Attacks on Muslims flood mainstream after Mamdani win

Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary triggered a wave of Islamophobic attacks — including from sitting members of Congress — that once might have disqualified the perpetrators from public office.Why it matters: Openly racist rhetoric has become normalized at the highest levels of American politics.Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents both reached an all-time high in 2024, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Anti-Defamation League, respectively.The mainstreaming of Islamophobic rhetoric in political discourse comes a decade after President Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" as part of his 2016 campaign.Driving the news: Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) urged the Justice Department to denaturalize and deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018.Under federal law, denaturalization is an extreme measure typically reserved for cases involving fraud during the naturalization process. The other side: Mamdani, who would be the first Muslim mayor of New York, has spoken openly about the violent threats and hateful messages he's received throughout the campaign.He told MSNBC that he sees his victory as "an opportunity for me to introduce the fact that being Muslim is like being a member of any other faith."The big picture: The fractured media ecosystem — splintered into hyperpartisan echo chambers — has made the public shaming of racism less effective.Attacks that once would have drawn bipartisan outrage now circulate with impunity — especially on social media platforms, where hate can go viral.The baseless attempts to link Mamdani to Islamist terrorism could alarm some voters, especially amid rising antisemitism in a city that is home to the world's largest Jewish population outside of Israel.Yes, but: Some of Mamdani's loudest critics are already unpopular in New York, raising the possibility that their Islamophobic posts could backfire — and further galvanize his coalition into a history-making victory.Catch up quick: Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by assembling a young, multiracial coalition in one of the nation's largest and most diverse cities.That coalition included progressive Jewish voters in Manhattan, college-educated liberals in Brooklyn's Park Slope and working-class communities in Queens.Mamdani, currently serving in the New York State Assembly, is of Indian ancestry. He was born in Uganda and moved to New York at age 7.After his victory, MAGA activists and Republican lawmakers took to social media to attack Mamdani's faith, heritage and left-wing politics."Zohran 'little muhammad' Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York. He needs to be DEPORTED," Ogles posted on X.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted an AI-generated image of the Statue of Liberty wearing a black burqa.Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tied Mamdani's victory to what she called America's "forgetting" of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.What they're saying: "Wow. Just wow," James Zogby, co-founder of the Arab American Institute, told Axios after reviewing the posts. Zogby said Islamophobia is becoming more brazen because "there are no repercussions.""We see the same Islamophobia from the same bigots anytime a Muslim runs for public office," said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action, the political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations."Now it's been normalized."Zoom out: Since Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim and Arab Americans have periodically been the targets of racist and Islamophobic political campaigns.In 2005, then Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) suggested the U.S. could "take out" Islamic holy sites if attacked by radical Muslim terrorists.In 2010, the proposed Park51 Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan — branded the "Ground Zero Mosque" by activist Pamela Geller, founder of Stop the Islamization of America — became a national campaign flashpoint.Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (R-Mich.), who became the first two Muslim women elected to Congress in 2018, have faced years of Islamophobic attacks from Republicans and conservative media.State of play: Muslim Americans have built broader, multiethnic coalitions and political alliances in recent years."I don't think [Islamophobia] is going to fly this time," Zogby said.Elkarra echoed that view, saying Mamdani's popularity could help him withstand the wave of attacks he's likely to face.There are currently an estimated 3 to 4 million Muslim Americans in the U.S.Between the lines: Days before the primary, Mamdani became embroiled in controversy for declining to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" during a podcast with The Bulwark.Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, said the phrase represented to him "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights."The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) responded by urging all New York City candidates — without naming Mamdani — to "disassociate themselves from and avoid using language that plays into antisemitic tropes."Calls to "globalize the intifada," the ADL said, invoke a decades-old history of attacks on the Jewish people and amount to "an act of incitement that encourages violence against Jews."The bottom line: Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and promised to be a mayor for all New Yorkers — one who will be laser-focused on the city's affordability crisis.That message helped carry him to a stunning primary win — but the volume and intensity of bigoted attacks is likely to grow.

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