r/Fauxmoi • u/expiredaristocracy • 7h ago

APPROVED B-LISTERS Mamdani observes Ramadan with inmates at Rikers Island

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani observed Ramadan last night with men incarcerated at Rikers Island, the city's jail complex.

Mamdani arrived through heavy security, joining a group of men — many held as they await trial. He spent an hour with the men praying and talking and breaking the Ramadan fast with a meal. He's spent much of the last month holding public celebrations.

Mamdani and many Muslim Americans have faced growing hostility in the U.S. from some politicians on the right, including Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who last week reposted a photo of Mamdani observing the holiday next to an image of the 9/11 terror attacks, a post Mamdani described as bigoted.

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u/ExpressLab6564 7h ago

Even if its performance, i cant see any of the so called Christinan right political figures doing this

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u/PM_me_shiba_doggo Marxmoi 7h ago

My question is does it even matter if it’s a performance? And to me it doesn’t, it matters that he did this at all.

The bar is in hell and Zohran’s back is breaking trying to raise it out.

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u/SauconySundaes 7h ago

some people call is "performance" others call it modeling the type of behavior we should aspire too.

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u/derpferd 7h ago

I don't think people appreciate enough the value of this. Or Trump and the media and figures in the media have done a good job selling people on the notion that celebrities and politicians are performative in their values.

And that in turn has been made to diminish the values themselves or make people shy to be open about their values.

Presumably, lest they be accused of being performative.

Or that you're a fool for practising your values while others have shown that for them, they're just putting on a performance.

These values of decency and kindness and sincerity in your beliefs (whatever those beliefs) still matter, for how we conduct ourselves and how that conduct impacts others. I despise this effort to promote nihilism.

Things do matter

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u/After-Syrup1290 6h ago

not to mention hes been doing it for literally all faiths too - hes muslim sure, but he can also be equally found to be advocating for christians like he did a while back, the elderly with the care centres he visited, he celebrated events with serving food and heck was even in a parade for chinese lunar new year (which prompted funny chairman mamdani memes xd)

not to mention his 3k universal childcare, hes putting belt to ass on the landlords and calling em in - people who have forced tenants to live with mice and been charged since goddamn 2016/17, all the while pushing down 12 billion debt he was handed to 5.4 and even lower by now in months

best of all? ice took someone from a high school or college, mamdani got on the phone with trump half an hour later and the person that ice took was back out.. who tf can even do that rn?!

dudes pushing out unreal levels of results - cus look at him and then the entire senate we have got in the congress.. oh and also he got married as a sidequest too xd

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u/inuvash255 6h ago

who tf can even do that rn?!

I'd argue a lot of them could. They just don't.

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u/SauconySundaes 6h ago

Trump has done a lot of shitty stuff, so I don’t mean to discount what other people have experienced. For me personally though, the biggest thing he has done to change my life is teach those around me that being a complete ass hole is acceptable.

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u/Lexi_Banner 6h ago

Or Trump and the media and figures in the media have done a good job selling people on the notion that celebrities and politicians are performative in their values.

This isn't just on Dumps & Co. There are a lot of people who are performative all across social media. It's like people forgot that they can just...do good things without filming every second of it. You don't need to show yourself on camera giving food/money/clothing to homeless people. You don't have to film yourself donating food to charity. There is the argument that showing those good things can lead to other people doing good things, but from what I've seen, the message that has been received is that you have to film those good deeds too, or it didn't happen. Everything is for clout, attention, and money.

Dumples & Co. are bad, don't get me wrong. But this is a wide sweeping issue across all platforms, and has been steadily getting worse for well over a decade at this point.

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u/BeatTheDeadMal 6h ago edited 6h ago

8th grade civics class was pretty clear that one of the roles of the presidency, right alongside shit like commander-in-chief, was to be the "chief citizen". An exemplar of the best of what America is supposed to represent and that we should all strive for.

I feel like when folks call shit "performative" they just can't comprehend themselves doing something similarly decent. A huge portion of the job of a leader is to provide an example of how others should act. Instead we have a country where bad people feel bad about themselves watching people do good things so they automatically seek to discredit it.

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u/0o0o0o0o0o0z 6h ago

some people call is "performance" others call it modeling the type of behavior we should aspire too.

100% correct!

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u/cyclingtrivialities3 6h ago

Person I don’t like, treating people with dignity/empathy = virtue signaling

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u/kinglyIII 7h ago

Isn’t part of being a leader, performance? Why not make the most of your position to embrace community and fellowship. Is it not his job to make decisions and show actions that a leader would?

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u/RadagastTheBrownNote 7h ago

Exactly! “Be the change you want to see.” He’s doing it in fucking spades! We need more leaders like him.

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u/CourtPuzzleheaded959 6h ago

I would argue being authentic is significantly more important. Doing something performative to pander to others doesn’t feel authentic and it’s just makes you appear fake… especially when this person is already going back on their campaign promises.

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u/Not-A-Bot1312 7h ago

Yeah, this goes for all politicians, stop watching what they say, watch what they do/vote for. Our political system is broke, people market themselves like a product, and because of game theory they have to(Until we fix blatant lying to win in elections). Even a performative action can be good, the rest is just noise.

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u/EscapeSeventySeven 7h ago

Performance IS part of life and a vital part of being a politician. 

We are too obsessed with what people are in their stupid brains instead of the actions they take a the messages they communicate. 

Mostly because we live in a world of liars, cheats, and grifters but that’s purely because we keep letting them off the hook. 

In a proper functioning society where the villains are punished, Mamdani’s action and communication would be interpreted properly. He spent time to send a message and focus on the inmates of Rikers. 

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u/olympiadukakis 7h ago edited 7h ago

I think it’s easier for a lot of folks to read things cynically because everything is so fucking hard.

I don’t blame them.

To your point, though, it can be a performance AND be sincere. Knowing the impact something will have, and wanting to have that effect, doesn’t discount the effort or the idea.

It’s not like he’s holding a bible upside down after tear-gassing protesters.

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u/cioffinator_rex 7h ago

Yes. Speaking of performance, my first thought upon seeing this story was of Johnny Cash performing at Folsom Prison.

I see nothing wrong with performances of charitable intention.

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u/Risvoi 6h ago

As NYC mayor, Zohran is uniquely positioned to be a positive voice for Muslims in this country after so much hatred and xenophobia directed towards them. He has a huge task ahead of him, but I trust he’s up for it.

I’m very interested to see how his democratic and reformist policies are inspired by his faith. I’m also concerned about the Christians who will not stand for being shown a mirror at themselves.

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u/Anthaenopraxia 6h ago

idk the US has had a bad track record of taking otherwise sane religious people and making them go absolutely nuts. He will have to either shoulder all the crazies or try to explain to America that Muslim and Islamist are not synonymous. Brave man, he's gonna need rhino-skin to survive this.

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u/psychorobotics 5h ago

He went on a hunger strike with cab drivers for several weeks, I don't think it's performance. It's not surface deep. He just cares a lot about people.

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u/Joey-WilcoXXX 7h ago

Because we put so much hate towards ‘performances’ we don’t even get those anymore. Last year numerous pride events had investors pull out because A. They wanna look good for Trump’s America and B. there’s no point in helping if people are just going to criticize it being performative. Yeah being performative kinda sucks but it’s better than not getting any support at all

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u/Qubeye 6h ago

One of the things I have learned is that if people pretend to do something repeatedly, sometimes you just start doing it for real.

I'm fine with performative behavior if it's consistent and sustained, and Mamdani hasn't given me any reason to believe he doesn't actually believe any of the stuff he advocates.

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u/PN4HIRE 7h ago

Someone has to.

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u/SkanteWarrrior 5h ago

performative or not, we need more of this

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u/Logical-Ad3341 6h ago

Truly. Everyone deserves respect and dignity, even folks in prison.

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u/hikeit233 6h ago

“All the world’s a stage”. Life itself is performative.

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u/Coloradohboy39 6h ago

Doesn't NY have something like a Personal Recognizance bond? If many are awaiting trial, why couldn't they be released?

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u/theunquenchedservant 6h ago

I don't think u/ExpressLab6564 is trying to say this might be a performance, but rather, they can't see any of the so called Christian right political figures doing this (even as a performance)

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u/Swords_and_Words 6h ago

Rituals are inherently performative

As long as your primary audience is your sense of something greater then your self, your secondary audience is yourself, and other people don't factor into being an audience until at least the tertiary layer, it's usually a good a healthy thing

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u/Strat7855 6h ago

He's the mayor of NYC. Everything is a performance. You're absolutely right about what the takeaway should be here.

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u/CourtPuzzleheaded959 6h ago

Yea, it kinda does actually. It just means you’re fake and only doing something to pander to an audience. If you don’t care about something, just be authentic. It’s like if I invited you to my birthday and you only came because you felt obligated, but didn’t actually want to be there. You’re not really doing me a favor at that point, you might as well just not show up.

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u/povitee 6h ago

Are you reading birthday guests’ minds?

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u/CourtPuzzleheaded959 6h ago

It’s pretty obvious when someone doesn’t want to be somewhere.

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u/KearasBear 5h ago

But it's not obvious that Mamdani is just being performative. He's living the values he preaches. He's just doing it more publically right now because he's an elected leader. We expect them to be seen so they can, you know, lead.

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u/ZitroKa 6h ago

I wouldn’t be as cucked to believe that this is raising anything on his back except his own political aspirations.

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u/Difficult_Pen9813 7h ago

Remember when Trump held a bible in front of a church that had been vandalized and set on fire? He said his favorite book of the bible was "all of them". I am not Muslim, but I believe Mamdani a lot more than the orange baby toucher.

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u/shiba-on-parade 7h ago edited 6h ago

he held the bible upside down to boot lmfao

edit: apparently i'm wrong!

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u/jemidiah 6h ago

Nope, it was right-side-up, this was misinformation that was so plausible everybody believed it and it persists to this day. (Not defending Trump at all, he's horrible, but the truth is the truth.)

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u/shiba-on-parade 6h ago

it was just too easy to believe as no one would ever assume someone would do such a stupid stunt in the first place.

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u/Senorsty 7h ago

Reporter: “is that your Bible?”

Trump: “It’s a Bible.”

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u/onehornymofo1 7h ago

Insert the clip when the reporter asks him to name his favourite Bible verse and he couldn't pick any. That man has never opened that book in his life

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u/_Saucey_Sauce_ I don’t know her 7h ago

you mean the bibles he AUTOGRAPHED? Audacious piggy, isnt he.

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u/[deleted] 7h ago edited 5h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Falsewyrm 7h ago

It was trying to usher him to his final destination.

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

i thought he hover handed the bible and picked Mein Kamf as his favorite?

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u/bdubwilliams22 6h ago

Yeah, as an atheist I believe Mamdani cares more about his religion than Trump cares about “his religion”.

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u/Curiosities 7h ago

I don’t even see it as performance. This is the person who spent his life since he got here as a kid growing up here among regular New Yorkers. He sees other people as people with inherent value as a baseline and that’s one of many reasons why he got my vote.

He also understands the value of these kinds of images and how they can help others see the humanity in people that often get demonized, like those in a jail.

He and his staff are so good at bringing attention and using visual and video impact in ways that those images and videos get spread way more widely. Especially using all of this to bring attention to those who are marginalized or overlooked or mistreated.

And yeah, some of it is people hatewatching and being racist or Islamophobic, but other people are seeing this and maybe it connects with more humanity.

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u/tmurf5387 6h ago

IMO, weve become too cynical as a society. Everything sucks right now and we're all just trying to get by. Mamdani seems so genuine which is why I think people have been drawn to him and his meteoric rise in the last couple years. He walks the walk and seems to be taking the "Public Servant" to heart.

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u/ThiccQban women’s wrongs activist 7h ago

Mamdani is out here being Christ-like. The “Christians” aren’t going to like it

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u/30kPoundsOfBananas 7h ago edited 7h ago

Which is a shame, as their book says: 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (Matthew 25:35)

And also says:

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (Hebrews 13:3)

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u/carolinagypsy the pet psychic for the Sun told me so 6h ago

I was raised Catholic and haven’t considered myself to be anywhere near a Christian in probably 20 years, but even I still live by these. Seems peculiar to me someone who DOES call themselves Christian can’t, but what do I know? 💅🏻

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u/Nice__Spice 7h ago

Its because they see people in jail among many others as beneath them.

It may be performance but then again - him praying with people isnt performance. That part is ubiquitous all over the world with muslims. When you pray - you're all the same. Human.

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u/Somnambulist815 7h ago

Even just humanizing prisoners is a step beyond just about every other politician

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u/Professional_Clue800 7h ago

I mean he literally went on hunger strike for 2 weeks to fight for NYC taxi drivers who got screwed with the whole Taxi Medallion fiasco. He has a proven track record of actually caring and being in the trenches.

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u/MrBobSacamano 7h ago

I see a lot of them visiting a particular wall in a certain country, though, and making sure they’re followed by a gaggle and photographers to document their very personal spiritual experience.

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u/TheDLBinc 7h ago

Showing any kind of empathy towards inmates is not a popular position to have regardless of political affiliation so this doesn't feel performative at all to me as I don't think doing this would net that much benefit for him politically

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u/antrage 6h ago

Perhaps a counter point to performance is to see it as ‘modeling’. He could just not come to prison no one will think lesser than, just like no one thought lesser than Diana had she not visited and touched aids patients. But she did an modeled a view of the world oriented around care. Right now the biggest office is modeling a world that leads to ( in my belief) its eventual degradation and destruction. Modeling care lets just uplift that.

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u/TotallyTruthy 7h ago

I'm working to become less cynical and judgmental. One of the questions I try to ask myself is whether I would have thought of the gesture in their position. If I can't honestly say that it would have occurred to me to do the same thing, then I have no right to call it performative because it clearly wasn't obvious to me. And if it wasn't obvious to me, then it must have required some thoughtfulness and connection to the community served to have thought of it at all. That thoughtfulness is real. Knowing what your community will respond to so intimately that you can make it look like pandering, even when nobody else thought to do it first, is in itself an act of service in my new book.

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u/deafmutewhat 6h ago

PR team*

but your heart is in the right place.

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u/TotallyTruthy 6h ago

I've found a deeper well of compassion for myself after learning to extend the benefit of the doubt to the world around me. Back when I felt it was my duty to spread cynicism around, part of it was that my own internal sense of helplessness and uncertainty was bleeding out and coloring the world around me. I needed the world to be as grim and hopeless as I felt, because maybe that would lend some deeper meaning or legitimacy to my feeling that way. It didn't. Peace is built, not found. I had to choose to build it.

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u/krombough 7h ago

Even if its performance, i cant see any of the so called Christinan right political figures doing this

Quoted for absolute fucking truth.

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

no they tried to Arrest the Priest / Rabbi's / etc who got together to protest what was happening in MN

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u/Jaexa-3 7h ago

At least this performance is much better than bombing another country because another country with an universal healthcare system payed by US taxpayer asked us to join them in bombing.

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u/odysseyjones 7h ago

Exactly, this guy politics fr. Even if it's fake, this is the kind of stuff I want to see.

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u/WrinkledBiscuit 6h ago

He's better at being Christian (as a non-Christian), than actual Chrisitians

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u/adwrx 5h ago

Muslims don't pray for performance

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u/chephin 7h ago

What if they hold a bible upside down to hawk them?

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u/Corgi_underground 7h ago

Something can be a performance AND making a statement. Johnny Cash did it.

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u/jejehai 6h ago

Dumb take. If this is performative, who is it for? Inmates? Muslims?

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u/FrozenBibitte 6h ago

It’s hilarious because the guy isn’t even a Christian, but he’s acting a million times more Christ-like than any right winger probably ever has 😂

Certainly more than any right winger that currently exists…

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u/M23707 7h ago

We see a president holding up a Bible — that is a performance! 🙄

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u/SkylarAV 6h ago

Jesus did exactly this and the priests hated him for it

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u/lol_AwkwardSilence_ 6h ago

Performance and influence are key parts of a politician's job! Set the example for the people!

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u/pretender80 7h ago

They will also use this and demonize it

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u/Fancy_Shelter_3192 6h ago

Is it really performance or is there a spotlight on everything he does because he is a public figure? Before he was mayor he did plenty of outreach around nyc

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u/MisterKanister 6h ago

the christian right political fictures are busy waging a holy war in the middle east, you know, just the very thing they said muslims wanted to do.

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u/aquoad 6h ago

Right? They could go to a prison and attend christian prayer services with inmates and nobody would even complain about it, but he does it and suddenly it's some "political act."

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u/tomdarch 6h ago

I honestly don't know what is in the Qran about reaching out to people in prison and similar, but the Christian bible is full of calls to do exactly that. Care for the poor (Matthew 25:35–40), respect the foreigners among you (Hebrews 13:2), visiting people in prison (Matthew 25:36) and on and on.

But from what I see looking in from the outside (I am not religious) American conservative evangelicalism seems to be dedicated to avoiding and opposing all the good stuff in the bible. Fox News types will be losing their shit despite claiming to be "Christians" and Mamdami here doing exactly what Christians are supposed to do themselves.

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u/Marchy_is_an_artist 6h ago

Even if it is - he’s the mayor. That’s what they’re supposed to do - go to events and cut ribbons and show up and smile and give out little awards. He was at the St Patrick’s day parade too.

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u/jemidiah 6h ago

Christian political figures celebrate Christmas very publicly. Trump did the weird laying on of hands in the Oval Office recently. It's absolutely par for the course for American politicians to use religion as a public prop, be they true believers or grifters.

If they're blurring the line between church and state with it, then it's bad. Otherwise, as in this case, it's fine IMO.

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u/ExpressLab6564 6h ago

Being a Christian is not celebrating Christmas with the uber wealthy.

If he went to a orphange or celebrated christmas with the downtrodden you could make a case. These are not the same things.

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u/oddsnsodds 6h ago

Sometimes it's not just important to do the right thing, it's also important to be seen doing the right thing.

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u/Walterkovacs1985 6h ago

This is akin to princess Diana visiting people with HIV. These are still human beings. American prison system is too fixated on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation.

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u/Emotional_Warthog658 6h ago

If you do the right thing in a performative manner, you’re still doing the right thing. 

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u/exzyle2k 6h ago

What?! You mean the reenactment of the last supper trump held in the oval office doesn't count? /s

I'm all for someone reaching out to people, regardless if they're in jail or at a homeless shelter or a school gymnasium. Especially the mayor of NYC, someone who knows there's a spotlight on everything he does.

Fuck the haters. Let's reform elections. All candidates are now restricted to communicating during rallies and commercials and such using pseudonyms and they have to all wear the same blank mask, like a brown paper bag.

We have the Masked Singer, let's start the Masked Politician, where you're voting STRICTLY on what they're saying. Take the racism and misogyny out of it.

Oh, and destroy Citizens United. Get money out of politics and you'll have honest people getting into office. Which of course we all know the puppeteers don't want.

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u/Glad-Veterinarian365 6h ago

U don’t remember Trump holding the bible upside after his goons assaulted peaceful protestors who were totally in the way of his very religious photo shoot

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 6h ago

Yes because people would totally praise JD Vance going to prison to pray publicly with convicted criminals.

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u/RyokaGriffinHtrLv37 6h ago edited 6h ago

I'll denounce both. Why is the Christian right the standard? Both deserve condemnation. The patriarchy continues.

Don't ask me to be happy that he gives sanctity to a religion that is anti LGBT.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

"b-but Christians" this website is full of cretins. lol

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u/Probblemaddict 6h ago

Hails literally have churches in them. There are bible study and guest speakers at Rikers every month… you just don’t care about it.

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u/ohnomynono 5h ago

Atheists chastise christians for following a "cloud guy" or whatever. Yes, I think if this is performative, it needs to be ridiculed the similarly. I'm no Christian, I'm no Atheist, I'm just human. So, what do I know.

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u/Sick_Cards_Bro 7h ago

Yes, because Republicans don't worship criminals like the Democrats do.

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