A picture is worth a thousand words. Zohran Mamdani smiles just as warmly and broadly alongside the notorious, terror-accused and anti-gay Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj as he does with Oslo Mayor Anne Lindboe and Consul General Jo Sletbak.
We forgive you, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the Norwegian Consulate in New York writes on Facebook.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani predicted that Norway would be knocked out early in the World Cup. Fortunately, the Norwegian team had other plans!
Following Norway’s historic victory over Brazil at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Consul General Jo Sletbak had the opportunity to remind the mayor of his prediction, and it appears that he would now like to reconsider it!
A video shows the two engaged in a cheerful conversation that ends with an embrace.
– We spoke about this at Gracie Mansion, didn’t we? Sletbak says to Mamdani. He has therefore evidently visited him at the mayoral residence.
Fawning admiration for a radical
It is, of course, perfectly acceptable for Consul General Jo Sletbak to visit Gracie Mansion and maintain a good relationship with the Mayor of New York.
The problem arises when this relationship is displayed so publicly and warmly towards one of America’s most controversial politicians, without any comparable declarations of affection towards more moderate or conservative leaders.
We recently saw the same excessive fawning when Oslo Mayor Anne Lindboe hailed Mamdani as a rock star.
This caused considerable controversy among many in Norway, and now we see the same fawning admiration from the Norwegian Consulate in New York. Why? There are more than half a million elected officials in the United States.
How often do we see such public warmth from Norwegian diplomats and politicians directed towards a single American politician? Apart from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, that is.
Zohran Mamdani is undoubtedly the most controversial and radical politician in the United States today. But perhaps the answer lies precisely there. He is not so far removed from sections of Norwegian politics and the left, which have close ties to Islam and radical socialism.
Are there no neutral seats?
Some will claim that this is merely ordinary diplomacy and World Cup camaraderie. But why, then, do they place only Mamdani on a pedestal?
I have reviewed the Norwegian Consulate’s and Embassy’s social media posts for 2026 and can find no other American politicians, whether Republicans or moderate Democrats, who receive this kind of warm, personal welcome.
During Trump’s inauguration and the State of the Union address, Anniken Huitfeldt demonstrated how normalised it has become for Norwegian diplomacy to lean to the left. – Are there no neutral seats for ambassadors? Erling Martinsen asked in Document at the time.
During the State of the Union address, she took her place among the Democrats, who behaved absolutely outrageously during Trump’s speech:
How is Norway supposed to maintain a good relationship with our most important ally with such an ambassador in Washington, DC? An ambassador who refuses to applaud the American mothers of murder victims?
We could ask the same question here. For while Mayor Lindboe and Consul General Sletbak smile warmly and embrace Mamdani, there are numerous good reasons to maintain a polite but clear distance from New York’s radical mayor.
Flirting with terrorists
A picture is worth a thousand words. In the main image, Zohran Mamdani smiles just as warmly and broadly alongside the notorious, terror-accused and anti-gay Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj as he does with Lindboe and Sletbak.
During the election campaign in December, Mamdani laughed and joked with the imam at the Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque. Mamdani wrote on social media that it was a great pleasure to meet Wahhaj at Masjid At-Taqwa.
He described the imam as one of the country’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.
The fact that he was named as one of the co-conspirators, though not charged, in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was presumably not on his mind at all.
Siraj Wahhaj is also a spokesman for Islam Net. So why should Norwegian politicians and diplomats not embrace Mamdani when they allow the radical organisation to continue its campaign to Islamise the whole of Norway?
Mamdani vekker raseri etter møte med hatpredikant og Islam Net-talsmann Siraj Wahhaj
Nor is flirting with hate preachers and terrorists anything new for the Norwegian left.
Trump hatred in the Consulate’s comments section
The comments section beneath the Consulate’s post says a great deal. It is full of praise for Mamdani from both Americans and Norwegians, often mixed with intense hatred of Trump. In a polarised America, this is precisely the kind of post that appeals to social-media echo chambers.
Screenshots from Norway in New York on Facebook.
That is a problem. The Norwegian Consulate is, after all, an official representative of the Norwegian state. When it publishes warm, playful and personal interactions with a controversial politician such as Mamdani, the Consulate invites irrelevant and hateful comments.
Tricia writes that it is so cool to see an elected representative displaying warmth, humour and decency, and that there is far too much Trump in the world.
Larry does not mince his words and writes that the more they see Mamdani in action, the more they understand how corrupt, stupid and malicious Trump and the Republicans are.
They are in fact completely incapable of showing compassion and treating all residents positively, Larry believes.
Screenshots from Norway in New York on Facebook.
The small minority who are critical of Mamdani are quickly shouted down. Margrete defended herself by saying that millions of Americans do not think much of him and want nothing to do with socialism or communism. In America, people are expected to work rather than wait for free handouts from the authorities, and he has not fulfilled a single one of the promises he made to New Yorkers, she writes.
America’s most radical politician
As mentioned, there are numerous good reasons to maintain a polite but clear distance from the Mayor of New York.
Zohran Mamdani has a reputation as one of America’s most radical politicians. He supports BDS, has refused to distance himself from “globalise the intifada”, demanded Netanyahu’s arrest, described Israel’s actions as genocide and referred to the pro-Israel AIPAC as “monsters”.
The latter occurred at around the same time as Lindboe met him. Seven hundred rabbis wrote a letter in protest and warned that his rhetoric contributes to increased hatred and attacks against Jews in an increasingly hostile climate in the city.
Mamdani is a central figure in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which seeks to abolish the police, nationalise key industries, introduce a 32-hour working week, abolish capitalism and write a new constitution for a democratic socialist republic.
Mamdani has himself said that his anti-Israel activism and his establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Bowdoin College were the main reasons why he joined the DSA. SJP is a radical anti-Israel organisation that has repeatedly glorified terrorism and harassed Jewish students.
At home, Mamdani has failed to deliver on his major election promises of free buses, municipally owned shops, universal childcare and a rent freeze. Instead, he has appointed radical antisemites who hate America and pursued policies that make the city unsafe for ordinary citizens and Jews.
This pattern of strong words but weak results, combined with extreme ideological positions, makes the Norwegian Consulate’s warm embrace all the more remarkable.
Norway may engage with whomever it wishes. But when hundreds of rabbis, Jewish organisations, moderate Democrats and ordinary New Yorkers express deep concern while Norwegian politicians and diplomats roll out the red carpet, serious questions of judgement arise.
Self-destruction for black Americans
While these elitist socialists from Norway bow down before the Islamist mayor, he has provoked the anger of most minority groups in the city apart from his own.
Mayor Mamdani celebrates New York’s immigrants — but excludes Italians, other Europeans and Jews
Black New Yorkers are also beginning to realise that he cares about no one outside his own immigrant community, the approximately one million Muslims who live in the city.
Critics say that he prioritises illegal immigrants over Americans struggling with crime, housing costs and failing services in New York City. As recently as last week, a Harlem pastor denounced Zohran Mamdani and said that he hates the United States and is there to destroy America for the sake of Islam, news anchor Christina Aguayo writes on Facebook.
Dr James David Manning, the long-serving leader of ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem, described Mamdani as a “jihadist at heart”, with a wife who supports radical causes. Dr Manning warned that supporting him amounts to self-destruction for black Americans.
Then there are these two black women with harsh words for Mamdani and his people. They want to know why Mamdani and his people condemn the United States yet still beg to be allowed into the country.
The two black women are from the Pop & Politics YouTube talk show and are urban conservatives from Baltimore, Maryland.
This is the America that neither the American nor the Norwegian left wants you to know about.
They prefer to promote Islamists who despise our way of life and seek to change our countries.
That is why Norwegian politicians and diplomats manage to find exactly what they are looking for among half a million elected officials in the United States.
I am contacting the Norwegian Consulate in New York and the Embassy in Washington, DC, to ask whether they stand by a comments section filled with hatred of Trump and praise for a politician as radical as Zohran Mamdani.
Zohran Mamdani: Mester i taqiyya, eller en bokstavtro muslim?