NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's father says he will keep 'arm's length' from son's upcoming administration

Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani discusses staying distant from his son Zohran Mamdani's mayoral administration, citing power's corrupting influence.

Zohran Mamdani, left, with his mother, Mira Nair, and father, Mahmood Mamdani, in June. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

"Always be available for discussion, for sharing our point of view, but not mistaking ourselves for being him," he added.

Mahmood Mamdani, who is a professor of government and anthropology at Columbia University and director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Uganda, has also been promoting his new book, "Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State."

The work is described as a re-examination of Idi Amin’s Ugandan dictatorship.

SOCIALIST SHOCKWAVE: ZOHRAN MAMDANI STUNS NYC AS VOTERS HAND POWER TO DEMOCRATS’ FAR-LEFT FLANK

New York state assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, center, his mother, Mira Nair, left, wife, Rama Duwaji, and father, Mahmood Mamdani, celebrate on stage during a campaign event June 24 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Married to filmmaker Mira Nair since 1991, the two met while she was shooting "Mississippi Masala" in Uganda.

Zohran was born in 1991, and went on to become a community organizer and New York State assemblymember representing Astoria, Queens.

In the weeks leading up to Zohran's New York City mayoral campaign, controversy surrounding Mahmood Mamdani surfaced after a video of him discussing America’s influence on global settler colonialism went viral. 

The clip, viewed more than 10 million times, featured him asserting in a 2022 panel discussion that the U.S. served as a model for subsequent settler-colonial projects, including those of Nazi Germany, Fox News Digital reported in July.

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Also, Mahmood Mamdani’s 2004 book, "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror" that was reportedly dedicated to "Zohran and his mates" included a line arguing that suicide bombing "needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Zohran Mamdani's campaign for comment.

Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture. 

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