With days to go in the New York City mayoral contest, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani—often smooth and charismatic—made a real misstep. He revealed a new, ugly side to his message that will likely cut his election margin.
Despite being a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America and previously espousing radical views, Mr. Mamdani has largely emphasized populist topics in his mayoral campaign—above all, lowering costs in one of America’s most expensive cities. While he refuses to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” his past calls to “dismantle” the police have been absent from his stump speeches, and he has backed away from a DSA platform he reportedly helped shape.
Then last Friday Mr. Mamdani changed course. In an emotional speech in the Bronx, he accused his opponents of “Islamophobia.” Even less wise, he posted on YouTube a nearly seven-minute speech “to speak to the Muslims” of New York. While eloquent and flawlessly delivered, it was also angry, bitter, divisive and dumb. In the video, which has 286,000 views and counting, Mr. Mamdani depicted the remarkably diverse community he hopes to lead as a hotbed of bigotry.
As “the first major Muslim candidate for mayor in New York City history,” he said, he initially thought he “could build a campaign of universality.” He now realizes that was futile. He was mistaken in thinking he could define himself “as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker, no matter their skin color or religion.” It was impossible to rally the city, unite its communities, and appeal to every citizen’s better angels. “I was wrong.”
He recalled an uncle who told him with a heavy look that he “did not have to tell people I was Muslim.” His uncle had learned that safety for Muslims “could only be found in the shadows of our city.” He recounted how his “aunt . . . stopped taking the subway after Sept. 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” Mr. Mamdani declared that Muslim teachers and police officers “all make daily sacrifices on behalf of this city, only to see their leaders spit in their face.”
All Muslim children in New York, Mr. Mamdani asserted, are “marked as the other” and made to feel “they carry a stain that can never quite be cleaned.” Having grown up “in the shadow of 9/11,” he knew “what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion.”
“The dream of every Muslim,” he said, has been “to be treated the same as any other New Yorker.” Instead, they have been “told to ask for less than that.” Sadly, “in an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement” among New York’s people and candidates.
On and on it went. The impression Mr. Mamdani created wasn’t of New York as a welcoming community, a joyful mix of cultures, races, religions and ethnicities. “We know the truth,” he said. “This is who we have allowed ourselves to become.” His implication was that New York, dominated by bigots, is a city enraged and polarized.
Even after all this, Mr. Mamdani could have brought his city together by making it clear that most New Yorkers didn’t harbor animus over religion or race. That most New Yorkers glory in the diversity that is their great city’s hallmark. That most New Yorkers join in rejecting the hostility and bigotry of the few.
