New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s father, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, has drawn controversy for asserting that the Nazis took direct inspiration from the United States’ “history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, official racism and concentration camps,” as reported by The New York Post.
Mahmood Mamdani, 79, made the claim in his 2020 book Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities, which he dedicated to his son, Zohran, 34.
The elder Mamdani wrote that “The Allies who prosecuted individual Nazis at Nuremberg were invested in ignoring Nazism’s political roots, for these roots were also America’s,” adding, “The United States is the outcome of a history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, official racism and concentration camps (known as Indian reservations).”
The book’s acknowledgments include a message to his son: “And Zohran, our son, who understands that the time has come to go out and join those impatient to change the world.”
Zohran Mamdani, now serving in the New York State Assembly, has credited his parents as strong influences on his worldview. During his time at Bowdoin College in Maine, he founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group known for its anti-Israel activism.
He entered state politics as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, bringing with him a record of outspoken opposition to Israel and capitalism.
Mahmood Mamdani’s academic writings often reflect similar ideological views. In Neither Settler Nor Native, he argues that “Zionist settlers in Israel forcibly exiled and concentrated non-Jews, an ongoing process.”
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He also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel. His Columbia University colleagues, including Lila Abu-Lughod and Brinkley Messick, who were acknowledged in his book, have also endorsed sanctions against Israel.
Born in India and raised in Kampala, Uganda, Mahmood Mamdani studied at American universities before helping to found the Uganda-Korea Friendship Society in 1981, an organization with ties to North Korea.
In the early 1980s, he visited Pyongyang and later wrote of the “immense mobilization of the population” he observed there.
‘Born in India, raised in Kampala and educated at US universities, Mahmood Mamdani is an anti-imperialist who helped to found the Uganda-Korea Friendship Society in 1981, a group connected to North Korea. Mamdani traveled to Pyongyang in the early 1980s, writing a report that… pic.twitter.com/KRghoZGMNo
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His wife, filmmaker Mira Nair, also maintains a history of opposition to Israel.
In 2013, she declined an invitation to attend the Haifa International Festival to screen her film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, writing, “I will go to Israel when occupation is gone… when the state does not privilege one religion over another… when apartheid is over.”
The $15 million film was funded entirely by the Doha Film Institute in Qatar.
Nair founded the Maisha Film Lab in 2004 in Kampala to support local filmmakers. The school receives funding from Qatar and the Open Society Institute (OSI) Development Fund, a nonprofit run by George Soros. Soros’ Open Society Foundations also financed portions of Mahmood Mamdani’s academic work.
Between 2020 and 2023, Soros’ organization granted $620,000 to Makerere University in Uganda, where Mamdani oversaw the Makerere Institute for Social Research. The largest single grant, $450,000, was designated for the “decolonization of knowledge in Africa and in the African academy.”
Mahmood Mamdani’s most recent book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State, released last week, continues his criticism of capitalism. He faults Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for “embracing international capitalism” after nearly four decades in power.
Neither Mahmood nor Zohran Mamdani has publicly commented on the growing scrutiny surrounding their family’s history of radical activism and anti-Israel sentiment.
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