Zohran Mamdani’s rise: New York’s Muslim hope challenges a broken system

Department of Strategic Research, Studies and International Relations 24-10-2025

In the heart of the Bronx’s Morrisania neighborhood, a new chant echoes through the crowded streets and open markets: “Mamdani! Mamdani! Mamdani!” For many working-class families, immigrants from West Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, the name represents more than just a political campaign. It symbolizes the hope of a fairer New York, one where diversity and dignity are not slogans but policies.

The growing anticipation surrounds Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist assemblyman whose candidacy for New York’s November mayoral election has electrified the city’s marginalized communities. Should he win, Mamdani would become New York’s first Muslim mayor, the first African-born leader of the city, and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the post.

In Morrisania, where average incomes remain half of the city’s median, residents like Aicha Donza, a shopkeeper originally from Liberia, say Mamdani’s promises of affordability and fairness strike a deeper chord than the identity politics that dominate U.S. campaigns. “He says he’s going to make life easier,” she says, surrounded by her shop’s shelves lined with Ghanaian plantain flour, Liberian palm oil, and Islamic clothing from Türkiye and Egypt. “If he manages free buses and rent freezes, that would change everything.”

Mamdani’s message of social justice, rooted in economic reform rather than elite rhetoric, has spread rapidly among the city’s working poor. His plans, rent stabilization, universal childcare, and taxing the ultra-rich to fund public services, have sparked excitement in neighborhoods long abandoned by mainstream politicians.

At the nearby Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, worshippers leaving Friday prayers speak of the election as a turning point. “We’ve seen what the others have done, Adams, Cuomo, nothing changed,” said Ahmed Jejote, a Sierra Leonean taxi driver. “Mamdani is new blood, and he understands our struggles.”

For Essa Tunkala, a Gambian vendor, Mamdani’s rise represents more than a campaign, it’s a new chapter for New York’s working-class Muslim community. “It’s time for new ideas and new generations,” he says. “He talks about development, not division.”

Beyond the Bronx, Mamdani’s candidacy resonates with Muslims across the city’s five boroughs. From Pakistani families in Brighton Beach to Guyanese and Caribbean Muslims in Queens, his name represents a form of belonging long denied to the city’s Muslim population. In a metropolis where nearly one million Muslims live, making up a quarter of the entire Muslim population in the United States, the significance of this moment is hard to ignore.

Asad Dandia, an urban historian and community organizer, sees Mamdani’s popularity as the culmination of four centuries of Muslim history in New York, stretching from enslaved Africans brought to the city, many of whom were Muslim, to the post-9/11 generation that endured surveillance and discrimination. “For years, we were targeted,” Dandia recalls. “Now, one of us may soon lead the city that spied on us.”

Indeed, the same New York Police Department that monitored mosques and Muslim homes after 2001 could soon be under the authority of a Muslim mayor. That irony is not lost on voters who have witnessed decades of institutional prejudice justified under the pretext of “security.”

In working-class districts like Bay Ridge, dubbed “Little Palestine,” Mamdani’s outspoken solidarity with Gaza has made him a household name. His clear stance against Israeli aggression and his denunciation of the genocide in Gaza have drawn admiration from Muslims and human rights defenders alike. “He’s not afraid to speak for justice,” says Zein Rimawi, a 71-year-old Palestinian resident of the area. “For us, that courage matters more than anything.”

While his opponents, such as former Governor Andrew Cuomo, have tried to rebrand themselves as allies of Muslim communities, few have forgotten their silence during years of anti-Muslim policies and wars abroad. Cuomo, who once struggled to name a single mosque he had visited, now attends Islamic centers in the Bronx and Queens in a transparent attempt to court voters. Mamdani responded sharply during a televised debate: “It took me to get you to even see those parts of the city.”

Mamdani’s base, meanwhile, remains broad and loyal. In Queens’ South Richmond Hill, where minarets rise above halal restaurants and sari shops, volunteers of the political group DRUM Beats, representing South Asian and Indo-Caribbean workers, are mobilizing to ensure a strong turnout. “Working-class people want change,” says Annie Nazir, a childcare worker from Guyana. “He’s one of us.”

His rejection of corporate donations and reliance on small contributors has added to his credibility in a city where politics is often defined by big money and backroom deals. Even those who disagree with parts of his economic agenda, like some landlords and business owners, acknowledge that his sincerity stands out in a political landscape defined by opportunism.

Still, Mamdani faces the familiar American challenge: the establishment’s resistance to change. Predictably, sections of the right have already smeared him with Islamophobic tropes. Former president Donald Trump has threatened to revoke his citizenship, while Cuomo labeled him a “terror sympathizer.” Such attacks, however, only highlight the intolerance that continues to define U.S. politics.

For many Muslims, Mamdani’s campaign is not simply about one man but a collective vindication after decades of suspicion and exclusion. As Marwa Janini of the Arab American Association puts it, “After 9/11, Muslims in New York lived in fear. To now have a Muslim running for mayor, it’s more than historic. It’s healing.”

Whether Mamdani wins or not, his rise has already disrupted the political order of New York. He has demonstrated that Muslims, immigrants, and the working class can form a united front against the greed and corruption that dominate American politics. In a nation that preaches democracy abroad while denying dignity to its own citizens at home, Mamdani’s campaign stands as a quiet revolution.

As one elder at a Bronx mosque said after evening prayers, “Even if he doesn’t win, he already changed the story. For once, Muslims in America are no longer on the margins, they’re at the center.”