The race for New York’s mayor should be about crime, housing, transit, and the future of America’s greatest city. Instead, it now carries the shadow of foreign money, specifically Qatari influence, through the privileged life and political career of Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The story begins not with Mamdani himself, but with his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair. Nair is internationally acclaimed, but her later career was sustained not by Hollywood or Broadway, but by Doha. A Qatari royal, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, the sister of the emir, bankrolled Nair’s projects for more than a decade. From the Doha Tribeca Film Festival to lavish stage productions tied to the 2022 World Cup, Qatar poured millions into her work.
This was not cultural philanthropy. It was soft power, the emirate’s proven method of laundering its global reputation while cultivating ideological allies. Qatar has perfected this model by showering funds on elite Western institutions, arts, and academia, all while bankrolling Hamas, sheltering Taliban leaders, and promoting Islamist propaganda networks like Al Jazeera. The goal is clear: to reshape Western discourse in its favor, to demonize Israel, and to soften resistance to its authoritarian rule.
Into this web of influence steps Zohran Mamdani. His father, Mahmood Mamdani is a professor at Columbia who sent his son to elite schools and an expensive liberal arts college. Yet Mamdani’s political persona is built around grievance, posturing as an anticolonial activist who portrays Israel as uniquely illegitimate. The irony is glaring. While benefiting from Ivy League comfort, Upper West Side affluence, and now Qatari largesse, the Mamdani family loudly campaigns for boycotts of Israel, from targeting Gal Gadot’s Hollywood career to vilifying the Haifa Film Festival.
What’s at Stake
This hypocrisy is not a side note; it is the heart of the matter. Qatar is no ordinary benefactor. It bankrolls Hamas rockets, plays double games with Washington, and funds Islamist movements across the globe. If Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor, New York risks becoming the latest stage for Qatari projection, a Western capital city whose leadership is shaped by an ideology that despises Israel, undermines America’s allies, and excuses authoritarian abuses abroad while masquerading as progressive at home.
Consider the contradiction. Qatar, notorious for its slave-like labor conditions, persecution of minorities, and criminalization of LGBTQ people, has been the benefactor of the Mamdani household. Yet the Mamdanis reserve their outrage solely for Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East, where Arab citizens vote, serve in parliament, and sit on the Supreme Court. When Mamdani attacks Israel, he is not speaking as an independent politician, but channeling the worldview that Doha has cultivated and exported with billions of dollars.
The question New Yorkers must ask is simple: Do we want City Hall tied, even indirectly, to the same Gulf monarchy that bankrolls Hamas and shelters extremists? Do we want the mayor of America’s largest city to emerge from an ideological ecosystem funded by a regime that undermines US interests abroad while buying credibility in the West? That is the real Mamdani question.
New York’s identity matters here. This is the city scarred by 9/11, directly attacked by Islamist terrorists financed through Gulf channels not so different from Qatar’s. It is also home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, a global hub of democracy, freedom, and resilience. To allow Qatar’s influence to seep into City Hall would not just be a political mistake, it would be a moral abdication.
Israel does not need to apologize for existing, nor should America tolerate foreign monarchies laundering their influence through the children of Ivy League faculty. For all its faults, New York has always stood as a beacon of openness, pluralism, and resistance against tyranny. That identity is incompatible with the worldview Doha funds and Mamdani echoes.
New Yorkers must decide if they will allow that to happen. Because if they do not, the next time Hamas celebrates, it may not be in Doha or Gaza. It may be in the streets of New York with a mayor whose rise was smoothed, at least in part, by Qatar’s shadow.
Amine Ayoub is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco.
