A prominent Bangladeshi business leader from Queens is turning his back on Zohran Mamdani after repeatedly backing the socialist lawmaker — and urging his community to now block the prostitution-boosting pol from becoming mayor.
“Supporting prostitution means supporting human trafficking,” said Fahad Solaiman, who lives near the infamously sex-worker-riddled Roosevelt Avenue.
Solaiman, who plans to vote for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, urged members of his mosque to also reject the progressive Democratic nominee in an exclusive interview with The Post Friday.
“Come over here in the evening, after 8 o’clock, after the sun sets, you will see that you cannot walk Roosevelt Avenue [without seeing] many prostitutes,” Solaiman said at the Darul Hidaya Mosque after a service Friday.
The influential businessman, who is general secretary at the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, spoke alongside Cuomo at the service, urging others in his community to back the former gov instead of Mamdani.
The community leader claimed he used to support Mamdani primarily because of his position on Palestine — but as the race has progressed, Solaiman has had a change of heart.
“The more he moves forward, the more we are seeing it; he’s a hypocrite. That’s the reason we took ourselves out,” Solaiman said.
Mamdani, who is Muslim, co-sponsored an bill in the state Assembly to “decriminalize” prostitution between consenting adults, meaning there would be no arrests for sex workers or johns — but he’s been vague about his support of it in recent months.
Standing side-by-side, the leaders of the mosque, along with Solaiman, passionately called for the congregation to get out and support Cuomo, who is running on an independent line for mayor and trailing Mamdani by at least 20 point in the latest polls.
“I am proud to endorse Andrew Cuomo for mayor, and will work hand in hand with him to unite our city, rather than divide us,” said Imam Qazi Qayyoon.
The key issue that all of the Cuomo backers raised about the Queens assemblyman was his plan to reinstate former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policy of not arresting or prosecuting sex workers.
Since taking office in 2021, the lawmaker has co-sponsored multiple versions of statewide legislation to decriminalize sex work — bills that remain stalled. He continues to support the proposals annually and has consistently spoken out in favor of changing the law.
While prostitution is prohibited under Islamic moral teachings — which Mamdani acknowledges — he maintains his stance on the issue as a matter of justice and public policy.
“So that’s the reason I cannot support him. When he comes to South Asian communities, he’s saying he’s South Asian. When he comes to African American communities, he’s saying he was born in Uganda, He’s African. So this guy doesn’t know what he is,” Solaiman contended.
Cuomo has tried to seize upon the issue over the last few weeks, with his campaign seemingly stuck in the mud, failing to break above 30% in the poll since his embarrassing loss to Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June.
A spokesperson for Zohran Mamdani did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Read the full article here
