New York Jets get new cheerleader outfits after Mamdani won

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DW Fact check: Fake. A reverse image search led us to dozens of similar posts across various social media platforms, including Facebook, Reddit and Instagram, all shared since November 7. The posts – and the discussions below them – seem to treat the image as a joke about the possible consequences of Mamdani's win, but the image is clearly fabricated. The blurriness around the heads and rigid stances point to an AI-generated image. The Jets logo is an older logothe team stopped using in 2023. The mentioned reverse image search also yielded multiple videos labelled with AI watermarks. The New York Jets, an NFL franchise, do not incorporate religious symbols into their team identity. While hijabs are sometimes worn by female athletes in other countries, the niqab is very rare in sports contexts. A study by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a non-profit think tank based in Washington DC, found an "overarching emphasis on Islamophobia, constructing Mamdani as a terrorist, jihadist, or radical Muslim" in social media discourse surrounding the recent election. On October 24, Mamdani held a press conferenceaddressing the Islamophobia targeting him and Muslim New Yorkers. "While my opponents in this race have brought hatred to the forefront, this is just a glimpse of what so many have to endure every day across the city," he said. Mamdani has often been targeted with claims that he holds extremist religious beliefs. As we discussed in a previous article, the often repeated claimsthat he wants to impose Sharia law are complete fabrications. In the context of claims that Mamdani is a proponent of Islamic radicalism, the above image can be seen as a fictional elaboration on that fear.

Reviewed by Deutsche Welle ↗ · November 12, 2025