A claim circulating on social media alleging that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing legislation to require the use of “Arabic numerals” in the state’s elementary schools has raised a few eyebrows online, with over 31.2 million views at the time of writing.

The claim came right after Mamdani released a campaign advertisement featuring him speaking entirely in Arabic on 3 November 2025.

Commenters quickly seized on the rumour, framing it as an attempt to “Islamify” New York and pointing to Mamdani’s heritage — he is of Indian descent and Muslim — as supposed evidence of ulterior motives.

However, a closer look shows that the claim does not hold up to scrutiny. For a start, there is no record — legislative, administrative, or otherwise — of any such proposal coming from Mamdani, his transition team, or any city or state education authority. No official statements, policy documents, or government communications support the idea that any change to the curriculum has been proposed.

More importantly, the claim collapses under the weight of basic factual knowledge: the so-called “Arabic numerals” referred to in the viral post are simply the digits 0 through 9 — the same numeral system used universally in the United States (and most of the world) for centuries. These numerals are already taught in every American school, printed on every street sign and price tag, and used in daily life by every New Yorker. Put simply, there is nothing new to “mandate,” because the entire system is already in place.

The misunderstanding — or misrepresentation — appears to stem from the terminology. Many people unfamiliar with the historical term “Arabic numerals” assume that it refers to a foreign or culturally specific writing system rather than the standard digits they encounter every day. The viral post leveraged this confusion to imply that Mamdani was attempting to impose a foreign cultural practice, a narrative that dovetails neatly with online conspiracies targeting him since his election victory.

Taken together, the available evidence makes the situation clear: no such legislation exists, no proposal has been floated, and the underlying premise of the claim — that Arabic numerals are unfamiliar or foreign plays on the ignorance of certain audiences.

In short, the claim that Zohran Mamdani intends to require New York students to learn Arabic numerals is false and most likely satire. It misrepresents the facts, exploits public confusion, and reinforces unsubstantiated narratives about the mayor-elect’s background rather than engaging with his actual policy agenda.

In the past, the same joke mocking the lack of knowledge about what “Arabic numerals” are has been made about Sarah Palin, Kamala Harris, the UK Government, California and Donald Trump.