A Muslim supporter of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s bid for mayor was stunned and in disbelief when he was confronted in public about the candidate’s support for decriminalizing prostitution.
Rival candidate Andrew Cuomo pointed out Mamdani’s past support to legalize or decriminalize prostitution or “sex work” during an appearance Saturday night at the Masjid Ansarudeen Islamic Center in The Bronx, according to a widely circulated video of the exchange.
“If he does support legalizing prostitution, do you still support him?,” Cuomo asked the supporter.
When it comes to @zohrankmamdani, is there anything he believes beyond his own political ambition? pic.twitter.com/4vOew9F7kk
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) September 21, 2025
“He does not. He will not,” the Mamdani backer in attendance claimed, disbelieving that his candidate would promote prostitution.
“Zohran will never, ever sponsor a bill that will legalize prostitution — as a Muslim brother,” the backer, noting Mamdani is Muslim, said. “He will never ever do that.”
Cuomo offered $10 friendly wager to let the congregant know he was misinformed.
Sheik Ibrahim Niass said prostitution, sitting next to Cuomo, said prostitution is unacceptable and immoral.
“We will never, never, never support it. No matter what,” Sheikh Niass said.
Mamdani, though a Muslim, promotes leftist views and positions that are out of sync with more conservative members of the Islamic faith.
Cuomo claimed he’s promoting a pro-safety agenda while Mamdani is not.
“My opponent’s direction is the exact opposite—a socialist philosophy that is anti-business, more anti-police, and would reduce the number of officers. It would legalize prostitution and the drug trade,” Cuomo told the congregants.
“Now, as a Christian, I’ll point out that the Bible speaks to this. In Leviticus, it condemns prostitution; in the New Testament, St. Peter speaks against intoxicants. In the Quran, prostitution is referred to as zina, and intoxicants are called haram. There are similarities between the two faiths, and I want to impress you with my knowledge of both the Bible and the Quran,” he said to chuckles.
The campaign of ex- Gov. Cuomo, now running as an independent as mayor after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, also posted a video of comments Mamdani previously made in support of pro-prostitution legislation he co-sponsored as a New York State Assembly member.
“I will like to register my support for such legislation. My eagerness for the debate and for my fundamental belief that sex work is work,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani has not focused on favoring legalizing prostitution during his campaign for City Hall, but his position as a legislator has been used as fodder by rivals attacking him as out of the mainstream, including Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.
The Mamdani campaign had no immediate comment.
Last month, Mamdani said that he wanted to mirror the policies of fellow Democrat and former Mayor Bill de Blasio in addressing prostitution.
“What I want to do is look at the ways in which the previous administration addressed this issue,” Mamdani told reporters then.
“I found that it created far more safety than what the current administration has done,” he said, in a dig at Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent in November.
De Blasio, at the tail end of his administration in 2020, proposed a series of reforms to decriminalize prostitution in an attempt to shift focus on the arrests of traffickers, rather than sex workers.
But opponents of decriminalizing sex work, such as the National Organization of Women, argue legalization could actually lead to spikes in sex trafficking as well as a decrease in quality of life for New Yorkers due to open-air brothels.
De Blasio’s administration pushed the use of “community-centered services” for sex workers, rather than arrests, and services supporting victims of trafficking.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced that it would no longer prosecute prostitution cases in April 2021.
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