A Muslim nonprofit with strong ties to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani was awarded $85,000 in taxpayer dough through the City Council – despite coming under fire in January for hosting a Brooklyn fundraiser featuring a twisted array of trinkets promoting Hamas and other terror groups.
The Muslim American Society of Brooklyn and Staten Island received $70,000 in Council “discretionary funds” from Democrat Kayla Santosuosso, who represents Bay Ridge and parts of southern Brooklyn. The remaining $15,000 in political pork was dished out by Alexa Avilés (D-Brooklyn), whose district includes Red Hook and Sunset Park.
The funds were awarded despite City Council Speaker Julie Menin expressing shock in January upon learning the terrorist swag was being peddled by the nonprofit that previously received $265,000 in Council funds over three years under her predecessor, ex-Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Menin, the Council’s first Jewish speaker, told The Post at the time she would block $80,000 in funds that had yet to be paid out to the MAS pending an investigation by city lawyers – and potentially future funding for the nonprofit.
Council spokesman Yoav Gonen said the legislative body’s Office of the General Counsel conducted an investigation and “found no affiliation” between the nonprofit and the vendor “that sold the controversial merchandise,” adding that MAS ended its relationship with vendor Thrift For Gaza.
“The nonprofit’s funding was restored after its leadership committed in writing to enhanced screening and prevention protocols for all future vendors using its space,” he said.
Councilwoman and staunch Zionist Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) said “individual members get to decide what groups get their discretionary dollars, but funding nonprofits that appear to flat out support designated terrorist organizations and spread radical, Jew-hating propaganda is far beyond the pale and potentially illegal.”
“And if this was some kind of an alleged hiccup, did MAS apologize and condemn Hamas? No,” she added.
“These members must explain to the public why their taxpayer dollars should be given to America-hating jihadis, rather than so many other groups who have a legitimate purpose and actual needs.”
Both Santosuosso and Avilés represent neighborhoods with large Muslim populations.
The new funding is earmarked for community safety, educational, youth-mentoring, cultural, job-training and other programs in both pols’ districts, according to the Council’s expense budget for member pet projects for the fiscal year that began Wednesday.
Santosuosso is the former deputy director of the Bay Ridge-based Arab American Association of New York, which received $124,500 in Council pork this fiscal year — including $5,000 through Santosuosso’s pot of funds.
During the MAS New York chapter’s Jan. 18 support-Sudan event at its Brooklyn youth center, vendors peddled keychains, stickers, pins and other tchotchkes supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Other items at the event, called Thrift4Sudan, featured reverential images of late terrorist leaders Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and Yahya Sinwar of Hamas, and a masked figure resembling the late Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida.
Merchandise also sported terror-group logos or directly called for the destruction of Israel, with slogans like “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv” and “Death to the IDF,” The Times of Israel reported.
MAS’ New York leadership includes notorious pro-Hamas activist Abdullah Akl, who grew up attending its Brooklyn youth center on Bath Avenue and is also an organizer for the radical, anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime.
MAS’ influence over city politics morphed following the November election of socialist Mamdani as NYC’s first Muslim mayor. MAS-NY’s executive director Sherif Ahmed and Hannah Towfeik, political director at MAS’ youth center, were part of Mamdani’s transition team that helped fill key City Hall posts.
