With Election Day across the nook, New York Metropolis’s mayoral race swerved closely into islamophobic rhetoric over the previous a number of days with Republicans taking critical pictures at mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani due to his Muslim id.
The peak of town’s rash of islamophobia and hostility to New Yorkers who have been visibly Muslim was after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist assault. Since then, the identical local weather of concern and vitriol focusing on Muslim New Yorkers has cropped up every so often as a political tactic. This has been a continuing challenge for Mamdani’s marketing campaign since his launch final yr.
“We all know that within the metropolis, a presumption of innocence is oftentimes solely afforded to some,” stated Mamdani at a sitdown roundtable with Black media on Friday, Oct. 24. “And that is additionally amidst the final 48 hours, which have include a number of the most shameful examples of islamophobia, racism, and bigotry that we’ve seen on this metropolis’s latest political historical past.”
Based on a report from town’s Workplace for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC), there was a dip in hate crime complaints by 3% from 2023 to 2024. Even so, anti-Muslim hate crimes skilled a 69% improve. Moreover, anti-Jewish hate crimes have the best variety of complaints from 2024, adopted by anti-LGBTQ, anti-Black, and anti-Asian complaints, stated the report.
Simply forward of the start of early voting on Oct. 25, it appeared that the fixed reference to Mamdani’s religion took a flip for the more severe. Whereas on the marketing campaign path in Brooklyn, Mamdani stopped on the Masjid At Taqwa in Bedstuy. He was photographed with Harlem Councilmember Yusef Salaam, one other working towards Muslim elected official, and Imam Siraj Wahhaj. Mamdani was instantly slammed by Republicans and Vice President JD Vance on-line as “terror linked.”
“This is identical Imam who campaigned with Eric Adams 4 years in the past, and but, once I meet him, it turns into the story of nationwide significance,” stated Mamdani. “One the place Andrew Cuomo determined to hitch the ranks of those that would cheer for bomb threats on my automotive or name me a jihadist, like Laura Loomer, Elon Musk, JD Vance. And so they do that not due to who I met, however due to my religion, and that I’m on the precipice of changing into the primary Muslim mayor of New York Metropolis historical past.”
In 1991, Wahhaj grew to become the primary Muslim to steer a gap prayer earlier than Congress. He testified as a personality witness on the trial for Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was later convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Commerce Middle. Wahhaj’s estranged son and grandson have been additionally concerned in a tragedy and felony fees in New Mexico. Wahhaj himself was by no means arrested, indicted, or charged, however has been labeled an “unindicted co-conspirator” for the reason that 90s.
“This isn’t about one candidate. It’s about silencing a group,” stated Husein Yatabarry, govt director of the Muslim Group Community. “Weaponizing Islamophobia proper earlier than an election is concern politics at its worst. Muslims belong in New York’s public life, and we’re not backing down.”
Per week out from Election Day on Nov. 4, Mamdani continues to be the main candidate, in keeping with a brand new ballot from Suffolk College. And regardless of the chaos, Mamdani scored a serious endorsement from Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries final week. He stated that the 2 are centered on elevated affordability for New Yorkers, and “on turning the web page on an period of huge cash and small concepts” within the metropolis and nation.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is gaining floor with voters, particularly with Jewish and Hispanic voters in addition to Black voters over the age of 40, who see him because the “skilled” candidate. He has scored important endorsements not too long ago, like that of Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his personal marketing campaign in September, and former Gov. David Paterson.
Cuomo was a visitor of conservative WABC discuss radio host Sid Rosenberg on Oct. 23. The host insinuated that Mamdani would rejoice one other 9/11 terrorist assault. Cuomo chuckled however didn’t push again. Adams tried to attract a connection between “Islamic extremisms” abroad and Mamdani’s run for mayor in a separate interview for Fox Information. Cuomo’s marketing campaign additionally posted AI-generated marketing campaign movies depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani” as racist caricatures, comparable to a Black man carrying a keffiyeh and shoplifting, a person abusing a girl, a pimp trafficking white girls, and others.
“New Yorkers love the Muslim group,” stated Cuomo in an interview with Spectrum Information. “He [Zohran] claims that he’s the sufferer — the sufferer of assaults as a result of he’s a Muslim. Nothing may very well be farther from the reality. He isn’t a sufferer. He’s the offender.”
Cuomo’s assault advert blitz on Mamdani’s religion has left a bitter be aware with many in Black and Muslim areas.
Dr. Debbie Almontaser, senior advisor at Emgage Motion, stated she is “disheartened” by what’s occurring and that many elections use the Muslim group and the Muslim vote as a “political soccer to fearmonger.” She refuses to let that concern dictate individuals’s proper to vote, she stated.
Dr. Jamel Coy Hudson, a doctoral lecturer of rhetoric and public advocacy at Metropolis College of New York (CUNY) Baruch School, stated that the mischaracterization of Muslim leaders in politics reveals how prejudice towards Muslims nonetheless shapes public discourse within the metropolis at present.
“As a substitute of participating in actual coverage critique, there are politicians and media retailers that select to make use of Islamophobic rhetoric, portray Muslims in a unfavourable mild merely due to their religion or associations,” stated Hudson in an announcement. “There’s a deep and troubling sample of utilizing an individual’s religion as a political weapon, and the assaults on Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral marketing campaign have revealed how urgently we have to confront bias in our public life,” continued Hudson. “In a nation that asserts freedom of faith, we should shield each group and each particular person’s proper to follow their religion with out discrimination right here in New York Metropolis.”
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) Motion Govt Director Basim Elkarra stated in an announcement: “Cuomo has crossed an ethical line. This rhetoric shouldn’t be solely deeply Islamophobic — it’s reckless and life-threatening to Muslim, Arab, and South Asian New Yorkers who nonetheless stay with the trauma of the post-9/11 backlash.”
In the meantime, Mamdani’s reception within the Jewish group appears to be waffling.
Over 1,000 rabbis from throughout the U.S. revealed an open letter to Mamdani, airing their grievances along with his marketing campaign and their denunciation of anti-Zionism on Oct. 28. On the opposing aspect, nationwide Jewish teams, like Bend the Arc: Jewish Motion, determined to endorse Mamdani for mayor. “These Jewish leaders are doing Trump and the MAGA motion’s work for them: dividing our pro-democracy motion at a time once we should be united to beat again fascism,” stated Rachel Laforest, chief campaigns officer for Bend the Arc, in an announcement.
