Old video of Ramadan observance falsely linked to Mamdani's election
- Published on November 14, 2025 at 17:08
- 4 min read
- By Cintia NABI CABRAL, AFP France
- Translation and adaptation Marisha GOLDHAMER , AFP USA
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Zohran Mamdani made history when he was elected the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City in November 2025, but online claims that worshipers shut down Times Square for the Islamic call to prayer in the days following his victory are false. The videos circulating on social media actually show an event held months earlier to mark Ramadan.
"Less than 48 hours after Zohran Mamdani's win and Muslims are already shutting down Times Square to impose their religion on New Yorkers," says a November 6, 2025 post on Threads.
The post shares a video of a man chanting in Arabic, with text over the clip referencing the adhan or Islamic call to prayer.
On X, another video recorded from a different angle of the same crowd circulated with the caption: "NEW YORK LESS THAN A WEEK AFTER MAMDANI TOOK POWER, THE MUSLIM TAKEOVER HAS OFFICIALLY BEGAN."
The clips spread across platforms including X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Rumble -- and in languages such as French, Catalan, Spanish, Hindi and Japanese -- following the victory for Mamdani, which was widely celebrated in the Arab world.
The democratic socialist's win came despite fierce attacks on his policies and Muslim heritage from business elites, conservative media commentators and Republican US President Donald Trump.
Mamdani's campaign also faced Islamophobic misinformation -- and his win was met with false claims online that the Islamic State group celebrated the victory.
The videos of Muslims purportedly shutting down Times Square are also unrelated and shared out of context.
Ramadan 2025
Reverse image searches found the video of the muezzin calling the group to prayer was originally published on TikTok and Instagram on March 3, 2025 -- months before Mamdani clinched the Democratic Party's nomination for New York City mayor (archived here and here). The posts included the hashtag "#ramadan."
Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer, began for most Muslims the evening of February 28, and was observed through March 30 or 31, with the exact dates contingent upon the sighting of the moon (archived here).
On March 2, community groups organized a large gathering to pray and break the fast in Times Square (archived here).
Close examination of the clip shows another person wearing a black beanie and coat. The man, a content creator, also filmed the event. He posted on March 3 that it shut down Times Square for Ramadan on X (archived here).
The video captured from the side of the crowd also traces to the March 2 Ramadan prayers. In a reply to one widely shared X post, the account @ViralNewsNYC commented: "That's my footage" (archived here).
The page initially shared the footage on March 2, a fact that account-owner Leeroy Johnson confirmed to AFP in a November 13 phone call (archived here).
Johnson said he reshared the footage on November 7, following Mamdani's election, "in a satirical way" (archived here). He posted: "Omg they have taken over Times Square! It hasn't even been a week since he won the election!"
Johnson told AFP he was "trolling" people who do not live in New York City but might believe other content warning the city is "turning into some Muslim caliphate" or "deamonizing the Muslim community."
On X, Johnson added: "Fyi this video was taken during a Muslim holiday. I did this on purpose so people stop falling for other people's BS that don't even live in NYC" (archived here).
Photos taken by AFP and the Turkish news agency Anadolu show Ramadan gatherings held at Times Square in March 2025, March 2024, and March 2023.
An April 2022 Instagram post from the founder of a Muslim news service said that year marked the "first Taraweeh prayer in Times Square" (archived here).
Find more of AFP's reporting on misinformation targeting the United States here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
