[Video below.] Brad Lander, a Democratic candidate in New York’s 10th Congressional District race, is facing criticism following remarks he delivered at a Queens mosque in which he condemned Israel’s war in Gaza and expressed solidarity with prominent anti-Israel progressive lawmakers in Congress.

During a May 15 appearance at the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, Lander recited a verse from the Quran in Arabic before addressing congregants on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Introducing himself as “a proud Jewish New Yorker,” Lander told attendees that what he described as “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” contradicts the Jewish teaching that all human beings are created in the image of God.

Lander also said that if elected to Congress, he hopes to build the same type of political partnership he currently shares with New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani alongside Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, two of the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress.

Following the candidate’s speech, the imam led the congregation in a supplication invoking the coming of the Mahdi and asking that victory and relief come to believers through the defeat and killing of infidels “by his sword.”

Lander, who currently serves as New York City comptroller, has positioned himself as a progressive Democrat aligned with the party’s left wing on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.

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{Matzav.com}