New york City: Zohran Mamdani on Thursday (January 1) took oath as New York City's 112th mayor. Mamdani's oath-taking ceremony ended with a performance by a Punjabi singer, popularly known as Babbulicious.
For the unversed, Babbulicious is a Toronto-based artist. He sang the Punjabi song “Gaddi Red Challenger” at Mamdani's swearing-in. Mamdani and his wife were also seen grooving to the peppy song sung by the Punjabi singer.
However, as the video of Babbulicious performing at Mamdani's oath-taking ceremony went viral, it started drawing hate comments as some netizens mistook the Punjabi singer as “Muslim” and slammed the new NYC mayor.
"Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration in New York City has music that’s not even in English and Muslim men on stage that look like they’re in Afghanistan. Buckle up America. This is the Islamic takeover of America," one of the X posts read.
Meanwhile, another X user wrote, "Of course there's a Muslim rapper singing in Arabic at Mamdani's inaugural celebration."
Many X users pointed out that the singer was not a Muslim, but a Sikh. "Hilarious. Wait until they find out that this is actually a Sikh who sings in Punjabi and lives in Canada (gasp!)," one of the X users wrote.
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"Actually, this is Punjabi-Sikh rapper Babbulicious (Babbu) performing his hit ‘Gaddi Red Challenger’ in Punjabi (with some English), not Arabic. No Islamic references—it’s about urban life & flexing in a car. Artist is Sikh from Toronto," another user commented.
Mamdani on Thursday scripted history by becoming the city's first Muslim and South Asian mayor. He is also the youngest person to hold the office in more than a century.
"This is truly the honour and the privilege of a lifetime," Mamdani said moments after taking the oath, CNN reported.
Mamdani stunned everybody with his victory in the Democratic primary last summer, running on a platform focused on easing the cost-of-living burden.
