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FIRST ON FOX: New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani appeared at a church over the weekend led by a pastor with a history of controversial statements on race, anti-Israel ties, and who has issued support for reparations.
“My profound thanks to Rev. Stephen A. Green and the Greater Allen AME for the honor of addressing their beautiful congregation in Jamaica, Queens this morning,” Mamdani posted on X late Sunday.
Mamdani spoke at the church for over 10 minutes and delivered a politically charged sermon that weaved in scripture in an attempt to justify his campaign platform. Near the end of his sermon, Mamdani said New York City and the United States are facing a “dark moment.” He then called the Trump administration an “authoritarian government” and slammed ICE for “abduct[ing]” immigrants.
“That is not justice. It is cruelty and it is criminal. These are our neighbors. These are people who are guilty of only wanting a field of their own to harvest,” he continued.
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He went on to target the issue of affordability in New York City, an issue that has resonated with his supporters, and asked, “What good is New York City being the greatest city in the world if New Yorkers cannot afford to live here?”
Green, who called Mamdani his “brother and friend,” repeatedly said, “Amen” after the sermon and thanked him for attending. Like Mamdani, who has espoused several controversial political views, Green is no stranger to pushing his radical views on social media. In 2021, he called for a “new U.S. Constitution” on social media, saying that the country needs a document that “guarantees the right to vote, abolishes the electoral college, provides reparations for slavery, guarantees annual income, and so much more.”
In a 2022 Facebook post, Green, who calls himself a “global thought leader at the intersection of faith and social justice” and an “activist,” called on President Biden to establish a commission on reparations because the “impact of slavery and its vestiges are felt in every aspect of life for Black people.”
“I was proud to be arrested at the DC Airport with my comrades to protect voting rights, DC Statehood, and reparations,” Green said in a 2021 Facebook post that included a video of him being arrested. “We must continue to escalate our actions across the nation in order to protect voting rights. This is our revolutionary summer. Hold on, we must keep our eyes on the prize.”
“Trump’s executive order is still entrenched in White Supremacist nationalism,” Green posted on Facebook in June 2018. “We can not ease up on our pressure to abolish ICE and open our borders.”
In another Facebook post that year, Green insisted on “abolish[ing] the system of policing in this nation” and amplified a separate post accusing the system of policing in the United States as being anti-Black.
One month after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, Green participated in a rally calling for a ceasefire. Pastor Jamal Bryant, who Fox News Digital previously reported has a long history of praising notorious antisemite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, was one of the leaders at the rally.
Bryant is the leading voice behind the recent boycott of Target where liberal activists urged the public not to shop at the retailer in response to the company’s rollback of DEI guidelines.
Green also led another rally the following February that was promoted as a “peace pilgrammage” for Gaza, saying, “We walked 150 miles to push the Biden administration to demand a ceasefire to protect the lives of all precious Palestinians and to pursue the beloved community.”
“The Black prophetic tradition calls me to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God as we speak out against genocide, occupation and war,” he continued, appearing to take a shot against Israel.
TIMELINE: EVOLUTION OF MAMDANI’S DEFUNDING POLICE RHETORIC TO THIS WEEK’S ‘DAMAGE CONTROL’
In recent weeks, Mamdani has faced an onslaught of attacks amid old interviews and past social media posts being unearthed, including several posts from 2020 and 2021 calling for defunding police.
“We need a socialist city council to defund the police,” Mamdani posted on X in July 2020.
“Queer liberation means defund the police,” Mamdani posted on X in November 2020.
“Nature is healing,” Mandani posted on X in response to a user mocking and laughing at seeing a police officer “crying inside his car.”
However, last week, in the wake of a Midtown Manhattan shooting that left a NYPD officer dead, Mamdani said his calls to defund the police were made out of “frustration” over George Floyd’s death and appeared to distance himself from his past rhetoric.
His comments left several in the community unconvinced that he had genuinely turned the page from antagonizing the police and with the belief that the walkback was politically driven as the city reels from the worst mass shooting in half a century.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign and Green for comment.
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