[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
In the mid 2010s, Zohran Mamdani, out of college and aimless, decided to become a professional rapper under the pseudonyms Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom. His raps were much like his political campaigns: heavy on the Marxism and victimhood posturing.
Mamdani ultimately decided to use his rap talents to shine a light on the faults of his home city. By April 3, 2017, Zohran Mamdani was rapping about the plight of his fellow oppressed Muslims in New York city. He addressed a tweet to an English Twitter account, Hidden Herd, which billed itself as “Brighton’s new music discovery night, spotlighting the most exciting emerging artists, ones-to-watch and hidden gems.” Mamdani wrote: “@HIDDENHERD hi, submitting my song #Salaam for review. It’s about being Muslim in NYC today.”
The lyrics of Mamdani’s rap song “Salaam” went full throttle into Muslim victimhood mode, playing into the fantasy that after 9/11, Muslims in the US had been subjected to all manner of discrimination and unjust treatment, as well as threats and vigilante violence from “Islamophobes.”
The song began by thrice repeating the greeting that Muslims are only to give to other Muslims, “As-salaamu aleikum,” or “Peace be upon you.” “Salaam” then continues with an extended complaint about his aunt suffers from threats and discrimination as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman any time she dares to venture out onto the mean streets of New York City. In this course of this extended orgy of victimhood, Mamdani sends his love to the Holy Land Five, telling listeners to look them up if they don’t know who they are.
As music, this made little impression, and Mr. Cardamom’s rap career did not take off. As agitprop, it is even less impressive. Mamdani begins by sketching out a lurid fantasy regarding his aunt being afraid to leave her home or ride the subway, which had no basis in the reality of New York City at the time that he published this song (or, for that matter, at any other time).
Then he goes on to rap about his love for the Holy Land Five. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), according to Discover the Networks, was a “non-profit, tax-exempt, charitable trust headquartered in Richardson, Texas. It also maintained branch offices in New Jersey, California, and Illinois.” It was “created by a (now defunct) network called the ‘Palestine Committee,’ which was established by the Muslim Brotherhood to advance Hamas’s political and financial agendas in the United States.”
The HLF eventually came to the attention of the Justice Department. The case against it was so high-profile that President George W. Bush summarized it on December 4, 2001, saying:
Hamas has obtained much of the money that it pays for murder abroad right here in the United States, money originally raised by the Holy Land Foundation. The Holy Land Foundation…raised $13 million from people in America last year.… Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers. [It] is also used by Hamas to recruit suicide bombers and to support their families.
HLF leaders were deeply involved in this aiding of Hamas.
In July 2004, federal authorities arrested five former HLF leaders: Mufid Abdulqader (the half-brother of Hamas’s supreme political leader, Khaled Mashal); Shukri Abu Baker (HLF’s co-founder and former President and Chief Executive); Ghassan Elashi (HLF’s co-founder and former Board Chairman and Treasurer); Mohammed El-Mezain (HLF’s co-founder and former Board Chairman); and Abdulraham Odeh (HLF’s former New Jersey representative). In a 42-count indictment, these individuals were charged with providing material support for Hamas terrorists to the tune of $12.4 million over a six-year period, and more than $57 million since the late 1988. Two more ex-officials of HLF, Haitham Maghawri and Akram Mishal, managed to escape U.S. jurisdiction and are considered to be fugitives.
On November 24, 2008, all five were convicted.
These were the Holy Land Five to whom Zohran Mamdani sent his love. This is the man who will most likely be the next mayor of New York City. He will bring the same sensibility to the mayor’s office that infused his rap career, as there is no indication whatsoever that he has had any kind of change of heart since then. New Yorkers, especially Jewish New Yorkers, are in for a dangerous time.
