Video doesn’t show Muslim men celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory in NYC

On June 24, 2025, New York state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani became the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, surprising many. Mamdani could become the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, details that led to plenty of commentary and misinformation online. 

The day after Mamdani’s victory, Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative social media personality, posted a video of a group of men in dark clothes, some of whom were bearded, chanting and moving in unison, and wrote, “What is going on in New York?” Many others reshared the post, calling it “fanaticism” and tagging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The above footage does not depict New York. It was posted months before the mayoral elections and came from a Facebook page located in Azerbaijan. As such, we rate this claim as miscaptioned.

Using Google’s reverse-image search, we traced the footage to a Facebook post (archived) from Feb. 1, 2025, by a page named Bizim Salyan. The reel shows a group of men participating in a religious ritual during Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar. The month is an important mourning period for Shiite Muslims in particular as it marks the anniversary of the seventh-century Battle of Karbala (in present-day Iraq) and the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.

It is common practice for Shiite Muslims to wear black on the occasion, cry and beat their chests, particularly on Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram. However, given that Muharram did not take place at the time the video was uploaded it was likely recorded in a previous year. The caption in the above video (via Google Translate) also references “martyred Imam Hazrat Hussein.”

The Facebook page states it is based in Salyan, a region in Azerbaijan. We reached out to the Facebook page to confirm details about the video, including location, source and date, and will update this post if we get more information. 

A day after sharing the video, Cheong wrote a reply to his post on X: “Azerbaijan actually. But people have no sense of humor.” 

Mamdani is a Shiite Muslim. Even before he became the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor, he described facing numerous death threats because of his religion. 

After the Democratic primary, Republican lawmakers and right-wing personalities have accused Mamdani of antisemitism for his pro-Palestine views, and of supporting terrorism. President Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller said Mamdani’s success was “the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.” Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee also accused Mamdani of supporting terrorism and called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to strip him of his citizenship.