{"id":36721,"date":"2025-11-12T02:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/36721\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:45:13","slug":"ny-school-official-under-fire-for-calling-zohran-mamdani-win-islamic-takeover-of-western-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/36721\/","title":{"rendered":"NY school official under fire for calling Zohran Mamdani win ‘Islamic takeover of Western society’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A school board member in upstate New York thanked Big Apple voters for bringing on the \u201cIslamic takeover of western society\u201d by electing Zohran Mamdani as mayor \u2014 sparking outrage from parents, local reports said.<\/p>\n

Carmel school trustee Michael Torpey, in Putnam County, made the inflammatory remarks in a video of himself he posted on Facebook on election night last Tuesday, according to News 12<\/a> and Lohud.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe accomplished more at our school board meeting tonight than Zohran Mamdani has in his entire career in public service which didn\u2019t exist until tonight, thanks to the good people of New York City and their infinite, boundless wisdom,\u201d he spouted off.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo New York City, congratulations and thank you for doing your part in the Islamic takeover of western society. Good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Torpey, member of the Carmel school system, is facing backlash for his comments. Facebook\/Michael Torpey<\/p>\n

The comments quickly earned a stern rebuke from shocked parents of Carmel students and fellow school officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watched the video, it didn\u2019t sit right to me,\u201d parent Abigail Santana told The Journal News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smirk on his face, the bigoted remarks. Everything about that video made my skin crawl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another parent, Mike Faloon, told News 12 he wanted Torpey to \u201cwalk away\u201d from the elected position or \u201cthe board needs to remove him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmel School Superintendent Michael Plotkin also condemned Torpey\u2019s video in a letter to parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Carmel Central School District condemns the recently circulated video created by one of our trustees. The video is offensive and we will not tolerate any attacks on members of our community, in this instance our Muslim families,\u201d Plotkin said in the letter, according to Lohud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board understands that words and actions, whether made privately or publicly, carry great weight, especially when they come from those entrusted with public service,\u201d the letter continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are taking this matter seriously and are reviewing the situation in keeping with our policies and responsibilities under state and federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torpey, in response to the growing outrage, backpedaled and issued an apology, saying he didn\u2019t mean the remarks as an insult to the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

\"MamdaniMamdani will be the first Muslim mayor in NYC. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to apologize for my recent comment regarding the NYC mayoral race and retract my earlier statement,\u201d he said in a statement to News 12 last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it was shared privately and not made in any official capacity, I recognize that I should have chosen my words more carefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy remarks were too broad and could be interpreted as carrying negative implications for the Islamic community, which was never my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear Tuesday if the school board was planning on taking any action against Torpey, whose term expires in 2028.<\/p>\n

Emails to Torpey and the school system were not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, the socialist pol who has shot to national prominence, will be the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor when he takes office in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A school board member in upstate New York thanked Big Apple voters for bringing on the \u201cIslamic takeover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5998,57,5864,9,24,55,54,56,21492,3863,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-36721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-facebook","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-muslim","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-putnam-valley","17":"tag-racism","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}