A new immigrant enclave map released by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office has drawn criticism from residents of neighborhoods left off the list, including Little Italy. Proft played a Free Press segment in which Isabella Redi interviewed Italian-American residents near Mulberry Street, several of whom said they felt sidelined by a mayor they described as unfamiliar with the city’s history. One resident, whose family has run the San Gennaro festival for generations, argued that New York’s identity has always been built on the contributions of many immigrant groups rather than a curated list of favored communities.
From there, Proft pivoted to the ideological framework he sees behind the omission, citing a program published by the Party for Socialism and Liberation that calls for replacing the Electoral College, restructuring the House as a “National People’s Assembly,” and replacing the Senate with an “Assembly of Oppressed Nations” made up of delegates from designated minority groups. Proft used the document to argue that groups like Irish, Italian, Greek, Swedish and Jewish New Yorkers don’t fit neatly into that framework of grievance-based representation, and suggested this explains their absence from the mayor’s map.
Proft then welcomed Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, and a Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona’s 4th District, for a wider conversation about the ideological currents he believes are reshaping urban politics. Jasser traced what he calls the rise of grievance politics back to the Obama era and argued that Mamdani represents a convergence of far-left economics and what Jasser terms civilizational Islamism. He pointed to reporting that a Mamdani administration official had arranged, then canceled under State Department pressure, a meeting with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Jasser drew a parallel to Iran’s 1979 revolution, arguing that a popular uprising against an autocrat was hijacked by a theocratic movement that promised liberation and delivered oppression. He said he sees a similar dynamic playing out domestically, pointing to remarks by a Minnesota imam encouraging young Muslims to pursue positions of civic power, including elected office, which Jasser characterized as part of a broader strategy rather than an isolated comment. He also cited Pew Research Center polling showing 44 percent of self-identified Muslim Americans view Hamas favorably, using the figure to argue that sympathy for the group extends beyond a fringe.
The conversation turned to Jasser’s own history within Muslim advocacy circles, including an account from his book, A Battle for the Soul of Islam, describing a 1995 meeting where an imam called for replacing the U.S. Constitution with the Quran. Jasser said the episode helped push him toward founding organizations aimed at countering the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in American civic life. He argued that European socialist parties made a similar alliance of convenience with Islamist organizations before eventually breaking with them over issues including women’s rights and gay rights, and suggested American progressives are now repeating that pattern.
Proft closed the segment by directing listeners to Jasser’s campaign website ahead of his November race in a competitive Arizona district, framing the contest as part of a broader national fight over the direction of the Democratic coalition.