaign or shake their hand doesn’t mean you share responsibility for everything they’ve been accused of. Sharpton was likely referring to a meeting Mamdani had last week with Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who has been linked to other terrorist activities in the United States.

Sharpton went on to say that he denounced both the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

“I am against Islamophobia. But bringing it into the politics of the greatest city in the world should not go unchecked,” Sharpton said. “We’re not going to stand by while they do this. We’re Christians. I’m a born-again Baptist, but I accept that the Muslim community comes from the shadows. The Jewish community comes from the shadows. And let’s march down Broadway together.”

Zohran Mamdani meets Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Yusef Abdus Salaam on October 17, 2025. (@ZohranKMamdani/X)

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He then threw his flag into Mamdani’s corner after telling the audience that Mamdani was the only candidate showing up at their events.

“For the sake of fairness, for the sake of prize, for those who have been victimized, I present to you the candidate who ran, Zohran Mamdani,” Sharpton said, shaking Mamdani’s hand as the crowd clapped and clapped in approval.

Mamdani followed Sharpton’s remarks with a speech invoking the American Reconstruction era, accusing Trump of destroying modern social programs, saying they represented today’s version of the Freedmen’s Bureau. The agency provided relief, education, and helped reunite families of slaves and poor whites in the post-Civil War South.

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, practices Tai Chi on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, October 31, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Deirdre Heavey)

“If the Freedmen’s Bureau existed today, Donald Trump would raid its coffers and call it socialist excess,” Mamdani said. “He would do what he did to SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid, to any program that dared to help the poor rather than comfort the rich.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Mamdani said his campaign was rooted in a moral and economic revival stretching from Harlem to Queens to Bay Ridge.

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“Over the past 12 months, my friends, we have built a movement around creating a society that we would all like to see, a society where the poor receive help, where those who work long nights are released on the day when injustice is banished from our city and faith is restored to City Hall,” Mamdani said.