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Zohran Mamdani’s father, Mahmood, will keep a distance from his son’s incoming administration, according to a new interview with the Ugandan-born academic released Tuesday.
The 79-year-old professor spoke to The Guardian U.S. in the wake of his Democratic socialist son’s decisive mayoral election victory in New York City, where he is set to be sworn in as the new mayor Jan. 1.
“As to how I will relate to Zohran’s administration, I think initially, at least, both Mira and I will have the relationship we did during the campaign, which is to stay at arm’s length, but always be available,” the elder Mamdani told the outlet.
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.
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Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect of New York City. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking during The Guardian interview about political power, Mahmood Mamdani also said, “I don’t believe one should just stay away from power, but I don’t think we should embrace it.
“Power is a fatal thing for intellectuals. It corrupts intellectuals. I’ve seen many, many, many a friend get corrupted in the process.”
Born in India and raised in Uganda, Mahmood Mamdani was expelled in 1972 under Idi Amin’s decree targeting citizens of South Asian descent.
He later became a U.S.-based academic and went on to teach at several leading universities.
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.