A New York Citybased Muslim nonprofit that has received more than a quarter-million dollars in public money is under fire after hosting a Brooklyn fundraiser where vendors openly sold merchandise glorifying Hamas and other US-designated terrorist organizations.
According to the New York Post, the Muslim American Societys New York chapter which has reported nearly $1 million in net assets allowed a January 18 support-Sudan pop-up at its Brooklyn youth center to become a marketplace for extremist paraphernalia. The event, branded Thrift4Sudan, featured key chains, stickers, pins and assorted trinkets celebrating Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all of which are recognized by the United States as terrorist groups.
Some of the items on display bore images venerating notorious terror leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas figure Yahya Sinwar, as well as a masked militant resembling the late Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida. Other merchandise went further, emblazoned with explicit calls for violence and the annihilation of Israel, including slogans such as Lets go bomb Tel Aviv and Death to the IDF, The Times of Israel reported.
The Times of Israel based its account on a video of the event that was briefly posted to Instagram by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, known as PAL-Awda, before being removed. PAL-Awda is the same radical group that led a mob outside a Queens synagogue earlier this month, where demonstrators chanted, We support Hamas! in a chilling display of open support for terrorism on American soil.
Tax filings show the Washington, DCbased Muslim American Societys New York arm reported $982,123 in net assets for 2024, underscoring that this is no marginal operation. Since fiscal year 2023, the City Council has funneled $265,000 in discretionary funds to the chapter largely through its Brooklyn and Staten Island branches ostensibly to support youth programs, victim services and other community initiatives, a Post review of city records found.
More than half of that taxpayer largesse, $150,000, was steered through former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Democrat, while exBrooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, also a Democrat, approved another $80,000. Adams did not respond to messages seeking comment, and Brannan declined to comment, leaving New Yorkers without an explanation as to why their money was routed to a group now linked to pro-terror propaganda.
Additional allocations came from former Councilmembers Kristy Marmorato (RBronx) and Ari Kagan (RBrooklyn), who directed $20,000 and $5,000, respectively, along with $10,000 from Brooklyn Democrat Alexa Avils. The funding trail highlights a bipartisan failure of due diligence, though the bulk of the cash was pushed through by Democratic leadership that has increasingly aligned itself with activist groups hostile to Israel and, in some cases, to American interests.
The Muslim American Societys New York leadership includes Abdullah Akl, a prominent pro-Hamas agitator who grew up attending the Bath Avenue youth center and now also serves as an organizer for Within Our Lifetime, a radical anti-Israel organization. MAS political clout in the city has grown markedly since the November election of socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York Citys first Muslim mayor, a development that has emboldened hard-left and Islamist-aligned factions.
MAS-NYs executive director, Sherif Ahmed, and Hannah Towfeik, political director at the MAS youth center, both sit on Mamdanis transition team, helping to shape key City Hall appointments. That overlap between a publicly funded nonprofit, open pro-Hamas activism and the mayors inner circle raises serious questions about ideological vetting and the direction of municipal governance.
Council Speaker Julie Menin, who earlier this month became the Councils first Jewish speaker, expressed shock when informed by the Post of the terror-themed merchandise being sold under MAS roof. Menin will now block payment of $80,000 in funds previously awarded to MAS for the current fiscal year, pending an investigation by city attorneys, and may move to bar the group from receiving future Council funding, according to her spokesman, Jonathan Szott.
The City Council has zero tolerance for violations of our standards, Szott said. Funding to this organization is being paused pending a comprehensive internal review. Any nonprofit found to be supporting organizations that threaten the United States government is unacceptable and incompatible with City Council funding.
Messages left with MAS, its youth center and Mayor Mamdanis office were not immediately returned, leaving the public without any justification from the organization or its political allies. That silence only deepens concerns that city institutions have been captured, or at least heavily influenced, by groups whose sympathies lie with Americas enemies rather than its values.
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Republican from Brooklyn and a staunch Zionist, urged Menin to overhaul the vetting process for all nonprofits receiving Council dollars. Its no surprise that the radicals in City Hall are abusing taxpayer dollars to spread Hamas propaganda, she said.
These funds must be returned to the City of New York, and any organization who engages in aiding and abetting terrorists must be investigated, stripped of funding and criminally prosecuted. For many New Yorkers, especially those who still believe government should defend the nations allies and uphold basic standards of decency, the scandal underscores an urgent need to rein in ideological extremism in city politics and restore accountability for how public money is spent.
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