NEW YORK CITY — The night after standing before thousands at Gracie Mansion — the first major protest rally ever held at the official residence of a New York City mayor — Dr. Anila Ali sat down to give what may be the most important interview of her public life. The Muslim women’s rights activist, founder and CEO of the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC), spoke without filter about Islamist infiltration of American government, the Brooklyn mob attack on a Jewish girl near her synagogue, Councilwoman Shahana Hanif’s “Jahannam” condemnation, and why she is urging every American — especially every moderate Muslim — to wake up before it is too late.

Her closing message will be quoted long after this moment has passed: “Americans, my fellow Americans — wake up. This is a Muslim woman saying to you from my heart: Islamists are here to take over our country, and they are succeeding. They’re sitting in Gracie Mansion and many other places. They’re in the House right now. We need to take our country back and get back to being one beautiful American community.”

Brooklyn: “It Looked Like a Pogrom”

The interview opened with footage that shocked New York: a violent anti-Israel mob hurling antisemitic slurs, waving Palestinian flags, and raging against police outside a Brooklyn synagogue — before marching through a quiet Jewish neighborhood, spitting on people, shouting abuse, and attacking a young Jewish girl on the street. It was, the interviewer said plainly, the second such demonstration in under a week.

Dr. Anila AliFounder & CEO, AMMWEC

“In my language, it’s called a pogrom from Europe. That’s what it looked like to me. These are mobs. They are like thugs and they have no moral compass, no conscience. They are just so brainwashed to be violent, to be aggressive, and they don’t care about America.”

Ali made clear that the Brooklyn march was not merely a protest about a real estate event at a synagogue, as some media framed it. The Islamist mob, she said, marched through a quiet, peaceful Jewish neighborhood — attacking people, spitting, yelling. A young Jewish girl was assaulted in broad view. “That’s what Hamas does — and this whole culture of death, anger, intimidation, harassment — that’s been going on for a long time. But in New York, on some streets of California, I can tell you: it’s viral.”

Shahana Hanif’s “Jahannam”: A Fatwa Against a Muslim Patriot

After Dr. Ali’s powerful speech at the Gracie Mansion rally — in which she addressed Mayor Mamdani directly, invoked 9/11, and called on Jewish New Yorkers to demand his resignation — NYC Democratic Socialist Councilwoman Shahana Hanif responded by posting on X that she hoped Allah would condemn Dr. Ali to Jahannam. The Islamic equivalent of hell. Directed at a fellow Muslim. For standing with Jewish Americans.

Dr. Anila AliOn Councilwoman Hanif’s Post

“I feel I’m saddened by her outburst, thinking God is going to condemn me to hell when I’m the one protecting the rights of everyone. If Prophet Muhammad doesn’t have a problem with the Jewish people, with Prophet Abraham, what is this lady’s problem? Does she not know that what she and Mamdani are doing — these are all against our religion? I urge her to find out what Mamdani is following. It is very toxic. It is Marxist. It’s against people worshiping God. It’s against religious freedom. This is the red-green alliance — and we have to unveil it.”

The Islamist Infiltration: How It Happened and Who’s Behind It

Dr. Ali drew a direct line from the election of Ilhan Omar — whose comments about “the Benjamins” she says made it “cool and very okay to be antisemitic in my Muslim community” — to the election of Rashida Tlaib, to the rise of the DSA, to Mayor Mamdani. Each step, she argues, was part of a calculated, decades-long infiltration of American institutions by forces with a fundamentally anti-American, anti-Western ideology.

Dr. Anila AliOn Islamist Infiltration of American Institutions

“I had seen the rise of Islamists in our government. I had seen how they infiltrated all of our college campuses, our Democratic institutions, the Democratic Party, the school boards. I bear witness and I wasn’t going to be quiet. Hamas are evil. They have taken away the positivity from our religion. They are barbarians. Yes, we should all be speaking up.”

Ali went further — naming the foreign funding channels that have shifted mosque narratives across America. After 9/11, Wahhabi money from Saudi Arabia poured into American mosques. Saudi Arabia and the UAE eventually recognized the threat and banned the Muslim Brotherhood. But the vacuum was filled: Qatari money, Egyptian money, Kuwaiti money. And with that money came changing sermons — shifting the conversation in American mosques from integration and constitutional values to resentment, grievance, and eventually antisemitism.

The Moderate Muslim Majority — Silenced by Fear

One of Ali’s most powerful and painful revelations was the portrait she painted of moderate Muslims across New York — Pakistani women, Bangladeshi men, community nonprofit leaders — who privately agree with everything she is saying, but cannot say it publicly. The reason: organized harassment and intimidation from Mamdani’s camp. Ali described how her interfaith events in Brooklyn and Jackson Heights were infiltrated. How moderate attendees had people screaming “baby killers” at them. How women who spoke to her were warned that their neighbors — Mamdani supporters — would “harass the heck out of” them.

Dr. Anila AliOn Moderate Muslims Under Threat

“The reason many of us are not coming out and speaking in droves is the same reason Jewish New Yorkers are intimidated and harassed. These are mobs. They don’t care about America. Behind Mamdani’s smile are people willing to bully moderates into silence. That’s the kind of culture you find in Gaza — where people who might have spoken up, don’t, because Hamas throws opponents off the roofs of houses.”

Yet despite the fear, she is seeing awakening. The rally. The Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who support her. The young Muslim who told her: “We can’t all be painted with the same brush stroke.” And marching with her at the Israel Day Parade: Sheikh Musa Dram, Mr. Wasti, Imran — Pakistani and Bangladeshi leaders who love America, have Jewish friends and business partners, and refuse to let Mamdani’s Islamism speak for their faith.

National Conference on Antisemitism — Washington, D.C.

Dr. Ali also unveiled details of an upcoming national conference designed to institutionalize interfaith cooperation against antisemitism — and to ensure that moderate Muslim voices have a permanent, organized, nationally credible platform.

Faith & Freedom News is honored to cover Dr. Anila Ali’s courageous work and will continue to report on the Israel Day Parade, the national conference in Washington D.C., and the ongoing fight for the soul of America’s Muslim community — and for the safety of every Jewish New Yorker.