No, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is not ‘bringing Sharia law to America’

Less than 48 hours after Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., sent a fundraising email for her gubernatorial campaign that targeted Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor-elect.

Under the words "Stop Muslim radicals," the Nov. 6 email framed Mamdani’s victory as a civilizational battle. "Republicans must treat the rise of Islamic radicalism as another 9/11," it said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The email said, "New Yorkers — the same people directly impacted by 9/11 — voted to elect a man who’s bringing SHARIA LAW to America."

Mace’s email resurrects a talking point that peaked in the 2010s, usually inspired by the false belief that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and was actually a Muslim, a movement that came to be known as "birtherism."

During that time, PolitiFact consistently debunked the notion that Shariah was usurping traditional law in the U.S. 

The talking point reemerged after Mamdani — who was born in Uganda and moved to the U.S. when he was 7, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018 — gained national attention for his bid to run the nation’s most populous city.

Between June 24 and Oct. 31, there were at least 2,868 social media posts by 2,132 distinct users that referred to Shariah or Islamic theocracy in relation to Mamdani’s campaign, according to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Laura Loomer — a confidante of President Donald Trump, who played a key role in spreading birtherism before he ran for president — posted on X on June 26 that "this isn’t hyperbole. This is reality for New Yorkers. Sharia Law is coming."

We reviewed media coverage of Mamdani’s campaign and interviewed experts and found no evidence that Mamdani seeks to implement Shariah.

"I'm not aware of anything he has said or done that suggests that he supports imposition of Shariah or even advocates policy positions that are based on Shariah," said Nathan J. Brown, a George Washington University professor of political science and international affairs.

Further, it would be impossible to accomplish in the U.S. 

"No one can impose religious law on anyone in the United States because we have such a thing as the Constitution," said Cyra Akila Choudhury, a Florida International University law professor. "The First Amendment prohibits the state from establishing a religion, so just as Christians and Jews cannot impose either canon law or Jewish law on anyone, Mamdani cannot impose Shariah."

Mace’s evidence for the statement 

Mace’s campaign pointed PolitiFact to three pieces of evidence for the statement.

One was an Oct. 22 X post from the account Wall Street Apes that includes a compilation of video clips of Mamdani. In one clip, a man asks Mamdani about Shariah, saying he has to renounce it, and Mamdani responds, "What does Shariah law have to do with this? I am running for mayor of New York." In another clip, Mamdani, wearing a red bandana across his face, says, "We came here to remake this state in the image of our people." The X post’s caption says, "Zohran Mamdani is a practicing Muslim. Islam tells them to lie to advance takeovers."

The second link is an Oct. 20 Republican National Committee blog post that criticized Mamdani for meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a New York City Muslim religious leader; the blog post linked to a New York Post report identifying Wahhaj as an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (Others, including critics of Wahhaj, dispute the Post’s characterization of him as a co-conspirator.)

The third point is a Fox News article in which Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., called on Mamdani to denounce the phrase "globalize the Intifada," saying, "People that glorify the slaughter of Jews create fear in our communities. The global intifada is a statement that means destroy Israel and kill all the Jews."

However, the X post the Mace campaign cited doesn’t show Mamdani advocating for Shariah, and the RNC blog post, the New York Post article it’s based on and the Fox News article do not mention the word Shariah. Individually or collectively, they are not proof that Mamdani is seeking to implement Shariah.

Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this article.

Mamdani’s views clash with Shariah law

Timothy P. Carney and Sadanand Dhume — two commentators with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. — have expressed reservations about some of Mamdani’s stances, but both agreed that the claim that Mamdani wants to implement Shariah is bogus.

Mamdani "obviously doesn’t believe in Sharia law," Carney wrote in the Washington Examiner. 

Dhume wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "Is Zohran Mamdani a radical Islamist? Contrary to what some Republicans have suggested, the answer is clearly no."

Dhume told PolitiFact that Mamdani’s support for gay rights and decriminalizing sex work, among other positions, "are the antithesis of Sharia law as understood by those who seek to impose it. This line of attack is a scare tactic aimed at ignorant voters by conflating being a Muslim with supporting Islamism."

Mamdani’s background does not include anything to suggest that he supports Islamic fundamentalism. "My mother’s side of the family is Hindu, and I grew up celebrating Diwali, Holi and Raksha Bandhan," he told The Indian Eye. "Though I identify as Muslim, these Hindu traditions and practices have shaped my worldview." 

There was no evidence during Mamdani’s lengthy campaign that he would undertake "the kinds of things that Islamists typically do when they take power in Muslim-majority countries," Dhume said, such as cracking down on alcohol sales, encouraging or forcing female students in public schools to wear a hijab and shutting gay clubs.

U.S. governance wouldn’t permit Shariah law supremacy

Muslims living in the United States can put marital disputes and other personal matters in front of a tribunal made up of faith leaders. That’s allowed and has been used by Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, Baptists and other religions for decades. It falls under the umbrella of mediation, when people agree to work out their differences through a process outside of the courts.

For any other situation, the Constitution reigns, legal experts said. In 2009, the trial judge in a New Jersey domestic abuse case deferred to Shariah tenets, but the state’s Superior Court rejected that decision. And in no American community does a code based on Islamic, Jewish, Catholic or other religious precepts take precedence over American law.

"The laws that apply in New York City come from the legislature of New York state as well as local ordinances and regulations created by New York’s city council," said Peter Mandaville, a George Mason University government and politics professor. "While the mayor of New York can propose legislation, it is not possible to unilaterally decree laws that have not been passed by the city council."

Our ruling

Mace’s email said Mamdani "is bringing Sharia law to America."

Mamdani has expressed no intention to implement Shariah in New York City. Mamdani’s background and policy positions do not include anything to suggest that he supports Islamic fundamentalism, and an expert told PolitiFact that Mamdani’s support for gay rights and decriminalizing sex work are the "antithesis" of Shariah. 

No one can implement Shariah in the United States, given legal protections under the Constitution.

We rate the statement Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact Staff Writer Nick Karmia and PolitiFact News Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.