WASHINGTON: Zohran Mamdani &rsquo;s swift rise in New York City&rsquo;s mayoral race has made him into a national symbol &mdash; both as a point of pride among many Muslim Americans and a political foil for the right.&nbsp; His campaign has been met by a surge in anti-Muslim language directed at the Democratic nominee, who would become the city&rsquo;s first Muslim mayor if elected in November. Republican Andy Ogles of Tennessee called him &ldquo;little [M]uhammad&rdquo; and urged deportation. On social media, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina referenced 9/11 alongside a photo of Mamdani dressed in a kurta, a loose collarless shirt common in South Asia. Far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed without evidence that &ldquo;NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0.&rdquo; On many levels, Mamdani&rsquo;s run is a significant moment for the country and New York City, which endured 9/11 and the rise in Islamophobia that followed. &ldquo;He really does hold so much symbolism,&rdquo; said Youssef Chouhoud, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University. The campaign is a reminder of anti-Muslim discrimination, he said, but also of Muslim Americans asserting their right &quot;to lead this society moving forward.&rdquo; Politicians from both major parties have attacked Mamdani&rsquo;s progressive politics and criticism of Israel. Conservatives have leaned more heavily into religious attacks and anti-immigrant sentiments. President Donald Trump singled him out for censure and falsely questioned his U.S. citizenship, echoing &ldquo;birther&rdquo; rhetoric he once aimed at former President Barack Obama. At the National Conservatism Conference, multiple speakers used Mamdani&rsquo;s name and religion as attack lines, with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon calling the democratic socialist a &ldquo;Marxist and a jihadist.&rdquo; The rhetoric is all too familiar for many Muslim Americans, including Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, who faced slurs and death threats as the first Muslim woman to run for Congress in New Jersey in 2020. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re at a crossroads,&rdquo; she said via email. &ldquo;On one hand, Muslims are achieving unprecedented visibility and influence in political spaces. On the other, our dehumanization has never been so normalized and widespread.&rdquo; The threat of political violence Before his assassination last month, conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on social media that, &ldquo;America&rsquo;s largest city was attacked by radical Islam 24 years ago, and now a similar form of that pernicious force is poised to capture city hall.&rdquo; On his show, Kirk called Mamdani a &ldquo;Mohammedan,&rdquo; an antiquated term for Muslim, and warned about &ldquo;Anglo centers&rdquo; like New York coming &ldquo;under Mohammedan rule.&rdquo; Mamdani condemned Kirk&rsquo;s killing while decrying America&#39;s plague of political violence. In September, a Texas man was charged with making death threats against Mamdani, including calling him a terrorist and saying &ldquo;Muslims don&rsquo;t belong here,&rdquo; prosecutors said. Mamdani&rsquo;s campaign responded by saying these types of threats &ldquo;reflect a broader climate of hate that has no place in our city.&rdquo; &ldquo;We cannot and will not be intimidated by racism, Islamophobia and hate,&rdquo; the statement read. Islamophobia from 9/11 until now Anti-Muslim bias has persisted in different forms since September 11, 2001. New York City police ran a now-disbanded Muslim surveillance program. There was furor in 2010 over plans to build a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan. Nationwide, dozens of states introduced legislation aimed at banning Islamic law. &ldquo;At its core, anti-Muslim rhetoric is the same: that Muslims don&rsquo;t belong in this country, that they are perpetual foreigners, that they are a threat to American society and government,&rdquo; said Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. Critics of Obama, a Christian with Muslim ancestry, sought to use his connections to Islam as a political liability. As president, he spoke about his childhood years in Indonesia and his father&rsquo;s Muslim family in Kenya as assets in diplomacy. Trump amplified criticisms of Obama&rsquo;s background, stoking so-called &ldquo;birther&rdquo; rumors by falsely questioning whether Obama was born in the US. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really created this new permission structure for people to more openly voice their anti-Muslim rhetoric,&rdquo; Chouhoud said. A similar playbook is being used with Mamdani. Born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, he has lived in New York City since he was 7 and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. He was elected to the state Assembly in 2020. Despite that record, Trump has echoed a false allegation denying Mamdani&rsquo;s citizenship and immigration status. Democrats and the backdrop of the Israel war on Gaza&nbsp;Islamophobia and antisemitism have risen during the war in Gaza. Accusations of both have played out in the race for mayor of New York, a city home to the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in the US. Before dropping out, Mayor Eric Adams joined another Democrat, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in calling Mamdani &ldquo;dangerous.&rdquo; Cuomo accused him of &ldquo;fueling antisemitism&rdquo; with sharp criticism of Israel. An outside group supporting Cuomo, who&#39;s now running as an independent, prepared a flyer that appeared to lengthen and darken Mamdani&rsquo;s beard, which Mamdani called &ldquo;blatant Islamophobia.&rdquo; Cuomo&#39;s campaign disavowed it and the mailer was never sent. Other Democrats have distanced themselves from Mamdani&rsquo;s progressive platform, critiques of Israel and staunch support for Palestinian rights. Senator&nbsp;Kirsten Gillibrand of New York apologized to Mamdani after incorrectly saying he referenced &ldquo;global jihad.&rdquo; At issue was his refusal to condemn other people&#39;s use of the slogan &ldquo;globalize the intifada.&rdquo; He later said he would discourage its use. Some see the phrase as a call for Palestinian liberation and rights, others as a call for violence against Jews. In an emotional news conference ahead of his primary win in June, Mamdani accused his rivals of using antisemitism to score political points. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said at every opportunity there is no room for antisemitism in this city, in this country.&rdquo; Pride and hope from fellow Muslims Despite the controversies, many American Muslims are upbeat about a possible Mamdani victory. &ldquo;The abiding emotion ... is a really deep sense of hope,&rdquo; said Chouhoud, whose Brooklyn accent speaks to his New York roots. Shahana Hanif, a Mamdani ally and the first Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council, is optimistic. She said Islamophobia is being used as a fear tactic &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s just not working.&rdquo; Hanan Thabet, a born-and-raised New Yorker and a Mamdani supporter, said his campaign has energized her family after two years of grief over the killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. So much so that her children &mdash; ages 10 and 8 &mdash; helped her phone bank for him. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re super excited to see this young, energetic, brown man, Muslim man, you know, potentially be our next mayor.&rdquo; As a mother, she feels like it&#39;s &ldquo;impossible to explain why it has become so socially acceptable to dehumanize Muslims and Arabs, and why our lives seem to matter the least.&rdquo; &ldquo;That is what makes Zohran&rsquo;s candidacy not only historic,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but necessary.&rdquo;

NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani participates during a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks in New York, Thursday, September 11, 2025. (AP)

Americas

Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral run inspires hope among Muslims but faces intense Islamophobic attacks, political violence threats, and controversy amid rising Islamophobia and antisemitism linked to the Israel war in Gaza.

Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid sparks rise in anti-Muslim vitriol

NEW YORK: Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani reacted to Mayor Eric Adams&rsquo; decision to drop out of the race on Sunday, saying &lsquo;It&#39;s time to actually think about New Yorkers.&rdquo; In an interview with Democracy Now!, Mamdani, who has campaigned on prioritizing working-class New Yorkers, said Adams&rsquo; record showed decisions made &ldquo;at the behest of Donald Trump and his billionaire donors and at the expense of working-class New Yorkers.&rdquo; He criticized Adams for rent hikes, higher utility bills and policies that worsened the city&rsquo;s cost-of-living crisis. Adams&rsquo; departure from the race, a little more than a month before Election Day, leaves the contest to become the city&#39;s next mayor effectively between frontrunner Democrat Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Adams had struggled to raise money and trailed far behind Mamdani and Cuomo, who is running as an independent, in public opinion polls. Mamdani holds a sizeable lead ahead of the November 4 election, while recent polls showed single-digit support for both Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. The candidate pointed out his victory over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, saying Cuomo and Trump sought to derail his campaign but failed. &ldquo;There are many who are threatened by our campaign,&rdquo; Mamdani said, adding that his focus remained on delivering for New Yorkers rather than political rivals.

Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani criticized Eric Adams after his withdrawal from the race, accusing him of favoring billionaires over working-class New Yorkers. Mamdani now leads the race against Andrew Cuomo ahead of the November election.

Mamdani urges focus on New Yorkers after NY Mayor Adams drops re-election bid

NEW YORK: Former Vice President Kamala Harris, forced to confront Israel&#39;s war in Gaza on the first night of her book tour, expressed compassion for the Palestinians and condemned President Donald Trump for giving the Israeli government &ldquo;a blank check.&rdquo; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s happening to the Palestinian people is outrageous and it breaks my heart,&rdquo; she told a packed New York City performance center on Wednesday night after being interrupted by the first of four pro-Palestinian protesters. &ldquo;Donald Trump has given (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu a blank check to do whatever he wants.&rdquo; &lsquo;107 days&rsquo;The comments came in the midst of a discussion about her new book, &ldquo;107 Days,&rdquo; which was released on Tuesday and details the hyperspeed campaign she launched against Trump after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-10" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-10&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1971013215766106178&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fdashboard%2F&sessionId=0694ba007bfe0945f9eda993896e78df390988cc&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 672px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" data-tweet-id="1971013215766106178"></iframe></div></div>Harris was initially scheduled to make one appearance at the 1,500-person capacity Times Square performance center, but her team added a second show earlier in the evening because of high interest. Few issues have divided the nation &mdash; and the Democratic Party &mdash; more than the war in Israel. More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry said earlier in the month. Democratic activists in particular have condemned leaders in both parties for not pushing back harder to stop the bloodshed. &lsquo;Excited&rsquo; about Mamdani&rsquo;s candidacy &nbsp;Harris on Wednesday referenced her support for New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who has also spoken out against the war in Gaza. She said the two spoke earlier in the day. She said she told him she&#39;s &ldquo;excited&rdquo; about his candidacy. &ldquo;You are bringing people in, and you are showing that there are voices that want to be heard, have felt left out and are now a part of what you are doing,&rdquo; she said, referencing the conversation.&nbsp; &ldquo;And that is so powerful.&rdquo; Outside the venue on Wednesday night, dozens of activists protested on the sidewalk. Inside, the event veered off script several minutes after it began when a protester started shouting from the audience.&rsquo; &lsquo;A lot of heat&rsquo;&ldquo;Your legacy is genocide. The blood of the Palestinians is on your hands,&rdquo; the first one, a man wearing a medical mask, yelled before being escorted out by security. Later, another woman said, &ldquo;This is your fault.&rdquo; As the crowd grew angry with the disruptions, Harris called on them to &ldquo;take the temperature down.&rdquo; She noted that, as vice president, she first spoke out publicly about starvation in Gaza a year and a half ago. At the time, she said, she took &ldquo;a lot of heat&rdquo; from the Biden administration for speaking out on the sensitive issue. &ldquo;I understand your concern and how you feel &mdash; I think I do,&rdquo; she told the third protester. &ldquo;And the reality of it is where we are right now didn&rsquo;t have to be this way &mdash; in terms of the blank check that this president has given.&rdquo; &lsquo;A communist dictatorship&rsquo;Several times over the course of the night, she criticized Trump. At one point, she said the Republican president and his allies are like &ldquo;a communist dictatorship&rdquo; for quashing dissent. Shortly before the appearance, Trump lashed out at Harris on social media for saying in a recent interview that the 2024 presidential election loss was the closest in the 21st century. Harris repeated the claim on Wednesday in New York. Trump called the former vice president &ldquo;DUMB AS A ROCK.&rdquo; &ldquo;A TOTAL LIE! I expect an apology. Thank you for your attention to this matter!&rdquo; Trump wrote.<div class="fr-embed"><iframe src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115261110149678466/embed" class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>The US doesn&rsquo;t elect presidents by popular vote. In fact, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and still won the presidency through the electoral college. Trump won the electoral college over Harris, 312-226. There have been two closer elections since 2000. The closest was George W Bush&rsquo;s win over John Kerry in 2004. Harris, who turns 61 next month, hasn&rsquo;t detailed her future plans and was not asked about them at the book event. She&rsquo;s already passed on an opportunity to run for governor of her home state of California. Mixed opinionsThere were decidedly mixed opinions about what she should do next &mdash; even among the hundreds who packed into the Times Square venue. Valerie Lewis, 56, of New York City, said she&#39;s hopeful that the former vice president can unify the badly divided country. She said she &ldquo;would love&rdquo; Harris to run for president again. Lewis&#39; husband, 65-year-old Eugene Dixon, would not. &ldquo;She can&rsquo;t do it,&rdquo; Dixon said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe America is ready to have a woman president.&rdquo; Lewis rolled her eyes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s harder for a woman,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s possible.&rdquo;

On her book tour’s opening night, Kamala Harris condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, criticized Trump for enabling Netanyahu, voiced support for Zohran Mamdani, and faced pro-Palestinian protesters

Articles tagged with "Zohran Mamdani"

Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid sparks rise in anti-Muslim vitriol

Mamdani urges focus on New Yorkers after NY Mayor Adams drops re-election bid

Kamala Harris condemns Israel's war in Gaza on first night of book tour