Mamdani runs for NYC mayor; Islam reemerges in American politics.
The New Yorker magazine, in conjunction with the New York mayoral election and the emergence of the name of Zahran Mamdani, the Muslim and socialist candidate for this election, has addressed the political and social climate in America towards Muslims and the wave of Islamophobic attacks against him. The media outlet, making a passing reference to the trend of dealing with Muslims from the election of Barack Obama to today’s competition, believes that being Muslim has once again become the center of American politics.
When rumors about Obama being Muslim intensified in 2008, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on a television program that Obama is a Christian, but if he were Muslim, there would be no problem. Now, 17 years later, this statement has been revived in the New York elections. Mamdani, 34, a representative of the social democrat trend, faced a wave of attacks against his religious identity after winning the Democratic primary elections in the summer, in addition to the label of inexperience and his promises.
In the most specific case, the New York Post published headlines linking Mamdani to terrorism. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now running against Mamdani as an independent, recalled the experience of the 9/11 attacks in an interview with a conservative radio host and linked Mamdani to that situation.
The magazine explained its report by recalling the post-9/11 atmosphere, how the US government detained or deported large numbers of Muslims without charge and how the New York Police Department created a unit to monitor Muslim neighborhoods secretly. These actions created deep fear and distrust in the American Muslim community and were only dissolved after a long legal challenge.
The magazine stated that some of the charges against Mamdani reflected parts of New York’s Islamophobic past, and stated that Mamdani’s campaign now includes dozens of Muslims who have experienced discrimination and knew from the beginning that they would face anti-Muslim attacks. Especially since Mamdani is a staunch supporter of Palestine and critics have simplified his positions and portrayed him as anti-Semitic in the heated atmosphere after the October 7th Hamas attack and the Gaza war… Dr. Zara Rahim, a senior adviser to Mamdani’s campaign, said: “There was not a moment when we did not feel Islamophobia.”
After Cuomo’s statements and other statements by the Republican candidate in this election, who described Mamdani as a supporter of “global jihad,” Mamdani decided to speak publicly about Islamophobia. He stood in front of a mosque in the Bronx (one of the five boroughs of New York) with a group of Muslims and gave an emotional speech; he spoke about his interrogation after 9/11, about the fear of family members for wearing the hijab, about efforts to recruit Muslim students as informants and about the destruction of campaign members’ property. “Being a Muslim in New York means you have to expect humiliation,” he said.
Despite the experience of violence and hate speech against Muslims, including a 1,600 percent increase in hate crimes after 9/11, some politicians, such as Trump’s Vice President J.D. Vance, deny the claim of Islamophobia and downplay the Muslim experience.