- In early November 2025, as New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, a claim circulated online that the democratic socialist had received an endorsement from the Islamic State group, a terrorist organization that previously took territory in Syria and Iraq with a view to establishing a religious state.
- The alleged endorsement, formatted to look like a press release signed by “The Islamic State,” appeared to suggest the group had orchestrated the election of Mamdani.
- Such an endorsement was unlikely for several reasons, including that the organization, a Salafist-Jihadist group, rejects democracy and that Mamdani is a Shia Muslim, a group of Muslims that the group regards as “Rafidis,” or Muslims who have rejected the group’s interpretation of Islam.
- According to Laurence Bindner, who specializes in analyzing the strategic communication of violent extremist groups, the alleged endorsement had not appeared on the group’s official channels and did not follow the group’s usual visual style.
Snopes could not reach a representative for the group to ask for comment on the alleged endorsement, nor could we access its media channels, run through encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, to independently verify whether the group circulated the alleged endorsement online.
In early November 2025, as Zohran Mamdani’s successful run for mayor of New York City drew to a close, a claim (archived) circulated online that the democratic socialist received an endorsement from the Islamic State group, a terrorist organization that has previously taken territory in Syria and Iraq with a view to establishing a religious state.
The alleged endorsement, formatted to look like a press release signed by “The Islamic State,” appeared to suggest the group (sometimes referred to as “ISIS”) had orchestrated the election of Mamdani under the name “Operation Manhattan Project.” The release compared the significance of Mamdani’s election to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, calling the alleged operation an act of jihad.
One X user posted the endorsement with the caption, “This is all you need to know about jihadi Mamdani. ISIS is openly supporting and calling his victory already.”
This is all you need to know about jihadi Mamdani. ISIS is openly supporting and calling his victory already. pic.twitter.com/rF5X731SAo
— Alexander Duncan (@AlexDuncanTX) November 4, 2025
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers wrote in to ask if the group really endorsed Mamdani.
The alleged endorsement carried a version of the Islamic State flag and the logo for Amaq News Agency, a media organization affiliated with the group that the U.S. State Department has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Aside from these assets, the alleged endorsement appeared unlikely to be authentic. Salafi-Jihadist groups like that generally reject democratic governance, making it unlikely that they would endorse or celebrate Mamdani’s win in a democratic system. Mamdani is a Shia Muslim, one of the largest branches of Islam and a group former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Islamic State group had committed “genocide” against.Â
We found no evidence that reputable news outlets had reported on the group’s alleged endorsement of Mamdani through Amaq News Agency (archived, archived, archived, archived). Laurence Bindner, an expert on the group’s online communications, told Snopes via LinkedIn the alleged endorsement did not circulate on the group’s official channels.
We could not reach a representative for the group to ask for comment on the alleged endorsement, nor could we access its media channels, run through encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, to independently verify whether the group circulated the alleged endorsement online.
Given the above, we leave this claim unrated.
We reached out to Mamdani’s campaign to ask whether the group’s representatives had contacted the campaign to offer the alleged endorsement. We also reached out to experts on the group’s online media presence for their opinion on whether the endorsement was real. We await replies to our queries.
ISIS ideology at odds with Mamdani’s politics
An endorsement for Mamdani appeared unlikely, mainly due to the terrorist group’s ideology. According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the organization was a Salafi-Jihadist group. A 2020 factbook produced by the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) described Salafi-Jihadism as an ideology that “rejects liberalism, democracy and the nation state, which have to be fought.”
Bindner, an associate founder of the JOS Project, a company that specializes in the analysis of the strategic communication of violent extremist groups, told Snopes via LinkedIn that it was “inconceivable” that the group or its supports would engage with elections at all because the group carries out its fight against the West exclusively through armed fighting.
Given these assessments, it seemed unlikely the group would endorse any political candidate in any democratic system, including Mamdani.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a non-governmental organization that translates and analyzes media from the Middle East and North Africa, reported in July 2025 that the pro-Islamic State group news outlet Bariqah News Agency had “lambasted” Muslims for supporting Mamdani. According to the MEMRI report, the outlet said Mamdani was a “polytheistic, Rafidi (pejorative for Shi’ite) Democrat, who pledges loyalty to non-Muslims and to the promoters of homosexuality.”
According to the RAN factbook, Salafists (not all of whom are jihadists like the Islamic State group) adhere to an interpretation of Islam practiced by the first three generations after the Prophet Mohammed. Salafists reject “any subsequent interpretation of the Quran (bid’ah) and modern Muslim views and practices.”
This rejection includes Shia Muslims, whose interpretation of Islam goes beyond the first three generations after Mohammed. Mamdani, according to an X post in 2019, adheres to a branch of Shia Islam, and thus would be rejected by the Islamic State group.
Bindner wrote that an endorsement was “all the more unthinkable given that Zohran Mamdani is a Shia, and ISIS considers Shias as ‘Rafidis’, that is, apostates and an internal enemy to be eradicated.”
‘Endorsement’ didn’t follow ISIS style
In addition to stark ideological differences between the group and Mamdani that would make an endorsement unlikely, the version of the alleged endorsement circulating online was inconsistent with other messaging from Amaq News Agency.
Bindner wrote that the group’s statements usually originate from official channels on Telegram or the group’s own platforms. According to Bindner, the alleged endorsement did not appear on any official channels.
Bindner added that the Amaq News Agency logo “does not usually appear” next to the group’s flag as seen in the alleged endorsement. Reposted versions of earlier statements disseminated through Amaq News Agency showed the agency used a blue template and did not use the group’s flag (archived, archived)
According to Bindner, the alleged endorsement could have been a last-minute attempt to direct voters away from Mamdani. Bindner wrote, “Taken together, these elements provide a set of clues that this statement is a forgery, aiming to portray Mamdani as a product of jihadism and discredit him.”
Snopes previously investigated claims that former U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the CIA “to train the Islamic State,” or that Deutsche Bank funded the group.
Sources
 Radicalisation Awareness Network. “Islamist Extremism.” Jan. 2020, https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2020-01/ran_factbook_islamist_extremism_december_2019_en.pdf.
“Amendments to the Terrorist Designations of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.” United States Department of State, https://2017-2021.state.gov/amendments-to-the-terrorist-designations-of-the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-syria/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
“Extremism, Objectivity, and Action: Insights from Laurence Bindner.” European Commission, 26 Jun. 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/home/items/890332/en.
“Islamic State Claims South London Attack: Amaq News Agency.” Reuters, 3 Feb. 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/world/islamic-state-claims-south-london-attack-amaq-news-agency-idUSKBN1ZX1J1/.
“Islamic State (ISIS) Media Outlet On Telegram Lambasts Muslims For Celebrating NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani: His Loyalty Is To ‘Nonbelievers’ And ‘Homosexuals.'” MEMRI, 2 Jul. 2025, https://www.memri.org/jttm/islamic-state-isis-media-outlet-telegram-lambasts-muslims-celebrating-nyc-mayoral-candidate.
“Islamic State of Iraq and Ash-Sham (ISIS).” National Counterterrorism Center, Sep. 2022, https://www.dni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/isis.html.
“Islamic State Releases Photo of Alleged Attackers in Russia Shooting.” Reuters, 23 Mar. 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/islamic-state-releases-photo-alleged-attackers-behind-russia-shooting-2024-03-23/.
“Remarks on Daesh and Genocide.” U.S. Department of State, //2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/03/254782.htm. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
“Twelver Shi’ism.” Wikipedia, 5 Nov. 2025. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twelver_Shi%27ism&oldid=1320584998.
Variant of the Jihadist Black Flag. This Particular Version Is Used by the “Islamic State of Iraq” and by al-Shabaab in Somalia. 15 Oct. 2006, svg image based on press photographs (original 2007 upload apparently based on a picture of the “Official website of Islamic State of Iraq” which can not now be traced; press photographs showing this flag first appear in early 2006). Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Islamic_State_of_Iraq.svg.
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