Radio host calls NYC’s first Muslim mayor a jihadist cockroach, prompting Schumer and CAIR to respond
WABC Host Uses Dehumanizing Language Against NYC’s First Muslim Mayor
On March 3, 2026, conservative talk radio host Sid Rosenberg of WABC AM 77 published a post on X directed at President Trump urging him to take action against Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who Rosenberg called an America-hating, Jew-hating, radical Islam cockroach. He also called the mayor a jihadist and a terrorist sympathizer. The post ignited a social media firestorm and drew swift condemnation from civil rights organizations, New York elected officials, and national Democratic leaders. WABC, owned by billionaire John Catsimatidis, responded by posting on X that the station is Team Sid.
The Mayor’s Response
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mamdani addressed the remarks directly. “To be called animals, insects, to be called a jihadist mayor, to be called a cockroach, this language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker but also as someone who was born in East Africa,” said the mayor, who emigrated from Uganda to New York as a child. “It is difficult to hear. It is also a reminder that the silence that often greets this kind of bigotry, this kind of Islamophobia, is what allows it to fester.” Mamdani said he has far more urgent work to attend to than engaging a man who trades in outrage, while cautioning that dismissing the language as normal politics would be a mistake.
Who Else Responded
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X that calling the mayor a radical Islam cockroach is dangerous and dehumanizing and constitutes a disgusting display of bigotry and Islamophobia that should receive universal condemnation. City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who had recently appeared on Rosenberg’s radio program despite his history of inflammatory rhetoric, said she condemns the remarks unequivocally. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on WABC to terminate Rosenberg’s program, noting that his record includes comparing Black women to animals. CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said his latest remarks are completely unacceptable and completely unsurprising and that WABC should not platform such a hateful and slanderous bigot. Rosenberg doubled down following the condemnation, posting additional content defending his original comments.
A Pattern With a History
Rosenberg’s attack on Mamdani is not an isolated incident. The same host called Mamdani a terrorist in 2025 during the mayoral campaign, saying the then-candidate would be cheering another 9/11-style attack. Rosenberg has a relationship with the Republican political establishment in New York and has dined with Mamdani’s own police commissioner Jessica Tisch and hosted City Council Speaker Menin on his program. The repeated platforming of Rosenberg by mainstream political figures, even those who claim to oppose his Islamophobia, has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates who say it normalizes anti-Muslim bigotry by treating it as merely edgy political commentary.
The Broader Context of Islamophobia in American Political Life
The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights organizations have documented sustained increases in anti-Muslim hate incidents and discriminatory rhetoric in American public life, particularly in the context of Middle East conflicts. Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor of New York City and one of the youngest mayors in the city’s history. His election represented a milestone for Muslim Americans in civic leadership. The use of dehumanizing language comparing a public official to insects has historical precedents in genocidal and exterminationist rhetoric that civil rights scholars say should never be treated as acceptable political expression. The reader is left to assess what standards the city and its media institutions will hold themselves to as they navigate coverage of New York’s first Muslim mayor.
