Mamdani decried Cuomo’s racism
By Josephine Stratman
New York Daily News
(New York Daily News) — Zohran Mamdani condemned “Islamophobic” attacks on his candidacy in an impassioned speech outside a Bronx mosque Friday, accusing his opponents of using “racist, baseless” attacks to undermine his front-runner status.
The candidate, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, has spoken out about being a target of hate throughout his campaign. He said his opponents — naming Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa — have added to the hateful rhetoric.
His speech came a day after Cuomo came under fire over his role in an exchange during which conservative talk show host Sid Rosenberg said Mamdani would be “cheering” for a second 9/11.
“I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality, I could define myself as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker, no matter their skin color or religion, no matter where they were born,” Mamdani said. “… I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”
Inside the mosque, after prayers ended, Mamdani attempted to appeal to potential new voters by invoking common anti-Muslim experiences to the audience of Bronxites, most with origins in West Africa.
Staffers then ushered the constituents to register to vote.
Mamdani’s campaign has found success in tapping into constituencies that don’t always turn out in local elections, with a focus on groups such as younger New Yorkers, strongly pro-Palestine voters and Muslims.
“Raise your hand if you have had to deal with someone mispronouncing your name when you go to work,” he said to the crowd of Muslim men inside the Islamic Cultural Center.
“Raise your hand when someone has looked at you as a Muslim and called you a terrorist.”
Mamdani himself has come under fire over stances and positions seen as antisemitic, such as refusing to condemn the phrase “Globalize the Intifada” and not recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Many Jewish New Yorkers have said they oppose the candidate out of fears of increased antisemitism, which Mamdani has condemned.
In response to the democratic socialist’s speech, Cuomo slammed Mamdani as an “actor.”
“Today, he’s playing the victim, but in reality he is the offender,” Cuomo told reporters in Queens.
“What he has done has so offended the Jewish community in this city, I have never seen anything like it. You have the Jewish community that literally is afraid to leave their homes.”
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