The mayor attended 17 iftars, prayed at Rikers Island, and faced hate speech from a sitting U.S. senator
A Mayor Who Made His Faith Public
When Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the stage at the Museum of the City of New York on March 12, he was surrounded by city workers who had gathered to break the daily Ramadan fast together. He told the crowd that for nearly as long as there has been a New York City, there have been Muslim New Yorkers, and that for nearly as long, those with power and platform had sought to dehumanize them. It was a statement of historical fact and a declaration of intent. Over the course of the holy month of Ramadan, which concluded in late March, Mamdani attended 17 iftars across all five boroughs. He shared meals with firefighters, police officers, delivery drivers, Black Muslim organizers, taxi workers, and social media creators. He broke his fast and shot hoops with New York Knicks player Mohamed Diawara. And in one of the most discussed moments of his early tenure, he prayed with Muslim inmates at Rikers Island on his first visit to the jail as mayor, calling it one of the most meaningful evenings he had experienced in office.
Faith as Policy, and as Target
Mamdani has been explicit that his Muslim identity is inseparable from his politics. He told a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023 that Palestinian liberation was at the core of his worldview. His Ramadan observances were both spiritual practice and political statement, demonstrating to New York’s roughly one million Muslims that their mayor was unashamed of who he is. The city has a Muslim population that reflects global diversity, with communities rooted in West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caribbean. For many of them, Mamdani’s election was historic in a way that extended beyond policy. His public Ramadan observances sparked genuine joy in communities that have long felt invisible in city government. But those same observances drew sharp attacks. Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville reposted an image of Mamdani at an iftar alongside a photograph of the September 11, 2001 attacks with the caption “the enemy is inside the gates.” The post drew widespread condemnation but Tuberville stood behind it, saying he was simply responding to Mamdani’s rhetoric. Mamdani called the post bigotry and addressed it directly while speaking to a crowd in Harlem.
The Rikers Visit: Solidarity or Controversy
The visit to Rikers Island generated the most sustained media controversy of Mamdani’s Ramadan period. He shared iftar with Muslim inmates, was joined by City Council member Yusef Salaam of the exonerated Central Park Five, and reiterated his pledge to shut down the facility and transfer its population to the borough-based jail system he has promised to build. Critics on social media questioned why the mayor chose to spend time with people who had committed crimes. Newsmax host Rob Schmitt called it ridiculous. Other commentators asked whether Mamdani had also visited the victims of inmates. The mayor did not respond directly to those criticisms. He framed the visit in terms of his faith: sharing iftar with fellow Muslims is an act of religious practice, and the fact that some find it political does not make it less sincere.
The Attempted Attack Outside Gracie Mansion
Ramadan in New York was also marked by what federal authorities described as an ISIS-inspired attempted attack. Two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, both 18 and 19 years old and American citizens from Pennsylvania, were arrested and accused of trying to detonate improvised explosive devices outside Gracie Mansion during both an anti-Islam protest and a counterprotest. The devices failed. When asked what he wanted to say to the city’s Muslims in the aftermath, Mamdani said: “You need not be ashamed of yourself to be a part of this city. I am proud to be a Muslim. I am proud to be a New Yorker.” The NPR coverage of the Ramadan period documented the full arc of celebration and backlash in detail.
A Broader Moment for American Muslims
Beyond New York, Mamdani’s Ramadan observances were watched by Muslim communities across the country as a marker of what is politically possible. Saquib Rahim, a physician who attended an iftar dinner, told reporters that it was meaningful to be seen as part of the fabric of the city and the country rather than treated as the other. Mouhamadou Aliyu, a taxi driver who had known Mamdani since a 2021 hunger strike over the taxi debt crisis, said encountering the mayor at a New York Taxi Workers Alliance iftar brought full circle a relationship built on shared struggle. Imam Latif, who leads the Islamic Center of New York City, said the iftars that Mamdani hosted created space for Muslims and non-Muslims to sit together and eat, setting aside difference in a shared act of community. The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding has documented the civic engagement of American Muslims and the discrimination many report in their daily lives, providing context for why Mamdani’s public practice of his faith carries the weight it does. The Pew Research Center’s research on Muslim Americans traces both the community’s growth and the persistent prejudice it faces. Whether Mamdani’s Ramadan period builds durable goodwill or remains a flashpoint for political attack will become clearer as his term progresses.
