For years, Muslim New Yorkers have gathered at Washington Square Park on the Eid holidays for prayer services, putting the city\u2019s religious and ethnic diversity on display.<\/p>\n
But this year, right-wing influencers have been sharing footage of the gatherings, presenting them as a nefarious \u201cinvasion\u201d tied to Muslim American New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fear-mongering is insane,\u201d said Asad Dandia, a local historian and Muslim American activist who supports Mamdani\u2019s campaign. \u201cI think the community and our leadership know that we\u2019re on the radar now.\u201d<\/p>\n Muslim Americans in New York and across the United States said the country is seeing a spike in Islamophobic rhetoric in response to Mamdani\u2019s victory in the Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n Advocates said the wave of hateful comments shows that Islamophobia remains a tolerated form of bigotry in the US despite appearing to have receded in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more things change, the more they stay the same,\u201d Dandia said.<\/p>\n \u2018Islam is not a religion\u2019<\/p>\n It is not just anonymous internet users and online anti-Muslim figures attacking Mamdani and his identity. A flood of politicians, including some in the orbit of President Donald Trump, have joined in.<\/p>\n Congressman Randy Fine<\/a> went as far as to suggest without evidence that Mamdani will install a \u201ccaliphate\u201d in New York City if elected while Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a cartoon of the Statue of Liberty<\/a> in a burqa on X.<\/p>\n Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn<\/a> attacked the mayoral candidate, arguing that Islam is a political ideology and \u201cnot a religion\u201d.<\/p>\n Others, like conservative activist Charlie Kirk invoked the 9\/11 attacks and called Mamdani a \u201cMuslim Maoist\u201d while right-wing commentator Angie Wong told CNN that people in New York are \u201cconcerned about their safety, living here with a Muslim mayor\u201d.<\/p>\n Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a Trump confidant, referred to the mayoral candidate as a \u201cjihadist Muslim\u201d, baselessly alleging that he has ties to both Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n And Republican Representative\u00a0Andy Ogles<\/a> sent a letter to the Department of Justice, calling for Mamdani\u2019s citizenship to be revoked and for him to be deported.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Congressman Brandon Gill posted a video of Mamdani eating biryani with his hand and called on him \u201cto go back to the Third World\u201d, saying that \u201ccivilized people\u201d in the US \u201cdon\u2019t eat like this\u201d.<\/p>\n Calls for condemnation<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m getting flashbacks from after 9\/11,\u201d New York City Council member Shahana Hanif<\/a> said. \u201cI was a kid then, and still the bigotry and Islamophobia were horrifying as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanif, who represents a district in Brooklyn, comfortably won re-election last week in a race that focused on her advocacy for Palestinian rights and calls for a ceasefire in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n She told Al Jazeera that the anti-Muslim rhetoric in response to Mamdani\u2019s win aims to distract and derail the progressive energy that defeated the establishment to secure the Democratic nomination for him.<\/p>\n Hanif said Islamophobic comments should be condemned across the political spectrum, stressing that there is \u201cso much more work to do\u201d to undo racism in the US.<\/p>\n While several Democrats have denounced the campaign against Mamdani, leading figures in the party \u2013 including many in New York \u2013 have not released formal statements on the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should all be disgusted by the flood of anti-Muslim remarks spewed in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s victory in the NYC mayoral primary \u2013 some blatant, others latent,\u201d US Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cShame on the members of Congress who have engaged in such bigotry and anyone who doesn\u2019t challenge it.\u201d<\/p>\n Our joint statement on the vile, anti-Muslim, racist attacks on Zohran Mamdani: pic.twitter.com\/QRGOvh0jdG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) June 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Trump and Muslim voters<\/p>\n At the same time, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who represents New York, has been accused of fuelling bigotry against Mamdani. Last week, she falsely accused Mamdani of making \u201creferences to global jihad\u201d.<\/p>\n Her office later told US media outlets that she \u201cmisspoke\u201d and was raising concerns over Mamdani\u2019s refusal to condemn the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, a call for activism using the Arabic word for uprising.<\/p>\n Critics of the chant claimed that it makes Jews feel unsafe because it invokes the Palestinian uprisings of the late 1980s and early 2000s, which saw both peaceful opposition and armed struggle against the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n While Mamdani, who is of South Asian descent, focused his campaign on making New York affordable, his support for Palestinian rights<\/a> took centre stage in the criticism against him. Since the election, the attacks \u2013 particularly on the right \u2013 appear to have shifted to his Muslim identity.<\/p>\n That backlash comes after Trump and his allies courted Muslim voters during his bid for the presidency last year. In fact, the US president has nominated two Muslim mayors from Michigan as ambassadors to Tunisia and Kuwait.<\/p>\n In the lead-up to the elections, Trump called Muslim Americans \u201csmart\u201d and \u201cgood people\u201d.<\/p>\n The Republican Party seemed to tone down the anti-Muslim language as it sought the socially conservative community\u2019s votes.<\/p>\n But Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Islamophobia goes in cycles.<\/p>\n \u201cIslamophobia is sort of baked into American society,\u201d Saylor told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t front and centre, but all it required was something to flip the switch right back on, and I would say, we\u2019re seeing that once again.\u201d<\/p>\n Islamophobia \u2018industry\u2019<\/p>\n Negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the US media, pop culture and political discourse have persisted for decades.<\/p>\n That trend intensified after the 9\/11 attacks in 2001 by al-Qaeda. In subsequent years, right-wing activists started to warn about what they said were plans to implement Islamic religious law in the West.<\/p>\n Muslims were also the subjects of conspiracy theories warning against the \u201cIslamisation\u201d of the US through immigration.<\/p>\n The early 2000s saw the rise of provocateurs, \u201ccounterterrorism experts\u201d and think tanks dedicated to bashing Islam and drumming up fear against the religion in a loosely connected network that community advocates have described as an \u201cindustry\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n That atmosphere regularly seeped into mainstream political conversations. For example, then-candidate Trump called<\/a> in 2015 for \u201ca total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n Even in liberal New York, where the 9\/11 attacks killed more than 2,600 people at the World Trade Center in 2001, the Muslim community endured a backlash.<\/p>\n After the attacks, the New York Police Department established a network of undercover informants to surveil the Muslim community\u2019s mosques, businesses and student associations.<\/p>\n The programme was disbanded in 2014, and a few years later, the city reached a legal settlement with the Muslim community, agreeing to implement stronger oversight on police investigations to prevent abuse.<\/p>\n In 2010, the city\u2019s Muslim community burst into the national spotlight again after plans for a Muslim community centre in lower Manhattan faced intense opposition due to its proximity to the destroyed World Trade Center.<\/p>\n While many Republicans whipped up conspiracy theories against the community centre, several Democrats as well as the Anti-Defamation League<\/a>, a prominent pro-Israel group, joined them in opposing the project, which was eventually scrapped.<\/p>\n \u2018We are above this\u2019<\/p>\n\n