Advocates reported on Friday that anti-Muslim online posts targeting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have surged since his Democratic primary upset this week. These posts include death threats and comments that compare his candidacy to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
According to CAIR Action, an arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group, which logs such incidents, there were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign on the day after polls closed. This marks a five-fold increase over the daily average of such reports tracked earlier this month, CAIR Action stated. Overall, it noted approximately 6,200 online posts containing some form of Islamophobic slur or hostility within that 24-hour timeframe.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist and a 33-year-old state lawmaker, declared victory in Tuesday’s primary after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat. Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani would become the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if he wins the November general election.
“We call on public officials of every party — including those whose allies are amplifying these smears — to unequivocally condemn Islamophobia,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action.
The advocacy group stated that its hate monitoring system incorporates its own data scraping and analysis of posts, online submissions from the public, and notifications from law enforcement. Approximately 62% of the anti-Muslim posts against Mamdani originated on X, according to CAIR Action.
Advocates also highlighted that individuals close to Republican President Donald Trump, including one of his sons, are among those disseminating anti-Muslim rhetoric. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, posted on X on Wednesday that “New York City has fallen” while sharing a post that claimed New Yorkers had “voted for” 9/11. Also on Wednesday, Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted an AI-generated picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burqa.
President Trump has pursued domestic policies that rights advocates have described as anti-Muslim, including banning travel from some predominantly Muslim or Arab countries during his first term and attempting to deport pro-Palestinian students in his current term. The White House, which did not respond to a request for comment, has denied claims of discrimination against Muslims. Trump and his allies have stated their opposition to Mamdani and others due to what they describe as the Democrats’ “radical left” ideology.
Threats and Comparisons
The New York City Police Department stated earlier this month that its hate crime unit was investigating anti-Muslim threats directed at Mamdani.
Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate (which documents hate against Asian Americans), and CAIR noted that the attacks against Mamdani mirror those endured by other South Asian and Muslim political figures, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
Republicans have labeled Mamdani antisemitic, citing his pro-Palestinian advocacy and his criticism of Israel’s military assault on Gaza following the October 2023 attack by Hamas militants.
Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and enjoys the backing of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish. Lander also participated in the Democratic primary.
Rights advocates have observed a rise in both antisemitism and Islamophobia since the commencement of the Israel-Gaza war, with fatal U.S. incidents including the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington and the stabbing of a Muslim child in Illinois.
Mamdani and other pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, maintain that their criticism of Israel is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
