Zohran Mamdani defends his Muslim faith against ‘racist, baseless attacks’

A day before the race he is vying for will begin early voting, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered an emotional address about “racist, baseless attacks” from his rivals.

Mamdani criticized his opponents for bringing “hatred to the forefront” on Friday, pointing out that close to one million Muslims live in New York, and that their Islamophobia affects him as the Democratic nominee for mayor.

“To expect indignity in New York is to be Muslim, but it does not distinguish us.” Many New Yorkers are confronted by it. Less than two weeks before the November 4 general election, Mamdani said in his speech that it is the tolerability of that injustice that does.

While Mamdani, a member of the New York State Assembly right now, tried to focus his campaign on his main point of affordability, his opponents have recently demonstrated that “Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement.”

His speech came a day after Sid Rosenberg, a former governor of New York State, joked that Mamdani “would be cheering” if another September 11 attack took place.

Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic Party’s primary election in June, agreed with Rosenberg, saying, “That’s another issue.”

CAIR Action’s executive director, Basim Elkarra, described Cuomo’s appearance on the radio program as “despicable, dangerous, and disqualifying.”

Cuomo has crossed a moral line, Elkarra claimed, by agreeing with a racist radio host who claimed a Muslim elected official would “applaud” another September 11.

Cuomo’s willingness to make this kind of hate speech, on this kind of platform, he said, exemplifies his personality as a leader who prefers to stoke fear than unite people, he said.

On Friday, Mamdani claimed that Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa had “slandered” him because he “supported global jihad” on the debate stage, and that he had also been “smoked” by Super Political Action Committee advertisements that “imply that I am a terrorist or mock the way I eat.”

He also shared his memories of his “aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” a staff member who had the “word terrorist spray painted” on their garage, as well as the advice he had received that he “did not have to tell people” he was Muslim if he wanted to win elections.

On the eve of early voting, the top Democrat supports Mamdani.

Hakeem Jeffries, the representative of New York’s eighth congressional district, which includes East Flatbush, Coney Island, and Brownsville, the leader of the Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives, gave Mamdani a long-awaited endorsement earlier on Friday.

While Mamdani has gotten top Democrats’ endorsements, including those from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, she has struggled to win over other prominent New York Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer.

Mamdani resoundingly won the Democratic Party’s primary election to choose its candidate for the general election back in June despite some establishment figures’ reluctance.

After resigning from the race, Democrat incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who did not run in the primary after facing allegations of corruption, endorsed Cuomo this week.

With the support of 43.2 percent of voters, Mamdani is clearly ahead of his rivals, according to a recently released poll from AARP and Gotham Polling and Analytics.

Cuomo and Sliwa lead the pack, followed by him with 29% and Sliwa with 19%, while 8.4% said they were unsure of their choice or preferred a different candidate.