She Fled Hamas. Now She’s Warning New York About Mamdani.

I recently listened to the daughter of a Hamas sheikh share her story — one that serves as a warning for New York’s mayoral election. For her safety, I’m withholding her name. 

Her mother was Jewish and escaped their Arab village in Israel soon after giving birth. Her father was a wealthy, devout Muslim sheikh with multiple wives. At 14, his daughter chose to live with him, hoping for family and belonging. Instead, what she found was indoctrination and abuse.

Her father woke her routinely in the middle of the night to test her on the Quran. Beatings were justified because, in the Quran, women are only capable of reaching heaven if the men around them are satisfied. At 15, he forced her to marry her 22-year-old cousin. She immediately became pregnant. At six months, her husband beat her in the street for stepping outside her home without permission. She lost the baby at his hands. Her father blamed her — and made her thank her husband for not killing her.

Her father was embedded in Yasser Arafat’s inner circle — the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PLO), and architect of the Second Intifada. The men around her spoke of Israel as a meal to devour “bite by bite” — relentless, incremental, unending. In conversations she overheard, the goal was never compromise. The hate was endless.

She escaped at 17. Homeless, terrified, and alone, when an Israeli social worker discovered her and soon discovered Judaism’s light: a faith rooted in justice, kindness, and human dignity. Today, she raises her children in freedom and dedicates her life to protecting girls from the same abuse she endured.

Her warning is simple: no matter what you give, negotiate, or attempt at nation-building, political Islam’s hate will never stop.

The ideology that brutalized her doesn’t stay overseas — it is finding its way into our American cities. Hamas wages physical war in Gaza, but its politics are being waged in local councils and mayoral races, where figures like Zohran Mamdani repurpose Hamas-style rhetoric of “resistance” and “liberation” under the banner of socialism.

I’ve seen it firsthand — radical doctrine pushed under the guise of progressive policy. Over the past two years, I helped apply pressure to block two BDS resolutions at the council level in Nashville, Tennessee. This isn’t theory — it’s unfolding through politics, education, and activist networks quietly advancing Islamist agendas to destabilize the West.

 

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Politics:

Islamist‑backed groups like CAIR sponsor or support at least 235 elected officials at state and federal levels, shaping policy and narrative — including in the current New York mayoral race. Once in office, these politicians import religious ideology into governance, reshaping norms and weakening Western culture. 

CAIR’s Unity & Justice Fund reportedly contributed $100,000 to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, reinforcing the alliance between Islamist networks and democratic‑socialist politics. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) have called for a federal investigation into CAIR’s funding sources, questioning whether the organization is financed or directed by Hamas or other terrorist groups. 

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has renewed efforts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization — a network whose U.S. affiliates, including the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), hold the deeds to hundreds of mosques and Islamic centers across the United States. CAIR has documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, including being listed as a member of its Palestine Committee in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism‑financing trial, and was named an unindicted co‑conspirator.

Political Symbols And Education:

Anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric are being woven into classrooms, books, and art — disguised as “diversity” or “multiculturalism.” This summer, a public school in downtown Nashville hosted “Keffiyeh Day,” celebrating a political symbol tied to Yasser Arafat and the Second Intifada. At Thomas Jefferson High School in Northern Virginia, students from the Muslim Student Association reenacted Hamas kidnappings in keffiyehs to promote their group. These are not isolated incidents — they reflect a broader ideological initiative.

The Socialist Cover For Islamist Ambition:

Words like justice, freedom, victim, oppressed, and occupation are being repurposed to advance extremism. Mamdani, who up until recently has refused to condemn chants to “globalize the Intifada” while promoting the anti-American and anti-Israel BDS movement, exposes how Islamist talking points are being mainstreamed through progressive politics. Under the banner of equity and oppression, Mamdani blurs the line between social justice and political Islam — turning compassion into a Trojan horse for division. His rhetoric mirrors the same moral inversion used by groups like Hamas and the BDS movement: recasting terrorists as victims, and democracies like America and Israel as oppressors. It’s not solidarity — it’s subversion.

The solution is not compromise — it’s clarity. If we elect leaders without Western values, we erase Western values.

Just as the daughter of the Hamas sheikh found light after darkness, our communities must commit to deradicalization, education, and the moral courage to say a definitive “no.”

The fight is no longer overseas. It’s here — on our American soil. We must act now, before the next bite is taken.

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Alyssa Rosenheck is a bestselling author, photographer, and advocate. Her forthcoming book, White. Blonde. Jew., turns the three words meant to silence her into a roadmap for courage and clarity in an age of extremism.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.