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Mamdani calls out NYC election foes for 'racist, baseless' attacks
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Oct 24, 2025
Modified Oct 25, 2025
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Arun Venugopal
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Oct 24, 2025
Modified Oct 25, 2025
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Zohran Mamdani spoke through tears Friday in a Bronx mosque, saying Islamophobic attacks from his opponents had made him realize that even as the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, he would never escape demonization of his Muslim faith.
Mamdani, a state assemblymember, spoke outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, a house of worship that congregants said primarily caters to members of the city’s Gambian and Guinean communities. It coincided with the mosque’s Friday prayer.
“I thought that if I behaved well enough, bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” Mamdani said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”
Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, cited recent remarks by his opponents, who have suggested — to varying degrees — that Mamdani would endanger New Yorkers by virtue of his Muslim identity. Mamdani's pushback came a day before the start of early voting in the mayoral race, which polls show he currently leads.
In particular, the campaign of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent, released an AI-generated video that included Islamophobic barbs aimed at Mamdani. Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, and outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who has endorsed Cuomo, have also been criticized for fanning the same flames.
During a radio show appearance on Thursday, Cuomo laughed and agreed when the host suggested Mamdani would “be cheering” if another attack similar to 9/11 took place.
Mamdani was visibly emotional at the Friday event, and sometimes spoke through tears. He paused several times as he turned his attention from his political opponents to Muslim New Yorkers. Mamdani mentioned his late aunt, “who stopped taking the subway after Sept. 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” as well as Muslims who call the city home, “only to see their leaders spit in their face.”
Mamdani also singled out Adams, who “compared me to violent extremists,” and Sliwa, who claimed the Democratic nominee encouraged “global jihad.”
Mamdani said the issue was not about him alone, but about “more than 1 million Muslims” in the city, including “ every child who grows up here marked as the other.”
“While my opponents in this race have brought hatred to the forefront, this is just a glimpse of what so many have to endure every day across this city,” he said. “And while it would be easy for us to say that ‘this is not who we are,’ as a city, we know the truth. This is who we have allowed ourselves to become.”
He said for too long Muslim New Yorkers had been made to feel “ as if we are guests in our own home.”
“ No more,” he said.
Sliwa campaign spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna said the Republican has been a longtime ally to the city's Islamic community.
“Curtis Sliwa has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslim New Yorkers for 50 years, working to protect their communities from violence and hate, and he will continue to do so as mayor," Kurzyna said in a prepared statement. "To weaponize accusations of Islamophobia for political gain is wrong and desperate, and New Yorkers deserve a campaign based on facts and solutions, not smears.”
Shortly after Mamdani’s speech in the Bronx, Cuomo held his own impromptu press conference outside a mosque in Jackson Heights, where he surrounded himself with Muslim supporters.
Rather than apologize, Cuomo accused Mamdani of playing politics.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaking with reporters in Jackson Heights, Queens, Friday afternoon.
Arun Venugopal/Gothamist
“What he is doing is the oldest, dirtiest political trick in the book: Divide people, divide people by race, by religion, by sexual orientation,” Cuomo said. “I've seen it in dozens of campaigns.”
Indirectly addressing a recurring attack of Mamdani’s that Cuomo had not once visited a mosque during his 10-year tenure as governor, Cuomo claimed he had stood by Muslim New Yorkers at important moments, including in 2017 when he opposed the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban, and in 2010 when he voiced support for a mosque near Ground Zero, despite widespread opposition to it.
”New Yorkers accept one another,” Cuomo said, “and New Yorkers have no tolerance whatsoever for discrimination of anyone based on race, religion, or creed.”
Still, some said Cuomo had gone too far.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, which describes itself as a “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy” advocacy group, issued a statement condemning Cuomo.
“While we may disagree with Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and other candidates on issues related to Israel and Palestine, there is one point on which we are united: Laughing along as a Muslim candidate is smeared as a potential terrorist sympathizer fuels fear, division and Islamophobia,” Ben-Ami said in a statement.
He added, “Jewish leaders and public figures should be condemning such bigotry, not amplifying it.”
Mamdani said he had previously held back from confronting the anti-Muslim language more fully, under the belief that he should instead “build a campaign of universality” and “work hard.”
He also said he was responding more forcefully in order to set an example for other Muslims who were convinced that they should tolerate anti-Muslim slurs. Such tolerance on his part, he said, would convey to “the wide-eyed young child in Jackson Heights or the first-time voter in Parkchester that they, too, should remain in the shadows. No more.”\
This story has been updated with comment from the Sliwa campaign.
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Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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