New York: from post‑9/11 suspicion of Islam to its first Muslim mayor

In addition to the 2,977 dead, the fear that swept across the United States and the wars that spread through the Middle East, the September 11, 2001 attacks had another side effect in New York, the city hardest hit by the jihadist assault: a growing distrust, and at times outright racism, toward the Muslim community.

A quarter of a century later, the situation has changed substantially and presents a mixed picture. On one hand this community, growing in demographic weight, has gained power and influence, with the symbolic moment of Zohran Mamdani’s election last year as the city’s first Muslim mayor in its history. But on the other hand, prejudices against Islam remain in a country where Republicans have turned this religion into a political weapon ahead of next November’s midterm elections.

Moustafa Bayoumi, author of How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America, says that over these 25 years Muslims have been made to pay for a crime they did not commit. “We have been mocked, harassed and subjected to police surveillance. We have lived in a hostile environment,” he said in a phone interview.

The aftermath of the 2001 attacks produced some concrete acts of violence. The best-known one occurred in the state of Arizona four days after the attacks, when Frank Silva Roque murdered Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh who was mistaken for a Muslim because of the turban he wore. That was the first of several such crimes around the country. Perhaps more significant was the revelation that public institutions such as the New York Police Department spied on Muslim gathering places like restaurants and mosques that had committed no crimes, according to a scandal exposed by the Associated Press.

Bayoumi explains that the community’s response to mounting difficulties was to organize itself to become a political force. Mamdani’s election would, in this context, be above all the result of that collective struggle, without detracting from the personal merit of the politician, who was born 34 years ago in Uganda.

There is no exact statistic for the number of Muslims in New York. But what is beyond a doubt is that their share is growing. According to a 2016 report from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a decade earlier the community numbered about 765,000 people, roughly 9% of the total population. More recent studies suggest that figure is now approaching one million. The number of people who follow the faith of Muhammad is drawing closer to the Jewish community, which counts about 1.4 million residents in the city’s metropolitan area.

Muslim Heritage Month

A sign of that strength was this year’s announcement that January would henceforth be declared Muslim Heritage Month in New York. The decision by the state’s governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, aims to celebrate the cultural legacy of a community that includes prominent figures such as activist Malcolm X and boxer Muhammad Ali.

The documentation accompanying that proclamation noted facts such as that 62% of American Muslims said they had experienced religious discrimination (according to a 2022 survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding) and that Muslim youth in New York aged 10 to 18 had experienced or witnessed hate crimes more frequently than any other group (a figure from the city’s Muslim Community Network).

Despite the peaceful coexistence on New York’s streets, various Republican politicians are using the growing presence of Islam as an electoral weapon. In recent months Mamdani has been joined by Abdul El‑Sayed, a progressive physician and a son of Egyptians who won the Democratic primary to run for a Senate seat in the state of Michigan. If he wins in November, he would become the first Muslim U.S. senator in history.

Republicans have responded by sounding alarms about the risks they see in El‑Sayed. Many insist on using his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El‑Sayed, as a way of reminding voters that he comes from outside the United States. It’s a strategy that echoes the use of the name Hussein in reference to former president Barack Obama. But in recent days they have gone further.

Vice President J. D. Vance has suggested that El‑Sayed is associated with radical Islam. He called him “very, very evil” and accused him of defending terrorism over remarks El‑Sayed made after an attack on a synagogue in Detroit that were interpreted as attempting to downplay the attackers’ culpability. El‑Sayed said that “hurt people hurt” and later apologized for those comments. In New York City Hall, controversial Republican council member Vickie Paladino has said things such as that Muslims should be expelled from all Western countries.

Bayoumi says that Islamophobia rises and falls with circumstances, but that it is something always present in the United States. He adds that its resurgence is not linked to jihadist attacks but to the proximity of elections, as is the case right now.

“Racism has never reached as unhinged a level as we now see among many Republicans aligned with the MAGA movement. They are trying to exploit anti-Muslim sentiment at a moment when this community has increasing political weight,” says this professor at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. By this logic, all signs point to an intensification of attacks ahead of the November elections and the 2028 presidential race.

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