As the New York City mayoral election enters the final stretch, with the Muslim American Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani maintaining a sizable lead in all of the polls, a familiar beast has reared its head: blatant Islamophobia.
Most of those dabbling in outright bigotry are unsurprising: right-wing shock-jocks and the pro-Trump New York Post. But what has made many of these forays into the gutter most surprising — and disconcerting — is that they’ve been endorsed, either tacitly or explicitly, by Mamdani’s chief rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic Party’s primary election but has continued running as an independent candidate.
When, for example, a right-wing radio host told Cuomo that Mamdani would be “cheering” if there were another 9/11-style terrorist attack on New York, Cuomo did not only fail to challenge this bigoted smear; he chuckled, then added, “That’s another problem.” And when Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo suggested that Mamdani would force women in New York City to “cover up” — which, she claimed, was already the case in “largely Muslim” London — Cuomo not only let the smear go unchallenged, but noted that Mamdani is “dual citizenship” (he was born in Uganda) before saying he “just doesn’t understand the New York culture,” including “what 9/11 meant.”
Some observers believe Cuomo, who needs to consolidate support from every anti-Mamdani voter possible to have a chance to win, is knowingly stoking Islamophobia, one of New York City’s longest and — especially since 9/11 — ugliest political traditions. Mamdani seemed to suggest as much himself when he said in a recent speech: “In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement,” and evoked the fear his friends and family had felt walking the streets as Muslim New Yorkers.
That fear is well-grounded, as Debbie Almontaser, a senior adviser of Emgage, a nonprofit focused on organizing Muslim Americans, knows all too well. Almonster was once herself the victim of an anti-Muslim smear campaign, but even she believes that the attacks on Mamdani have taken politicized Islamophobia “to another level.”
Recently, I spoke with Almontaser about political Islamophobia, what it’s like to be a Muslim New Yorker watching Mamdani’s campaign, and the potential significance of him becoming the first Muslim mayor in the city’s history. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Have you been surprised by the level of Islamophobic vitriol directed at Zoran Momani in these closing weeks?
I have not been surprised at all. Every election cycle, for as long as I can remember in the post 9/11 world, we’ve seen Islam and Muslims becoming a political football, and we’ve seen candidates using Islam and Muslims as a boogeyman. What does surprise me is how blatant the racism and Islamophobia towards Zohran Mamdani has been. It’s been taken to another level.
What effect do you think these smears have had on Muslim New Yorkers?
It’s been a very contentious time to be a Muslim resident in New York, knowing that there is so much hate out there and that it is being spread by people who are leaders of organizations, leaders of companies. I’m deeply saddened because the other thing that people who engage in this vitriol do not understand is the impact that this has on our children, and our community, the social and emotional impact that it has. I just wish that they would wake up and understand what they’re doing is dividing our communities and creating needless hostility.
How has the Muslim community responded?
I have seen a huge surge of Muslim young people who have actually rolled up their sleeves and dedicated themselves to phone banking, door-knocking, and other forms of political organizing. I’ve also seen a huge surge of young people who are Muslim and South Asian who actually have registered to vote.
“The sleeping giant that others have dismissed — the community of Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers, as well as their many allies across the city more broadly — will be fully awake and ready to be much more involved in New York City and state politics.”
What has made this an exciting moment — not just for New Yorkers, but for American Muslims and South Asians across the country — is that there is a candidate with whom they have a personal affinity. Mamdani from their community, from their ethnic or racial background; and his message, his charisma, his commitment to the people, is giving these people a renewed sense of hope that we can actually be a part of a larger community that shares the same values that Zohran has been articulating.
In a recent speech, which you attended as a sign of support and solidarity, Mamdani said: “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity.” What did you make of that? Did it resonate?
It absolutely resonated with me. It took me back to my own personal story, when, in 2007, I was the target of a national smear campaign after I founded the Khalil Gibran International Academy. So I truly understand what he meant by that. But we are fighting that by continuing to make our voices heard and to show that we love our city and that we care about our fellow neighbors, and we will do everything we can to ensure that we are a part of the change that our city deserves and our country deserves.
Comparing Mamdani’s campaign now to your experiences in 2007, do you see changes in how the broader political community responds to Islamophobia?
The number of people who stood up for me back in 2007 was very small. And it was pretty devastating.
But if there’s anything that has changed from then to now, it’s the number of people who’ve come out in defense of Zohran from the Democratic Party — which has been wonderful to see and is certainly a change from what I experienced.
New York’s current attorney general, Letitia James, was there for me and by my side in 2007, when she was a city council member, and she spoke out vehemently against the attacks on me. State Sen. Robert Jackson — who, at that time, was a councilman — he stood up for me too, as did state Sen. John Liu, who at that time was a councilman. So the shift, among Democrats at least, is pretty profound.
Some people have compared what’s happening to Mamdani to the hysteria that surrounded the attempt to build an Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan during the early years of Obama’s presidency. What do you make of that parallel?
The so-called Ground Zero Mosque in lower Manhattan — that was also another pivotal moment where we saw the ugly side of history. But at the same time, I met so many people when I went to interfaith meetings who were trying to galvanize support for the project and to make sure that we did not infringe on a community’s freedom of religion.
And I believe that what we are seeing with Zohran is that more people — people who know what happened to me, and who saw me standing by him in front of that mosque during his speech — have decided, we cannot let New York do this again to another Muslim political activist.
I’ve received so many messages along the lines of: We remember what happened to you. It was profound to see you standing there with him. We cannot let what happened to you, and what happened to the organizers of the Islamic community center, happen again.
How would you say Mamdani is handling Islamophobic attacks, compared to Muslim politicians in the past?
What I have appreciated and respected so immensely about Zohran is that he has run his campaign for the people of New York City. It’s never been about him. It’s never been about his personal identities. It’s been about what the people need and what he wants to deliver for them.
But he also saw that those bigoted attacks on him were not just impacting his life. For example, I should point out that, in June, as his campaign began gaining traction and the attacks on him by Cuomo and others became more menacing, a Muslim woman on the subway here in New York City was actually asked by someone, “Are you Muslim?” And she obviously looked Muslim — she’s wearing a hijab — and he beat her.
I think Mamdani saw the danger that this was having, not only for him and his family but also for many members of New York’s Muslim and South Asian communities. And him giving that profound speech this month in front of the mosque was a way to say: There are 1 million Muslims in New York, and we can’t afford to continue doing politics in a way that will endanger innocent people.
What’s your read on how Andrew Cuomo thinks about Muslim voters?
We at Emgage have been organizing our community across the state, setting up meetings with political and community leaders from the different regions of the state and engaging them on a whole host of issues.
We started this when Gov. [Kathy] Hochul ran for governor, where we actually did a couple of meet-and-greets with leaders from across the state. And I should say, this was really the first opportunity — because, remember, her predecessor was Andrew Cuomo. And Andrew Cuomo had zero respect for American Muslims in the state. When he was governor, he never visited a mosque — and the only time that leaders such as myself heard from him was when he was running again.
I basically was like, I’m sorry. I’ve been here for the last four years. We should have been engaging over those four last years for us to work together and do things. There are people who believe in our communities and understand the power that our communities yield. And I believe that during this election cycle, the sleeping giant that others have dismissed — the community of Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers, as well as their many allies across the city more broadly — will be fully awake and ready to be much more involved in New York City and state politics.
