Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour has issued what amounts to a public warning to mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani — her longtime ally and mentee — that his progressive backers will not give him a free pass if he fails to deliver on radical campaign promises, including dismantling one of the NYPD’s top anti-terrorism units.

In an Instagram livestream obtained by Fox News Digital, Sarsour — a co-founder of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York and former Women’s March leader — declared that she would not join Mamdani’s administration but would instead remain on the outside to “hold Zohran accountable.”

“Our friends on the inside need people on the outside to hold them accountable. To say, ‘We see you. We’re paying attention,’” Sarsour said. “Voting for Zohran is not, ‘We’re going to vote for Zohran and just let him do whatever the hell he wants when he gets to City Hall.’”

Sarsour has played a pivotal role in Mamdani’s political rise, campaigning with him as early as 2017 and backing his successful run for the New York State Assembly and now his bid for mayor. Both are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and both have drawn criticism for their participation in anti-Israel demonstrations — many of which have been policed by the very NYPD unit Mamdani now vows to disband.

That unit, the Strategic Response Group (SRG), was created in 2015 to respond to terrorism threats, violent protests, and riots. It has been deployed at numerous pro-Palestinian protests in the city since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

Mamdani, 34, has promised to dismantle the SRG if elected, saying in a podcast interview that “everyone will follow my lead — I’ll be the mayor.” He also pledged to keep current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on — but only if she follows his directives.

Sarsour made clear she expects him to follow through. “If Tisch doesn’t do what the mayor says, that’s when we’re going to have to go to Zohran and be like, ‘You definitely made the wrong decision here,’” she warned.

A longtime lightning rod in New York politics, Sarsour has ties to some of the same political networks powering Mamdani’s campaign — including MPower Action, part of a 110-group coalition of left-wing and Muslim-American organizations working to elect New York City’s first Muslim mayor.

But Sarsour’s livestream revealed deep ideological friction within that coalition. She acknowledged that Mamdani’s alliance of secular socialists and Islamist figures has raised eyebrows — and even mocked critics who accuse him of trying to mix Marxism with religious fundamentalism.

“You can’t be a Marxist and a jihadist and an Islamist and a fundamental Muslim all at the same time,” she said. “You gotta pick a side. Either we’re theocrats or we’re leftists — these things don’t go together.”

Despite her blunt tone, Sarsour also defended Mamdani’s campaign from accusations that it has been driven by religious identity. “Our candidate is out there and just happens to be a Muslim,” she said. “None of the campaign was ever like ‘Free Palestine.’ It just happens to be part of who Zohran is.”

Sarsour made it clear that her allegiance to Mamdani’s movement — not to his administration — will guide her next steps if he wins. “I’m not going to work in City Hall,” she said. “When Zohran gets inaugurated in January, we have to be the people outside.”

She urged her followers to stay active, saying Mamdani must “tell his own critics that are on the other side to look out that window — those people outside, those activists, those organizers — I’m accountable to them because they’re the ones who helped me get there.”

Sarsour ended her address by invoking Inshallah — “God willing” — and predicting the dawn of what she called “a new type of politics.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)