Does Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have a plan to require all New York students to learn Arabic numerals? No, that's not true: Viral posts making that claim are satirical in nature because Arabic numerals are already widely used everywhere in New York and the rest of the United States. The joke plays on the ignorance of certain audiences not knowing "Arabic numerals" are the commonly used digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
One example of such a viral post appeared on X (archived here) on November 19, 2025. It read:
BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals.
-- Polymarket (@Polymarket) November 19, 2025
The Britannica dictionary defines "Arabic Numerals" (archived here) as:
any one of the number symbols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0
Also according to Britannica (archived here), the number system:
...originated in India in the 6th or 7th century and were introduced to Europe through the writings of Middle Eastern mathematicians, especially al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi, about the 12th century.
In the past, essentially 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 even President Trump.
