Zohran Mamdani’s Primary Victory in New York: A Beacon of Inclusive Politics

Dr. Nazeer Ahmed

I love New York. The City has always had a peculiar rhythm—a kind of vitality that can surprise you just when you think it’s run out of steam. These feelings are perhaps colored by nostalgia from decades bygone when we rented an apartment on the upper East side in the 1960s. We spent our weekends in the City away from the serenity of Princeton, where we lived and worked. We were young and for us New York was the city of Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Islamic Center, the Philharmonic, Columbia University, NYU and the Met. 

Decades went by and the city that we once remembered for the  Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade became the city of 9/11, Islamophobia, anti-Arab, anti-immigrant jingoism. The shadows of time traversed the canvas of history. Friends passed on. New generations emerged. Where once  the headlines of the New York Times were about the Vietnam war and the bombing of Laos and Cambodia, they were now about Gaza and Palestine and Iran. The subway buzz was about immigration raids, homelessness and the cost of living. The City we once knew receded from our consciousness as if it was a dream from the distant past. 

So, when the internet flashed the news that Zohran Mamdani had won the Democratic primary in New York, it was as if a rose had suddenly blossomed from a withered rose bush. Mamdani is a Muslim of Ugandan Hindu-Muslim parentage with left-of-center political views. The opposition candidate was a well-known establishment politician, a former governor of New York, backed by reputed billionaires.

Mamdani’s victory was a result of his singular focus on affordability. His populist agenda included free transportation, government-run food stores, rent control, childcare and affordable housing. He spoke to the immigrant communities and  their fears. He reached out to the young through social media and listened to their concerns. On international issues of concern to New Yorkers, he was honest and forthright, unlike the hypocritical stance of the establishment on issues such as Gaza and Palestine. This was a breath of fresh air for New Yorkers and they responded to his call. 

The opposition campaign was ugly. It was characterized by Islamophobia and anti-immigrant paranoia, indeed outright racism. Mamdani was painted an anti-Semite, an untrustworthy bearded,  brown-skinned immigrant and a far left radical with socialist ideas who would overtax and drive away the wealthy and bankrupt the city. 

It is to the credit of New Yorkers that they saw through the propaganda. None of the xenophobic paranoia took hold. Mamdani won the primary. 

Mamdani’s victory is a minor revolution in the political history of the United States. How could the largest city in the US which is the financial hub of the capitalist world select a Muslim with South Asian ethnicity barely 24 years after 9/11? The reasons have to be sought beyond the jingoism of the news media. 

The United States  has entered a post-capitalist phase where the economic, political and social structure is like an inverted pyramid. It is creating a world of contrasts where a miniscule  minority controls the sinews of economic and political power while the voice of the masses is marginalized. Each year it churns out billionaires by the dozen but millions go to bed hungry every night. Taxation favors the rich. Politics is not responsive to the petitions of the masses. Democracy suffers while authoritarianism takes hold. Inflation is rampant. The currency is effectively devalued. Housing is unaffordable.  Technology, which creates wealth, is the privilege of the educated elite while the rank-and-file experience it as unemployment. These trends are global but they are most glaring in the United States, as it remains one of the two  richest countries in the world  and by far the most influential.

For a long time, the reality of an inexorable march towards economic and political centration was masked by the traditional media, controlled as they are by the establishment. This stranglehold on information has been broken by social media. More young people today get their news from social media than from the New York Times and the Washington Post. The jinx has been broken. Disaffection has set in. 

Mamdani correctly felt the pulse of the nation which beats with heightened intensity in New York City. His voice was authentic and his campaign was focused. The voters, particularly the young, responded in droves. 

The establishment has taken the Hamdani victory as if it is the onset of doomsday. The most virulent Islamophobic and racist innuendos are hurled at the youthful, 34- year-old, committed democrat. Millions are offered as enticement to any candidate who would challenge and win against Mamdani and scuttle his agenda. 

For American Muslims the New York primary ought to be a clarion call. In spite of their educational and economic clout, they have been hemmed in too long by Islamophobia and a suspicion of “otherness”. Internally, they are stuck in moribund debates on minutia and dead  issues. The core of Islam is excellence in service. It is God Almighty, may He be exalted, who commands: “I created not beings of fire and beings of clay except to serve and worship Me”. Muslims should come out of their cloisters and support the Mamdani campaign not because he is a Muslim but because his agenda calls for the upliftment of the common man. Affordable food and affordable housing are not just slogans for the Democratic party; they are core values of good administration. Lofty ideas do go through a transformation when they are implemented in the world of man. Politics, like chess, is a subtle game of finesse. At the other end, it is like walking through mud. Compromises are inevitable but American Muslims must stand firm on the ideals of excellence in service while building bridges with like- minded communities, whatever their faith may be, for the common good.

Mamdani’s success is the beginning of a long journey. A journey in which Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, atheists, and others walk together not as opponents in ideological combat but as partners in shaping a future where everyone can thrive. The yellow rose has bloomed once more in the city that never sleeps—and now it’s time to tend the garden together.