Sid Rosenberg’s slurs against Mayor Mamdani expose a pattern of Islamophobia that predates and outlasts any single election
A Radio Host, a Slur, and a City’s Conscience
In early March 2026, New York City radio host Sid Rosenberg of 77 WABC posted a message on social media calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani an America hating, Jew hating, Radical Islam cockroach running our once beautiful city. The post also included an appeal to President Donald Trump to put this little antisemite in his place. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the remarks as dangerous and dehumanizing, writing that it was a disgusting display of bigotry and Islamophobia that should receive universal condemnation. Rosenberg later issued an apology, acknowledging the comments were over the top.
Mamdani’s Response: Familiar Pain, Refused Silence
Mayor Mamdani addressed the remarks at a public event, placing them in a broader historical context. “Muslims in this city for almost as long as we have been in this city have had to deal with those with power and platform dehumanizing us,” he said. “And 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.” Mamdani drew a direct line between historical uses of insect and animal metaphors against minority communities and the violence that has so often followed. “The silence that often greets this kind of bigotry, this kind of Islamophobia is what allows it to fester,” he said. “I am not ashamed of who I am. I am not ashamed of my faith.”
The Scale of Online Hate
The Rosenberg episode is one visible moment in what research has documented as a massive sustained campaign. A report by Equality Labs found that more than 1.15 million social media posts about Mamdani during and after the 2025 campaign contained explicitly Islamophobic content, with a combined user reach exceeding 150 billion. Another 1.43 million posts mislabeled him a communist, reaching more than 330 billion users. The report documented that approximately 45 Republican officials from more than 18 states amplified this content, including sitting senators, governors, and House members. Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee called Mamdani little muhammad and called for deportation. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted a photo of Mamdani in traditional South Asian dress alongside references to the September 11 attacks.
This pattern of dehumanizing rhetoric targeting Muslim political figures is well documented by organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which tracks hate incidents nationwide, and the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, which studies Islamophobia as a systemic phenomenon rather than a series of isolated incidents.
A Pattern Since 9/11 and What Comes Next
Scholars who study anti-Muslim bias note that the rhetoric directed at Mamdani is part of a pattern persisting since the September 11 attacks. New York City itself ran a now-disbanded surveillance program monitoring Muslim communities for years. “At its core, anti-Muslim rhetoric is the same: that Muslims don’t belong in this country, that they are perpetual foreigners, that they are a threat to American society and government,” said Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. The interfaith response to the Rosenberg comments was strong. Jewish, Christian, and interfaith organizations condemned the remarks, underscoring a point advocates have made repeatedly: Islamophobia and antisemitism are often deployed together as tools of political exclusion. Organizations like the Islamic Center of New York University and the Interfaith Alliance continue building cross-community coalitions that represent the most durable answer to these recurring attacks on the dignity of Muslim New Yorkers.
