Some 600 people, including tech founders and business leaders, have signed an open letter to venture firm Sequoia Capital after one of its partners, Shaun Maguire, posted what the group called a “deliberate, inflammatory attack” against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, CNBC has reported.

Maguire, a strong backer of President Donald Trump, wrote on X over the weekend that Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary last month, “comes from a culture that lies about everything. It’s literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda.”

Maguire then posted a video explaining his comment, adding that “Islamism is a political ideology like Communism. It’s not a race or religion, and only a small fraction of Muslims are Islamists.”

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