With Election Day around the corner, New York City’s mayoral race swerved heavily into islamophobic rhetoric over the past several days with Republicans taking serious shots at mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani because of his Muslim identity.
The height of the city’s rash of islamophobia and hostility to New Yorkers who were visibly Muslim was after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Since then, the same climate of fear and vitriol targeting Muslim New Yorkers has cropped up from time to time as a political tactic. This has been a constant issue for Mamdani’s campaign since his launch last year.
“We know that in the city, a presumption of innocence is oftentimes only afforded to some,” said Mamdani at a sitdown roundtable with Black media on Friday, Oct. 24. “And this is also amidst the last 48 hours, which have come with some of the most shameful examples of islamophobia, racism, and bigotry that we’ve seen in this city’s recent political history.”
According to a report from the city’s Office 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 experienced a 69% increase. Additionally, anti-Jewish hate crimes have the highest number of complaints from 2024, followed by anti-LGBTQ, anti-Black, and anti-Asian complaints, said the report.
Just ahead of the beginning of early voting on Oct. 25, it seemed that the constant reference to Mamdani’s faith took a turn for the worse. While on the campaign trail in Brooklyn, Mamdani stopped at the Masjid At Taqwa in Bedstuy. He was photographed with Harlem Councilmember Yusef Salaam, another practicing Muslim elected official, and Imam Siraj Wahhaj. Mamdani was immediately slammed by Republicans and Vice President JD Vance online as “terror linked.”
“This is the same Imam who campaigned with Eric Adams four years ago, and yet, when I meet him, it becomes the story of national significance,” said Mamdani. “One where Andrew Cuomo decided to join the ranks of those who would cheer for bomb threats on my car or call me a jihadist, like Laura Loomer, Elon Musk, JD Vance. And they do this not because of who I met, but because of my faith, and that I am on the precipice of becoming the first Muslim mayor of New York City history.”
In 1991, Wahhaj became the first Muslim to lead an opening prayer before Congress. He testified as a character witness at the trial for Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was later convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Wahhaj’s estranged son and grandson were also involved in a tragedy and felony charges in New Mexico. Wahhaj himself was never arrested, indicted, or charged, but has been labeled an “unindicted co-conspirator” since the 90s.
“This isn’t about one candidate. It’s about silencing a community,” said Husein Yatabarry, executive director of the Muslim Community Network. “Weaponizing Islamophobia right before an election is fear politics at its worst. Muslims belong in New York’s public life, and we’re not backing down.”
A week out from Election Day on Nov. 4, Mamdani is still the leading candidate, according to a new poll from Suffolk University. And despite the chaos, Mamdani scored a major endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week. He said that the two are focused on increased affordability for New Yorkers, and “on turning the page on an era of big money and small ideas” in the city and country.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is gaining ground with voters, especially with Jewish and Hispanic voters as well as Black voters over the age of 40, who see him as the “experienced” candidate. He has scored significant endorsements recently, like that of Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his own campaign in September, and former Gov. David Paterson.
Cuomo was a guest of conservative WABC talk radio host Sid Rosenberg on Oct. 23. The host insinuated that Mamdani would celebrate another 9/11 terrorist attack. Cuomo chuckled but didn’t push back. Adams tried to draw a connection between “Islamic extremisms” overseas and Mamdani’s run for mayor in a separate interview for Fox News. Cuomo’s campaign also posted AI-generated campaign videos depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani” as racist caricatures, such as a Black man wearing a keffiyeh and shoplifting, a man abusing a woman, a pimp trafficking white women, and others.
“New Yorkers love the Muslim community,” said Cuomo in an interview with Spectrum News. “He [Zohran] claims that he is the victim — the victim of attacks because he’s a Muslim. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is not a victim. He is the offender.”
Cuomo’s attack ad blitz on Mamdani’s faith has left a sour note with many in Black and Muslim spaces.
Dr. Debbie Almontaser, senior advisor at Emgage Action, said she is “disheartened” by what’s happening and that many elections use the Muslim community and the Muslim vote as a “political football to fearmonger.” She refuses to let that fear dictate people’s right to vote, she said.
Dr. Jamel Coy Hudson, a doctoral lecturer of rhetoric and public advocacy at City University of New York (CUNY) Baruch College, said that the mischaracterization of Muslim leaders in politics reveals how prejudice against Muslims still shapes public discourse in the city today.
“Instead of engaging in real policy critique, there are politicians and media outlets that choose to use Islamophobic rhetoric, painting Muslims in a negative light simply because of their faith or associations,” said Hudson in a statement. “There is a deep and troubling pattern of using a person’s faith as a political weapon, and the attacks on Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign have revealed how urgently we need to confront bias in our public life,” continued Hudson. “In a nation that asserts freedom of religion, we must protect every community and every person’s right to practice their faith without discrimination here in New York City.”
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) Action Executive Director Basim Elkarra said in a statement: “Cuomo has crossed a moral line. This rhetoric is not only deeply Islamophobic — it’s reckless and life-threatening to Muslim, Arab, and South Asian New Yorkers who still live with the trauma of the post-9/11 backlash.”
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s reception in the Jewish community seems to be waffling.
Over 1,000 rabbis from across the U.S. published an open letter to Mamdani, airing their grievances with his campaign and their denunciation of anti-Zionism on Oct. 28. On the opposing side, national Jewish groups, like Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, decided to endorse Mamdani for mayor. “These Jewish leaders are doing Trump and the MAGA movement’s work for them: dividing our pro-democracy movement at a time when we need to be united to beat back fascism,” said Rachel Laforest, chief campaigns officer for Bend the Arc, in a statement.
4th stage pancreatic cancer is less toxic than the political environment of America .
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer is less toxic than the American population.