Gillibrand wears a hijab at Bronx mosque beside cleric who praised Hamas and bin Laden’s mentor

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand made an unpublicized stop at a Bronx mosque in a hijab, sitting beside a cleric who has praised Hamas and Osama bin Laden’s spiritual mentor, and neither she nor the center explained the visit.

On Sept. 21, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand appeared at the Bronx Muslim Center in the city’s “Little Yemen” neighborhood wearing a pink headscarf and seated next to Hamud Alsilwi, the Yemeni cleric who has led the center since 1998.

Photos of the stop were posted by the mosque’s outreach director. Gillibrand did not promote the visit on social media or her Senate website, even as she shared footage the same day from other events in East Harlem and the Bronx in the same suit, without the hijab. Her office and the center did not respond to requests for comment, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Gillibrand chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The quiet stop puts a top party fundraiser next to a cleric whose own record includes open praise for Hamas figures and a U.S.-designated terrorist long tied to al-Qaeda’s founder.

Alsilwi’s record sits in plain sight

Alsilwi has led the Bronx Muslim Center for more than a quarter century. The Free Beacon reported that he has praised Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and hailed Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, the influential Islamic scholar the U.S. government designated a terrorist in 2004.

In an October 2016 post, Alsilwi wrote, in an English translation carried by the Free Beacon:

"The Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Palestine, and they harmed no one except the Jews and Israel,"

In January 2016 posts, he praised Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin for “causing so much trouble for the Jews in Palestine.” Yassin was later killed in an Israeli airstrike after being linked to multiple murders.

After al-Zindani died in April 2024, Alsilwi mourned him with photos and videos, called him an “eminent scholar,” and prayed, “O God, grant him spacious gardens in Paradise.”

The U.S. Treasury designation of al-Zindani rested on his role as spiritual adviser to Osama bin Laden and on allegations he recruited al-Qaeda members and aided “the purchase of weapons on behalf of al-Qaeda and other terrorists.”

A Muslim Brotherhood-linked branch, and prior federal cash

The Bronx Muslim Center is a branch of the Muslim American Society. Federal prosecutors have described the society as an “overt arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

A banner in the visit photos solicited donations for the center’s new 32,000-square-foot mosque. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, previously secured $1 million in earmarks for the center, a detail the Free Beacon noted via a 2024 Middle East Forum report that also examined Alsilwi’s posts.

Outreach director Yahay Obeid posted the Gillibrand photos and framed the stop as community outreach.

"It was an honor to welcome U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to Little Yemen today and have her spend time directly with members of our community,"

No public remarks from Gillibrand at the mosque appear in the available reporting. No motive for the visit or the headscarf was stated on the record.

Democrats keep reaching for the same costume

Gillibrand’s low-profile appearance fits a wider pattern among New York Democrats who have worn the hijab at public religious events and then faced sharp pushback.

Last month relative to the Free Beacon’s account, Gov. Kathy Hochul donned a hijab at an event for the Islamic Cultural Center of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. President Donald Trump called her the “Worst Governor in the Country” and said she “wears the hijab” to “get the Arab Vote.” New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman labeled it “Hijab Hochul. Kathy's Latest Costume: Whatever the Audience Wants.”

Earlier this year, conservatives and human rights activists criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she wore a hijab at an outdoor Eid event. Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad accused Ocasio-Cortez of hypocrisy while claiming “to fight for women's self-determination.” That episode sits alongside Trump’s warnings about Ocasio-Cortez and Democrats ducking their own records.

Gillibrand’s visit adds a Senate campaign chair to the same visual politics, without the usual press rollout.

Party pressure runs one direction

Gillibrand’s role at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee makes the optics harder to dismiss as a local courtesy call. The party’s left flank has grown louder and more organized, a shift visible in polling on Democrats’ DSA identification and in primary fights that keep pulling the brand further from the center.

Establishment figures have already watched progressive surges scramble old assumptions about who sets the party’s tone. The 2026 primary season’s socialist wave left parts of the old guard reeling. Leadership fights inside the caucus have turned personal and public, including cases where Jeffries took losses in his own backyard.

Against that backdrop, a quiet mosque visit beside a cleric with a documented record of praising Hamas founders and a bin Laden mentor is not a blank cultural gesture. It is a choice about company, message, and what gets advertised versus what stays off the senator’s feeds.

Even some longtime Democratic-leaning voices have started saying the party looks weak and evasive when it ducks hard questions. Bill Maher’s “cowardly” critique landed in that larger argument about a party that manages optics carefully and accountability poorly.

No answers, only the photos

The Free Beacon asked Gillibrand’s office and the Bronx Muslim Center for comment. Neither answered. The photos remain: a U.S. senator in a pink headscarf, a donation banner for a large new mosque, and Alsilwi at her side.

Alsilwi’s posts are not obscure. They praise the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise as harm aimed at “the Jews and Israel,” celebrate a Hamas founder for trouble inflicted on Jews, and honor a man the U.S. government tied to bin Laden and al-Qaeda logistics. Federal prosecutors have already described the parent network of the center as an overt Muslim Brotherhood arm.

Gillibrand still chairs the committee charged with electing Democratic senators nationwide. She still skipped promoting this stop while broadcasting other events the same day. Voters can see the pictures. They still have no on-record explanation from her.

When leading Democrats treat association as a costume change and silence as strategy, they tell the country exactly how little scrutiny they expect, and how much they think they can get away with.