A Pattern in Plain Sight: The Public Record of Rama Duwaji

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his “non-public figure” wife, Rama Duwaji, have made clear, through words, actions, associations, and with illustrations where they stand ideologically. Mayor Mamdani ran on an openly anti-Israel and in effect openly anti-Semitic platform. His wife Rama made her beliefs and feelings perfectly clear in a pattern which begins with her online activity.

The Free Press reported that Rama Duwaji liked an Instagram post claiming that reports of Hamas rapes during the October 7 attack were a hoax. The post referred to a New York Times investigation documenting sexual violence against Israeli victims as a “mass rape” hoax which had been “fabricated” by the newspaper.

Other posts which she reportedly liked accused Israel of a “vile land grab.” One praised activists who forcibly occupied a building at Columbia University in 2024. Another accused Israel of genocide immediately after the Hamas attack. A separate post reportedly called former U.S. President Joe Biden “Butcher Biden” and accused him of genocide.

While Mamdani has defended his wife as a “private person,” her public activity reveals a consistent and visible pattern of ideological alignment which extends across social media, political campaigns, affiliations, and professional work.

During a press conference, reporters questioned Mamdani about his wife’s social media activity. He defended her privacy, answering “My wife is the love of my life“ and that she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.”

We must question the Mayor’s assertion that his wife is a “non-public person” and a “private person”. Rama Duwaji is not referred to as “the mayor’s wife”. She is called the First Lady of New York City, hardly the title of an invisible person.

Then, there is her very visible activity in Mamdani’s mayoral campaign where she was deeply involved in a Democratic socialist activist campaign pushing DSA political candidates critical of Israel and backing a controversial bill targeting pro-Israel charities. First lady Rama Duwaji, a professional illustrator, created artwork for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America as the lefty group unleashed a public campaign called “PalestineOnTheBallot.com.”

The effort promoted candidates running in Democratic Party primaries who snubbed funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vowed to support the Not on Our Dime Act — a bill which would punish or dissolve registered charities found to support “Israeli settler violence.”

Now, when we turn to her profession as a professional illustrator, we find a very public personality whose art work matches her voice and her writing. Her graphic illustrations reflect her hatred of Israel, her hatred of Jews, her support of Hamas and of its very visible and vocal supporters, her belief in the victimization of the Gazans by Israel and the Zionists. Most deadly is her constant evocation of Israel’s Genocide of the Gazans.

Online associations

The pattern continues with Rama Duwaji's online actions. She not only likes and shares disturbing posts, but she follows accounts linked to extreme groups or support extremist groups and/or individuals.

Rama Duwaji follows the @decolonize_the_classroom account on instagram, which openly commemorates dangerous individuals like Basil Al-Araj, whom they call a “martyr.” In reality, the charges which led to his attempted arrest were his planned attacks against Israel and possession of unlicensed weapons. The Decolonize the Classroom account also promotes and collaborates on local NYC events sponsored by extremist groups like Within Our Lifetime. This is an offshoot organization from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) which changed their name due to being even more extreme, even for SJP. Within Our Lifetime calls for Globalizing the Intifada, Resistance by all means necessary, and other terror-supporting rhetoric.

Rama Duwaji also follows @SJP_SVA, an SJP chapter of The School of Visual Arts (SVA). SJP has been linked to supporting violent extremism, disrupting campus life, and harassing and targeting Jewish students as well as targeting Jewish events. There are over 250 SJP chapters across America on American colleges and universities.

To understand SJP you need to understand the Muslim Brotherhood, who are engaged in a political form of Islam and have been infiltrating the West for decades through various “organizations” and their main funder is Qatar.

So how are they connected to SJP? SJP's sister organization, American Muslims for Palestine, shares the same founder, Hatem Bazian, a professor at UC Berkeley. Bazian receives donations from the AFR Foundation. According to the Middle East Forum, this Foundation appears to serve as an umbrella for approximately 50 private Islamist grant-making foundations.

MSA has played a key role in the Brotherhood-led Islamic Movement in North America since the 1960s, when the organization was established as one of the primary conduits for the proselytizing ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America.

According to the FBI, one of these organizations called Muslim American Youth Association has "played pivotal roles in building Hamas's infrastructure in the United States."

The donation to American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) may seem negligible. Still, under federal law, non-profits in the United States are not required to disclose all their funding sources, even those from abroad (although several States require greater transparency). The financial trail from Hamas-linked and other Islamist entities to SJP and its network could be substantially greater than is currently known. Before creating AMP and SJP, Bazian was a fundraiser for KindHearts. In February 2006, the U.S. Department of the Treasury froze the assets of KindHearts, alleging that it supported Hamas until a 2012 settlement allowing KindHearts to close, distribute remaining funds to recognized charities (UNICEF, Mercy Corps), and form a new entity.

Rama Duwaji also follows Al Jazeera, a Qatari media company that’s frequently described as a propaganda machine, with allegations that it acts as a mouthpiece for the Qatari government, promotes extremist ideologies, and supports organizations like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Various countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Israel, have at times blocked or shut down Al Jazeera offices, citing the network for spreading incitement, supporting terrorism, or acting on behalf of the Qatari state. The network has been accused of backing the Muslim Brotherhood and giving undue space to groups like Jabhat al-Nusra. There have been calls and legal moves in the U.S. for its digital arm, AJ+, to register as a foreign agent of Qatar.

Rama Duwaji has also deleted a photo of her teaching an art workshop in Qatar via Tasmeem Doha, a Qatari government funded program.

Mahmoud Khalil and CAIR

Rama Duwaji is known for her support of Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist, by hosting him for a Ramadan Iftar dinner at Gracie Mansion in March 2026, celebrating his release from detention. This act, alongside her social media activity, drew backlash due to Khalil's role in radical Columbia University protests and his involvement in anti-western, anti-Israel, and anti-American activism. Duwaji follows Khalil on social media and accounts which support him. These accounts are openly collaborating on posts with CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which supported and helped fund Mamdani’s campaign, as well as supported Khalil.

CAIR was involved in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial as an unindicted co-conspirator. The case, which concluded in 2008, was the largest successful terrorism-financing prosecution in U.S. history, resulting in the conviction of five leaders of the Texas-based charity for funneling over $12 million to Hamas.

Here are the key details regarding CAIR's involvement:

• Unindicted Co-Conspirator Status: In 2007, the U.S. government named CAIR, along with over 300 other organizations and individuals, as an unindicted co-conspirator and joint venturer in the HLF case.
• Evidence Presented: Evidence presented during the trial, including FBI testimony, alleged that CAIR was listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee" in the U.S., which was established to support Hamas. An FBI special agent testified that CAIR was a "front group for Hamas".
• Not Indicted/Convicted: CAIR was not charged with a crime in the case, and they have consistently denied any wrongdoing, noting that the U.S. Attorney who led the case confirmed that indictment decisions were based solely on evidence, not politics.
• Conviction of a Local Board Member: Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR's Texas chapter, was one of the five individuals convicted and sentenced in the case.
• Post-Trial Legal Rulings: In 2009 and 2010, federal courts ruled that the government violated the Fifth Amendment rights of CAIR and other groups by releasing the unindicted co-conspirator list, and ordered the list to be sealed.
• FBI Response: Following the trial, in October 2008, the FBI formally restricted non-investigative interactions with CAIR.

In late 2025, Florida and Texas officially designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a terrorist or criminal organization, alleging ties to extremism, which CAIR has vehemently denied and challenged in federal court. These actions, stemming from intensified scrutiny following the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict, restrict CAIR's operations, including property purchases in Texas and state contracts in Florida.

Major State Designations & Controversies (2025-2026)

• Texas (Nov 2025): Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization, prohibiting the group from purchasing land in the State. CAIR filed a lawsuit alleging that the move is unconstitutional, defamatory, and lacks legal basis.
• Florida (Dec 2025): Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order labelling CAIR as a "terrorist organization" and the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. This order restricts State agencies from contracting with or providing benefits to CAIR.

Rama Duwaji also follows a sports clothing line @FC_Palestine. This brand openly states that a percentage of their profits directly support Palestine through organizations like MAP.

NGO Monitor has investigated MAP, the following is a summary directly from the NGO Monitor website:

“Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is a significant UK-based charity with major British public figures serving on its board. Founded in 1984 by Dr. Swee Ang Chai, it operates medical clinics in the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon. The group claims to be “non-political” with the exception of working with “politicians and policy makers to ensure that Palestinians get access to the healthcare that they need.”

MAP’s advocacy, however, goes far beyond the stated limits of its mission. MAP promotes a polarizing anti-Israel narrative under the guise of medical expertise and facts. MAP lobbies policy makers and legislators in Britain, the European Union and other international institutions to sanction Israel. MAP’s tactics in this effort include “fact finding” visits, biased and misleading publications, and panels at British political party conferences.

Furthermore, anti-Semitic statements have been made at MAP events and are also evident on MAP’s website. Indeed, during the 2014 Gaza war, MAP founder Swee Ang promoted an anti-Semitic video made by American white supremacist David Duke. At a 2013 MAP event, Sir Iain Chalmers complained how “Zionists” have “control in so many different domains.”

MAP utilizes politicized language accusing Israel of “indiscriminate attacks” and “collective punishment” against Palestinians while alleging that Israeli defensive measures are “arbitrary.” MAP also holds ongoing programs where Israel is consistently demonized. A central theme in its work is describing the Founding of the State of Israel as the “Nakba” (catastrophe) thereby using Palestinian nationalist references.

MAP is a partner with The Lancet medical journal in The Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance (LPHA). The Lancet provides MAP with a platform for its anti-Israel political views.

MAP’s 2014 Gaza relief partners include the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) and IDEALS, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) funded by Interpal, which is designated as a terrorist entity by the United States.

MAP’s finances are non-transparent. Its annual budget in 2014 was £3.1 million. Direct and indirect governmental donors include the UK, EU, the Netherlands, Australia, and Ireland.”

Public rhetoric under scrutiny

The pattern extends even to Duwaji’s public rhetoric and responses under scrutiny. She has reportedly expressed praise for Leila Khaled, a figure internationally known for her role in aircraft hijackings, further reinforcing the ideological through-line reflected across her activity.

The controversy surrounding Rama Duwaji deepened further after recent reports by the New York Post and other outlets revealed the existence of Spotify playlists, allegedly connected to her account, containing songs associated with “Intifada,” anti-Israel rhetoric, and “resistance” themes. One playlist, reportedly titled “hungry but sexy for Palestine,” included tracks such as “Intifada” and “Ana Bakrah Israel” (“I Hate Israel”). The playlists reinforce a broader and longstanding pattern of what many consider extremist-aligned activism.

This also fuels broader concerns over how radical messaging is increasingly normalized through modern influencer culture, art, music, and digital activism, often packaged in aesthetically appealing or emotionally driven forms which can obscure the underlying glorification of violence, “intifada,” or jihadist ideology for younger Western audiences online.

Recently, amid growing attention, Duwaji issued a statement expressing regret for the “hurt” caused by her past social media posts. However, she stopped short of directly apologizing for specific claims—including statements that Tel Aviv should not “exist,” assertions that reports of Hamas-perpetrated rapes were a “mass hoax,” and prior rhetoric accusing United States service members of “mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians” in service of “American hegemony.” The statement, while framed as conciliatory, did not address or retract the substance of those positions, leaving the underlying record unchanged.

Subsequent events have continued to draw public attention. In the days leading up to the United States' 250th anniversary celebrations, Duwaji traveled to Mallorca, Spain, to participate as the "artist in residence" at a sold-out Women Sanctuary retreat titled Plants of the Quran, rather than remaining in New York for the commemorative events. The trip prompted criticism from several public officials, including New York City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who argued that the decision reinforced what she viewed as Duwaji's longstanding hostility toward the United States.

Days later, Duwaji skipped America's 250th anniversary celebrations to co-host a women-only "spiritual" retreat at a monastery in Corsica organized by The Women Sanctuary, where tickets for a private cottage reportedly cost as much as $5,260. The retreat centered on Mary in the Quran and sparked widespread outrage among many Christians and others after a previous participant described Mary, the mother of Jesus, as "a Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation." The portrayal rewrites history by transforming one of Christianity's most revered figures into a “Palestinian” political symbol and projecting political activism onto a first-century historical figure. The controversy further intensified scrutiny of Duwaji's ideological activism.

During the World Cup festivities, Duwaji was photographed wearing a custom top featuring prominent Arabic script, rather than apparel displaying Team USA or other American national symbols. The image generated criticism on social media, viewing it as another example of the symbolic messaging which has characterized much of her public presentation.

Conclusion

Taken together, these incidents do not represent isolated controversies or guilt by association. They reveal a consistent and well-documented pattern which runs through Rama Duwaji's social media activity, public advocacy, professional work, and network of affiliations. From amplifying posts which deny or minimize documented atrocities, to engaging with activist networks which endorse "resistance by all means necessary," to participating in events which recast religious and historical figures through a political lens, the underlying themes remain remarkably consistent. Her artwork reinforces many of these same narratives, extending their reach through visual storytelling as well as rhetoric.

Despite this extensive and highly public record, Mayor Zohran Mamdani continues to characterize his wife as a "private person." That description is increasingly difficult to reconcile with reality. A person who publicly campaigns for political causes, collaborates with activist organizations, shapes cultural narratives through widely circulated artwork, and repeatedly places herself at the center of ideological controversies is, by any ordinary understanding, participating in public life. Whether through social media, political advocacy, artistic expression, or high-profile public events, Duwaji has consistently chosen to engage in public discourse. The record is extensive, the pattern is documented, and it raises legitimate questions which cannot simply be dismissed by labeling her a "private person."