From Malcolm X to Mamdani: 125 Years of Muslim Organizing in New York City

A Historic Victory Built on Decades of Community Organizing (1904-2025)

Nov 05, 2025

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“On November 4th that is exactly what we will tell the world. We can make city hall a place where New Yorkers come to expect the future, not just failure.” - Zohran Mamdani

Introduction: November 5, 2025

On November 5, 2025, New York City made history. Electing, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist assembly member from Queens, as the city’s first Muslim mayor. This isn’t just a political victory, it was the culmination of 125 years of Muslim institution-building, organizing, and resistance in America’s largest city. Of course Mayor Mamdani would have never won if his campaign was just rooted in identity, his team with nearly 100,000 volunteers built an electoral machine through targeted universalism, and clear socialist campaign goals that could lift up the working class of New York, and could very well transform the direction of politics throughout the United States for decades to come.

This is the story of how organized power becomes political power, and how Muslim New York built the infrastructure that made November 5, 2025 inevitable. This article traces the 125-year arc of Muslim organizing in New York City through seven critical periods. Throughout, we’ll explore how decades of patient institution-building created the conditions for electoral success, and why other Muslim communities across America can’t simply replicate the victory without first replicating the organizing work.

This victory didn’t emerge from nowhere. This victory was made possible by many, but we will look at a number of key moments and leaders throughout this long historical arc, including:

Malcolm X’s revolutionary organizing in Harlem in the 1960s
Imam Siraj Wahaj’s community transformation of Bedford-Stuyvesant starting in the 1980s
Betty Shabazz’s three-decade fight to preserve Malcolm’s legacy
Linda Sarsour’s 15 years building the Arab American Association of New York
DRUM’s 25 years organizing South Asian workers in Queens
Adama Bah’s resilience after being detained as a 16-year-old “potential suicide bomber”
The lawsuit that defeated NYPD surveillance of Muslim communities
Yusef Salaam’s journey from the Central Park Five to City Council
Imam Khalid Latif’s decades of faith-based community building
Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi’s student activism despite government detention

Part I: The Foundations (1904-1964)

The First Muslims Arrive

The story of Muslim New York begins long before Malcolm X, before the civil rights movement, before most people imagined Muslims would become a significant presence in America.

1904: Imam Satti Majid, a Sudanese imam, arrives in New York City to serve a small community of South Asian and Arab Muslims. At the time, there were perhaps a few hundred Muslims in the entire city—mostly merchants, sailors, and students.

1920s-1930s: The Great Migration brings African Americans north, including members of the Moorish Science Temple of America and the Nation of Islam. These movements established strong presences in Harlem and Brooklyn, creating the foundations of Black Muslim life in New York.

1931: Lipka Tatar Polish Muslims found the Powers Street Mosque in Brooklyn, one of the first purpose-built mosques in New York City. The community, fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, established a neighborhood institution that would survive for nearly a century.

1939: Shaikh Daoud Faisal, a Grenadian convert to Islam, founds the State Street Mosque in Brooklyn. Faisal’s vision of Islam as a universal faith accessible to all races would influence generations of American Muslims.

These early mosques weren’t just places of worship—they were community centers, mutual aid societies, and sites of resistance against discrimination. They established the principle that Muslim institutions in New York would serve their communities comprehensively, not just spiritually.

Malcolm X: The Revolutionary Tradition

By the 1950s and 1960s, the Nation of Islam had become a powerful force in Black communities across New York. And no figure embodied its revolutionary potential more than Malcolm X.

Born Malcolm Little in 1925, he spent time in Harlem in his youth before his incarceration led him to the Nation of Islam. After his release, he became the Nation’s most effective organizer and spokesperson, establishing Temple No. 7 in Harlem as a center of Black Muslim life.

But Malcolm’s evolution didn’t stop there. After his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and his break from the Nation of Islam, he founded the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (later known as the Muslim Mosque, Inc.) on 113th Street in Harlem. This represented his vision of Sunni Islam combined with revolutionary politics, a synthesis that would inspire generations of Muslim organizers.

As we discussed recently in our article, Towards a New Future Identity of Islam in the Americas this radical political legacy has been part of Muslim life in the America’s since the 1500s.

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem by US government undercover agents, acting as members of the nation of Isalm. He was 39 years old. His death could have ended the story. Instead, it sparked decades of institution-building in the long life of the spirit of Malcolm X that still lives with us today.

Part II: Betty Shabazz and the Long Fight for Malcolm’s Legacy

Malcolm’s widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, spent the next 32 years fighting to preserve his legacy and create institutional memory of his work.

The 30-Year Campaign (1965-1997):

Betty Shabazz understood that Malcolm’s ideas would only survive if they were institutionalized. She spent three decades advocating for the preservation of the Aududon Ballroom, developing the Malcolm X Educational Foundation, and ensuring that Malcolm’s story would be told accurately.

She raised six daughters alone while earning her Ed.D. and becoming a respected educator at Medgar Evers College. She gave countless speeches, participated in documentaries, and mentored young activists. Most importantly, she kept the vision of the Audubon Ballroom site alive through multiple city administrations that had no interest in honoring Malcolm’s memory.

June 23, 1997: Betty Shabazz died from burns sustained in a fire. She was 61 years old.

May 19, 2005: On what would have been Malcolm X’s 80th birthday, the Malcolm Shabazz Center opened at the site of the Audubon Ballroom. This was Betty’s dream realized—a living memorial that would inspire future generations of Muslim political consciousness. Political power requires institutional memory. Betty Shabazz modeled what it means to fight for decades to create the infrastructure that future movements can build upon.

Part III: Imam Siraj Wahaj and Community Transformation

While Betty Shabazz fought to preserve Malcolm’s legacy, another form of Muslim organizing was emerging in Brooklyn, one focused on transforming entire neighborhoods through community organizing.

Imam Siraj Wahaj and Masjid al-Taqwa: Transforming Bedford-Stuyvesant

Among the most significant examples of Black Muslim community organizing is the work of Imam Siraj Wahaj and Masjid al-Taqwa in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Background:

Imam Siraj Wahaj (born Jeffrey Kearse in Brooklyn) grew up in the projects of Brooklyn and converted to Islam in 1969
After studying Islam extensively, he became imam of Masjid al-Taqwa in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the early 1980s
At the time, Bed-Stuy was plagued by the crack cocaine epidemic, violence, and urban decay

Community Transformation:

Imam Siraj and the Masjid al-Taqwa community undertook a comprehensive approach to neighborhood revitalization:

Direct action against drug dealers: The community organized patrols and confronted drug activity on the blocks surrounding the mosque, driving dealers away through persistent, organized presence
Youth programs: Created after-school programs, tutoring, and mentorship for neighborhood youth
Economic development: Supported local businesses and entrepreneurship
Community safety: Established neighborhood watch programs and conflict resolution
Social services: Provided food assistance, job training, and family support
Interfaith coalition building: Built relationships with churches and community organizations across Brooklyn

The Transformation of Bed-Stuy:

Over the years, the blocks around Masjid al-Taqwa transformed from a drug-infested area into a thriving, safe neighborhood. The mosque became a model for how faith-based community organizing could reclaim neighborhoods without relying on increased policing or mass incarceration—instead building safety through community cohesion, economic opportunity, and collective action. Masjid al-Taqwa’s model of community transformation—building power through service, organizing for collective safety, creating economic opportunity, and centering the most marginalized—became a template for Muslim organizing across New York City. This work laid groundwork for the post-9/11 organizing that would follow.

The Hart-Celler Act and Immigration

While Black Muslim communities were building institutions in Harlem and Brooklyn, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act) opened the door for massive immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

1965-2001: Muslim immigration to New York exploded. Communities from:

South Asia (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India)
The Arab world (Egypt, Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria)
Africa (Somalia, Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria)
Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia)

These communities settled in specific neighborhoods:

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn became “Little Palestine” and “Little Yemen”
Jackson Heights, Queens became a South Asian hub
Astoria, Queens attracted Arab communities
The Bronx saw significant West African Muslim settlement

Each community brought its own organizing traditions, and slowly began building institutions—mosques, community centers, halal restaurants, Islamic schools.

Part IV: Post-9/11 Organizing and Resistance (2001-2020)

September 11, 2001 changed everything. The War on Terror, mass surveillance, hate crimes, and systematic discrimination against Muslims became the defining reality for a generation. But rather than retreating, Muslim communities in New York doubled down on organizing.

Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM): The South Asian Power Base

Founded in 2000, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) is a multigenerational, membership-led organization of over 5,000 low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrant workers, youth, and families. The organization has mobilized thousands of low-income immigrants—predominantly Muslim, many undocumented—from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Guyana, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.

DRUM’s organizing model centers on:

Base-building and leadership development among marginalized communities
Campaign organizing for policy change at local, state, and national levels
Direct services: immigration legal assistance, ESL classes, youth programs
Cross-community alliances with Black, Latinx, Asian, and other immigrant communities

Post-9/11, DRUM became a critical organizing force:

Organized hotlines for hate crime reporting
Documented “disappearances”—Muslim men kidnapped by ICE and FBI in pre-dawn raids
Led the Stop The Disappearances Campaign, offering Know Your Rights workshops and legal clinics
Protested in solidarity with hunger-striking detainees in New Jersey and New York
Successfully campaigned to eliminate NSEERS (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System), which specifically targeted Muslim registrants

Key victories include:

Co-led protests against the Muslim and Refugee Ban, contributing to court rulings halting the ban
Won protection for street vendors against NYPD harassment
Built chapters in six different NYC neighborhoods
Created democratic, participatory spaces for people otherwise marginalized from policy-making

DRUM represents the working-class Muslim organizing infrastructure that provided the grassroots energy and field organizing expertise for campaigns like Mamdani’s—connecting housing counseling, labor organizing, immigrant rights, and electoral politics into a coherent movement.

DRUM’s Mobilization for Mamdani:

The role DRUM Beats (DRUM’s sibling organization focused on electoral organizing) played in Mamdani’s campaign demonstrates the power of long-term organizing infrastructure:

The Numbers:

South Asian voter turnout increased by 40% during the Democratic primary
Muslim voter turnout increased by 60% during the Democratic primary
In some neighborhoods, voter turnout among South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities doubled
DRUM members knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors with flyers in Bengali, Urdu, and other South Asian languages

The Strategy:

As Jagpreet Singh, DRUM Beats’ political director, explained:

“When Zohran had come to us, to begin with, he said his base, the base he was looking at, were three planks. Number one was the leftist progressives. His second plank was rent-stabilized tenants. And the third was Muslim and South Asian communities, communities that have not been previously galvanized, have not been previously activated, usually have some of the lowest voter turnout rates. So, from the get-go, our communities were going to be a big part of his base.”

The Organizing:

Kazi Fouzia, DRUM’s organizing director who moved from Bangladesh in 2008, led tireless campaigning efforts. As she described the volunteers:

“Just 24/7, they are thinking how to win. Some of them work in the cafeteria in the school. Some of them also work in the retail store. Some of them are home health worker, take care of the patient. One of my leader actually restoring ship. They are not only just volunteers. They build, actually, movement.”

After long evenings of canvassing, volunteers would return to DRUM offices to prepare for the next day. The canvassers burst into Bengali chants as they knocked on doors: “Āmāra mēẏara, tōmāra mēẏara” (My mayor, your mayor).

Youth Organizing:

High school students—too young to vote themselves—spent afternoons phone banking in Nepali, Urdu, and Bengali. Miftahun Mohona, a high school volunteer, explained her passion:

“Even though I’m not at the age to vote, not yet, I still care about, like, people above 18, like for them to vote for Zohran... I come from a working-class family. We don’t have many benefits. We don’t have much resources.”

From Surveillance to Political Power:

DRUM members’ organizing was shaped by their experiences with state repression. Kazi Fouzia herself became a target of NYPD surveillance when she started organizing in immigrant Muslim communities in 2008. In 2013, as hate crimes against South Asians spiked, many people told her to remove her hijab for safety. She refused.

Jagpreet Singh, DRUM Beats’ political director, remembers his Sikh family members cutting their hair and beards and wearing American flag T-shirts to stay safe after 9/11:

“This is a reality we lived with for a long time, that we had to hide ourselves, that we had to retreat back, that we had to fight for everything that we wanted. And we’re in this reality now where Zohran Mamdani is about to become mayor of our city, a very outward Muslim man, South Asian, who is very much into his identity, who does not hide his identity.”

Kazi Fouzia captured the transformation:

“If they go back to 9/11 era and they try to talk about Islamophobia, xenophobia, it’s not going to sell. It’s not going to sell. It’s over. People are not going to go back the isolating zone anymore. If they try to implementing this, they will push back.”

Why DRUM’s Endorsement Mattered:

As Fahd Ahmed, DRUM Beats Executive Director, explained, it wasn’t just about identity politics:

“Many people will say that, ‘Oh, well, it’s a South Asian-descended candidate, and so it must be an identity thing.’ But we’ve had several South Asian or Indo-Caribbean candidates, and none of them elicited this response. And I think the fact that the campaign spoke to the very material issues of working-class people has, first and foremost, has really made a very significant difference.”

What differentiated Mamdani was his unique combination of strategic clarity and personal charisma. His three-plank strategy—targeting working-class voters, rent-stabilized tenants, and Muslim/South Asian communities—gave the campaign clear direction. But strategy alone wasn’t enough. Mamdani’s authenticity and willingness to put himself on the line made him credible in ways other candidates weren’t.

Mamdani’s track record of solidarity—joining the taxi workers’ 15-day hunger strike in 2021, securing $450 million in debt relief for taxi drivers—proved he understood working-class struggles. As Kazi Fouzia remembered:

“I saw how long he’s doing the hunger strike, and he almost die in that time. So I feel this call, actually, real solidarity. Solidarity, not just come and talk and leave. Solidarity, also he put his body frontline.”

Accountability Beyond Victory:

Critically, DRUM’s organizing model doesn’t end with electoral victory. Kazi Fouzia made clear that if Mamdani fails to keep his promises, they will hold him accountable:

“Zohran make impossible possible in his grassroot movement... So Zohran have to keep his promises and fulfill his commitment. And we will be support all the time him. And also, if he don’t fulfill or keep his promises, we will hold him accountable.”

This relationship—organized communities supporting candidates they’ve built relationships with, then holding them accountable once in office—represents the difference between transactional electoral politics and transformative organizing.

Arab American Association of New York (AAANY): The Bay Ridge Foundation

Founded in 2001 in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 by Dr. Ahmad Jaber (a Palestinian OB-GYN who delivered over 5,000 babies in Bay Ridge) and Basemah Atweh, AAANY has become the primary Arab-American organizing institution in Brooklyn.

Linda Sarsour’s Transformative Leadership:

In 2005, after founder Basemah Atweh (Sarsour’s relative and mentor) died tragically in a car accident returning from the Arab American National Museum opening in Dearborn, Michigan, Linda Sarsour became Executive Director at age 25. Over her nearly 16 years of leadership, she transformed AAANY from a small organization with a $50,000 budget into a powerhouse with a $700,000 annual budget and national reach. Based in Bay Ridge—nicknamed “Little Palestine” and “Little Yemen”—AAANY serves over 6,000 beneficiaries annually.

AAANY’s comprehensive programs include:

Immigration legal services (DOJ-accredited)
Women’s empowerment and adult literacy programs
Mental health and domestic violence support
Youth organizing programs (including BAY: Brooklyn Arab Youth, a community organizing and activism afterschool program)
Career readiness and economic development (CRED program)
Civic engagement and voter registration

Beyond AAANY, Linda Sarsour has been instrumental in building the national infrastructure for Muslim political organizing:

MPower Change (Co-founder):

First Muslim online organizing platform
Digital organizing hub uplifting Muslim communities nationwide
Enables rapid response campaigns, fundraising, and mobilization
Model for 21st-century Muslim political organizing

National Political Leadership:

2017 Women’s March: National co-chair of the largest single-day protest in U.S. history (500,000+ in DC, millions nationwide)
Used platform to center immigrant rights, Muslim rights, and intersectional justice
Demonstrated Muslim women’s leadership on the national stage

Muslim School Holidays Victory (2015):

Led multi-year campaign to get NYC public schools to observe Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha
Victory in 2015: NYC became the largest school district in the nation to observe Muslim holidays
Proved Muslim organizing could win concrete policy changes

Linda Sarsour’s trajectory—from community organizer in Bay Ridge to national political figure—demonstrated how local organizing creates leaders who can operate at multiple scales simultaneously.

Post-9/11 Black Muslim Organizing

While South Asian and Arab organizing infrastructure emerged primarily post-2000, African American Muslim organizing in New York has deep roots stretching back decades—providing the historical foundation upon which contemporary Muslim political power was built.

Historic Black Muslim Leadership:

New York has been a center of African American Islam since the early 20th century:

The Moorish Science Temple of America and Nation of Islam established strong presence in the 1920s-1930s
Malcolm X made New York his base for years, establishing The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood on 113th Street in Harlem (1964) after his hajj
After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad guided the vast majority of Nation of Islam adherents in NYC to mainstream Sunni Islam
Masjid Malcolm Shabazz in Harlem became a center of Black Muslim life
The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (formerly Malcolm X’s mosque) continues to serve as a vital Black Muslim institution

Adama Bah: From Detention to Community Leadership

Perhaps no single story better illustrates the intersection of state violence, Muslim organizing, and African, and African American resistance than that of Adama Bah.

March 24, 2005: At 4am during Fajr time, 16-year-old Adama Bah awoke to find nearly a dozen armed FBI, NYPD, and DHS agents in her family’s Harlem apartment. She was handcuffed and taken with her father to a federal detention facility.

The Case:

Adama and another 16-year-old girl, Tashnuba Hayder (Bangladeshi), were detained together
FBI document labeled them “imminent threats” and “potential suicide bombers”
No evidence was ever provided
Both girls were undocumented—brought to the U.S. as young children, unaware of their status until arrest
Adama was held for 6 weeks in a maximum-security juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania
Released with ankle bracelet (worn for 3.5 years) and deportation order
No terrorist charges were ever filed

The Aftermath:

Her father was deported to Guinea
At 16, Adama had to drop out of high school to support her four younger siblings
She battled for three years, finally gaining political asylum in 2007 (to escape forced genital mutilation)
Became U.S. citizen in 2021—20 years after her ordeal

As Adama recalls, she was shunned by parts of the Muslim community who feared she actually was a terrorist. The broader activist community also kept distance. This isolation—a young Black Muslim girl abandoned by those who should have protected her—illustrates the intersecting violence of white supremacy, anti-Black racism, War on Terror, patriarchy, state violence, and xenophobia.

Organizing Legacy:

DRUM organized protests and mobilization for Adama and Tashnuba’s release
The Stop The Disappearances Campaign was created partly in response to cases like theirs
Documentary “Adama” (2011) chronicled her story, raising awareness
Adama authored “Accused: My Story of Injustice (I, Witness)”
Today, she is a community organizer and immigrant rights activist, working with newly arriving asylum seekers in NYC
Her story has been taught in schools, inspiring younger generations to resist Islamophobia
Today she is the founder and executive director of Afrikana, Located in Harlem, Afrikana supports New York’s newest and oldest residents. They specifically focus on Black, Arab, and Muslim arrivals who face significant barriers to accessing services, including legal, shelter, workforce, and benefit assistance.

The Stop NYPD Surveillance Lawsuit: Politicizing a Generation

The NYPD’s mass surveillance of Muslim communities after 9/11 didn’t just violate civil rights—it politicized an entire generation of young Muslims who would become the organizing backbone of campaigns like Mamdani’s.

The Surveillance Program:

In winter 2012, Asad Dandia, a 19-year-old Pakistani American university student from Brighton Beach, discovered that his friend who had crashed at his house and dined at his family table was an NYPD plant. The NYPD’s Intelligence Division was dispatching spies and plainclothes officers to compile dossiers on Muslim “hot spots,” infiltrating local bookstores, restaurants, and mosques, eavesdropping on conversations and befriending unwitting community members.

The Lawsuit:

The revelation devastated Dandia. The ACLU asked him to join a lawsuit challenging the NYPD surveillance program. Alongside five other plaintiffs, he fought back—and won. A judge declared the surveillance program unconstitutional, resulting in a landmark settlement that protects American Muslims from discriminatory NYPD surveillance.

As Dandia later reflected: “That’s the story of how I changed New York City policy before I got my first full-time job after college.”

Politicizing a Generation:

The NYPD spying scandal had a profound impact on young Muslims across New York City:

Betrayal transformed into organizing: Young Muslims who felt surveilled, targeted, and violated channeled their anger into community organizing
Know Your Rights training: Muslim youth began organizing workshops in living rooms when mosques were under government watch
Youth organizing networks emerged: Organizations created youth wings specifically to train the next generation in political organizing
Personal became political: As Dandia explained, “I don’t think you can separate the personal from the political. I was spied on by the NYPD. It shaped the rest of my life forever. But I fought back.”

Building NYC’s Organizing Infrastructure:

The generation politicized by NYPD surveillance became the volunteers, organizers, and leaders who built the infrastructure for Mamdani’s campaign:

Many had friends or family members questioned by FBI or NYPD
They understood state power as a lived reality, not an abstraction
They learned organizing through defending their communities from surveillance
They built relationships across neighborhoods while resisting government overreach
They developed political consciousness through fighting back

Asad Dandia’s Continued Organizing:

Today, Dandia runs New York Narratives, leading radical walking tours that reclaim NYC’s streets from the systems that surveilled him. He traces Muslim histories across the city—from Muslim Boricuas in East Harlem to the forced displacement of Syrian émigrés in FiDi, from Malcolm X’s path through upper Manhattan to Arab Atlantic Avenue.

In August 2024, when Mamdani decided to run for mayor, he called Dandia, who he believed understood Muslim New York in ways few others could. Dandia joined Mamdani’s “kitchen cabinet” as an unofficial advisor. As Dandia explained: “Zohran is just like me. He’s South Asian, Muslim, American, millennial, democratic socialist, product of the city. But most importantly, he’s someone who very deeply loves and appreciates New York.”

The arc from NYPD surveillance victim to mayoral advisor captures how state repression inadvertently helped to build the very organizing infrastructure that would challenge it, by politically radicalizing a generation. The young Muslims surveilled in the 2000s and 2010s became the organizers who won Mamdani’s election in 2025.

Yusef Salaam: From the Central Park Five to City Hall

The most visible symbol of African American Muslim political organizing’s success is Yusef Salaam, who won election to the New York City Council in 2023—a stunning reversal from his wrongful conviction as a teenager.

The Central Park Five Case (1989):

April 19, 1989: Five Black and Latino teenagers—Yusef Salaam (15), Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Raymond Santana—were arrested for the assault and rape of a white woman jogging in Central Park
The teens were coerced into false confessions through police brutality, deprivation of “food, drink or sleep” for over 24 hours, and threats
Donald Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty to be brought back
All five were convicted in 1990 and served 5-12 years in prison
Yusef Salaam served nearly 7 years

Exoneration and Justice:

In 2002, a serial rapist confessed to the crime alone—DNA evidence confirmed he was the perpetrator
All five convictions were vacated in 2002
New York City paid them a combined $41 million settlement in 2014
Ken Burns documentary “The Central Park Five” (2012) and Ava DuVernay’s miniseries “When They See Us” (2019) brought renewed attention to their case

Muslim Identity and Prison:

Yusef was born into a Muslim household and raised by a religious grandmother and mother who emphasized faith and spirituality
While imprisoned, Salaam deepened his connection to Islam
He later stated that his faith helped him endure his sentence and shaped his outlook on justice
The Quran became his “manual of life” for understanding why he was imprisoned despite innocence
In 2021, he received the Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim of the Year Award from Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research

Political Victory (2023):

February 2023: Announced candidacy for NYC Council District 9 (Central Harlem)
June 27, 2023: Won Democratic primary in landslide (over 63% of vote), defeating veteran Assembly members Inez Dickens and Al Taylor
November 7, 2023: Won general election unopposed
Now serves as NYC Council Member representing Central Harlem (2024-present)

The Connection to Mamdani: Both Adama Bah and Yusef Salaam represent the African American, and African Muslim organizing tradition that created the infrastructure Mamdani’s campaign could build upon:

Decades of resistance to state violence and criminalization
Community organizing that centered the most marginalized
Political education about systemic injustice
Coalition-building across racial and ethnic lines
Visibility through media, art, and storytelling
Transformation of pain into power

Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi: Palestinian Student Activism and State Repression

The tradition of Muslim organizing against state repression continues into the present day with Palestinian student activists at Columbia University who have faced detention and attempted deportation for their advocacy work.

Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both Palestinian organizers and activists at Columbia University, were subjected to government detention and deportation proceedings that the administration explicitly stated were related to foreign policy interests regarding their activism.

The Cases:

Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in March 2025 as part of a coordinated crackdown on Palestinian student organizing
Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested later in spring 2025
Both cases represented the criminalization of Palestine solidarity activism on college campuses
The government’s explicit connection to “foreign policy interests” revealed how domestic organizing is targeted when it challenges U.S. policy in the Middle East

Mahdawi’s Release: In April 2025, Mohsen Mahdawi was released from detention with the intention of returning to Columbia University to continue his studies. His release came after sustained organizing by student groups, legal advocacy organizations, and community pressure—demonstrating the power of coordinated resistance to state repression.

These cases echo Adama Bah’s detention two decades earlier, showing that the targeting of Muslim activists—particularly those organizing around Palestine—remains a feature of U.S. policy. The Columbia cases also illustrate how student organizing has become a crucial site of Muslim political activism in New York, connecting campus movements to broader community organizing infrastructure.

The fact that these organizers continue their work despite detention attempts speaks to the resilience of Muslim organizing in New York—a tradition that runs from Malcolm X through Adama Bah to today’s student activists.

This African American Muslim organizing infrastructure—built through Nation of Islam, Malcolm X’s legacy, post-75 Sunni conversion, and post-9/11 resistance—provided the foundation upon which South Asian (DRUM) and Arab (AAANY) organizations could build in the 2000s.

Building Cross-Community Power

What distinguishes New York’s Muslim organizing from many other cities is the deep cross-community solidarity. Organizations like DRUM explicitly organize in coalition with Black, Latinx, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and other immigrant communities. The Bay Ridge Unity Task Force brings together Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders. These coalitions recognize that struggles for immigrant rights, police accountability, affordable housing, and economic justice transcend any single community.

This infrastructure created the foundation for Mamdani’s grassroots army. The volunteers who phone-banked, canvassed, and organized weren’t conjured overnight—they came from organizations with decades of experience training community organizers, running campaigns, and building political power. Shahana Hanif (NYC’s first Muslim and Bangladeshi-American Councilwoman, elected 2021) emerged from this same organizing ecosystem, as did countless other leaders.

Imam Khalid Latif: Faith Leadership and Community Building

Among the key faith leaders shaping Muslim New York’s infrastructure is Imam Khalid Latif, who after decades of groundbreaking work at New York University, has embarked on a new chapter of community institution-building. As the founding Chaplain at NYU (the first Muslim chaplain at any American university), Imam Latif built bridges across communities and demonstrated what inclusive, progressive Muslim leadership looks like in action.

Now, Imam Latif is co-founding the Islamic Center of NYC in lower Manhattan—a project that represents the next generation of Muslim institutional infrastructure in the city. This new center will serve as a hub for community building, interfaith dialogue, and spiritual growth in the heart of Manhattan, continuing the tradition of Muslim institution-building that has defined New York’s Muslim community for over a century.

Imam Latif’s work exemplifies the intersection of faith leadership and social justice that characterizes Muslim New York. His decades of community service, from campus chaplaincy to disaster relief coordination (notably after Hurricane Sandy), demonstrate how faith leaders have been integral to building the organizing infrastructure that made moments like Mamdani’s campaign possible.

Part V: The 2025 Mayoral Race - A Watershed Moment

A Historic Victory for Muslim New York

On June 24, 2025, New York City witnessed a seismic political shift when Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state assemblymember from Queens, won the Democratic primary for mayor in a stunning upset. Leading with over 545,000 votes after the ranked-choice voting count, Mamdani defeated presumed frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, who had led in virtually every pre-election poll.

On November 5, 2025, Mamdani secured his general election victory, making history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in more than a century—sharing that honor with John Purroy Mitchel, who took office at age 34 in 1914. He is also the city’s first mayor of Indian American descent and the first to be a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. This is a historic political victory for Muslim New York.

Who is Zohran Mamdani?

Born October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, to acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala) and postcolonialism scholar Mahmood Mamdani, Zohran represents the global Muslim diaspora. His mother is a Punjabi Hindu from India; his father is a Gujarati Muslim from Mumbai who grew up primarily in Uganda. The family moved to New York City when Mamdani was seven years old, settling in Morningside Heights.

Mamdani’s formative years were shaped by the post-9/11 climate. He was nine years old on September 11, 2001, and has spoken extensively about how growing up Muslim in New York during the War on Terror shaped his political consciousness and commitment to social justice. He became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

After graduating from Bowdoin College with a degree in Africana Studies, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor in Queens—a job he credits with inspiring him to run for office. In 2020, he was elected to represent District 36 in the New York State Assembly (covering Astoria and parts of Long Island City), where he helped launch a successful fare-free bus pilot program and participated in hunger strikes alongside taxi drivers.

The Campaign: Grassroots Power Meets Digital Savvy

Mamdani’s campaign represented a masterclass in 21st-century organizing, combining traditional community-building with viral social media outreach. The campaign mobilized 100,000 volunteers—an unprecedented grassroots operation that transformed New York City politics.

His platform centered on affordability and working-class New Yorkers, proposing:

Fare-free city buses
Free public childcare
Rent freeze on rent-stabilized units
$30 minimum wage by 2030
City-owned grocery stores
Comprehensive public safety reform
Tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually

The campaign secured endorsements from progressive champions including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders, and eventually Governor Kathy Hochul and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Mamdani’s campaign received 28,000 small-dollar donations totaling $1.7 million—demonstrating the power of grassroots fundraising against Cuomo’s $25 million+ war chest funded by just 6,500 donors.

The Obamaesque Strategy:

Zohran Mamdani understood something key for the future of Muslim organizing in the United States. As Fahd Ahmed noted, many Muslim and South Asian candidates had run before, but it was Mamdani’s unique combination of strategy and charisma that made him an Obamaesque figure—a community organizer who became a transformative political leader.

Mamdani identified his base as three distinct but overlapping blocks of voters:

Working-class voters seeking deep transformative change - People tired of incrementalism who wanted fundamental shifts in how the city operates
Rent-stabilized tenants - New Yorkers who would directly benefit from rental protections and affordability policies
Muslim and South Asian communities - Previously low-turnout voters who had not been effectively mobilized by earlier candidates

This strategic clarity—understanding exactly who his base was and building infrastructure to reach them—differentiated Mamdani from other candidates. Like Obama’s 2008 campaign, Mamdani didn’t just run a candidate; he built a movement that opened people’s homes as staging locations, organized WhatsApp groups across immigrant communities, and trained thousands of volunteers in grassroots organizing techniques.

Kitchen Table Politics:

The campaign pioneered a “kitchen table strategy” that tookorganizing tactics to a new level. Forty-two New Yorkers across all five boroughs opened their homes as “staging locations”—providing field captains with home bases from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily (and 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Election Day). These weren’t just field offices; they were living rooms, porches, and even children’s bedrooms transformed into organizing hubs.

As one host, Shafeka Hashash, explained: “Sometimes people think you have to have a gorgeous New York penthouse to have enough space but no, for a couple of weeks, to elect a mayor I believe in, I will allow people to leave boxes, folding tables, chairs, and posters in my house... to help bring about the future I want my child to grow up in.”

Digital and Grassroots Synergy:

Critically, Mamdani’s campaign made smart use of social media platforms, especially TikTok, engaging low-propensity voters and particularly resonating with younger and first-time primary voters. His viral videos and in-person interactions created momentum that pollsters failed to capture, with most major polls projecting Cuomo as the frontrunner until the very end.

Victory Speech and Vision:

On the night of his primary victory, Mamdani began his speech by acknowledging the grassroots organizers who made victory possible:

“This is the victory of the Bangladeshi auntie who knocked on door after door until her feet throbbed and her knuckles ached.”

In speeches to his base throughout the campaign, Mamdani consistently connected his Muslim identity to his political vision:

“What will it mean to have a Muslim mayor? What my grandmother Kulsum taught me, that to be a good Muslim is to be a good person. It is to help those in need and to harm no one. The truth of this campaign, it is a truth that believes in each one of the people in this room and their possibility. It is the truth that looks at the youngest among us and sees that they could be anything in this city, anything they want.”

And he closed many speeches with a rallying cry that captured the movement’s spirit:

“We choose the future, because for all those who say our time is coming, my friends, our time is now.“

Confronting Islamophobia: The Backlash and Response

Mamdani’s rise brought an unprecedented surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric and attacks, particularly in the general election campaign against independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

The Attacks

The Islamophobia was explicit and severe:

Radio host Sid Rosenberg called Mamdani an “animal,” a “jihadist,” and suggested he would “cheer” if another 9/11 attack occurred
Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed when Rosenberg said “God forbid, another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” and called Mamdani a “terrorist”
In a mayoral debate, Cuomo invoked the Shia-Sunni split (dating to Islam’s founding) and accused Mamdani’s policies as “haram” (forbidden), weaponizing intra-Muslim sectarian differences
Cuomo’s campaign launched “Hindus for Cuomo” explicitly attempting to divide South Asian communities along religious lines
Conservative media outlets and Republican officials amplified claims that Mamdani would “promote Islamic law” and “support terrorism”

Notably, Cuomo—who had never visited a mosque during his nearly 12 years as New York Governor—began visiting multiple mosques per week only after losing the primary, in what observers described as cynical outreach.

The Response

On October 25, 2025, one day before early voting began, Mamdani gave an emotional speech outside a Bronx mosque addressing the “racist, baseless attacks”:

“To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity, but indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.”

He shared memories of his aunt who stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she didn’t feel safe in her hijab, a staff member who had “terrorist” spray-painted on their garage, and advice that he “did not have to tell people” he was Muslim if he wanted to win elections.

Muslim advocacy organizations mobilized:

CAIR Action Executive Director Basim Elkarra called Cuomo’s radio appearance “despicable, dangerous, and disqualifying”
DRUM, AAANY, and other organizations organized rallies and voter mobilization
Congressman Ritchie Torres (despite not endorsing Mamdani) condemned the attacks: “To insinuate that a mayoral candidate would celebrate a second 9/11 is beyond disgusting and disgraceful”

The Muslim donor network responded powerfully: After Michael Bloomberg injected $5 million into Cuomo’s PAC just days before the primary, a network of Muslim American donors nationwide—most under 50—mobilized within hours. Donor Azhar, who organized the effort, told ABC News: “I told them: ‘This has the potential to change Democratic politics nationwide.’”

Mamdani’s campaign ultimately demonstrated that New Yorkers rejected anti-Muslim fearmongering. Despite the attacks, he won decisively. As his senior adviser Rahim stated: “At the end of the day, this is New York City and New Yorkers are very familiar with garden-variety Islamophobia; they see it and reject it.”

Conclusion: The Long Arc of Muslim New York

The story of Muslim New York is a 125+ year arc (1904-2025) from a few hundred Muslims to over one million Muslims, from one Sudanese imam to a Muslim mayor, from Malcolm X’s organizing to Yusef Salaam’s council seat, from Adama Bah’s detention to her citizenship and organizing work, from operating in the shadows to occupying City Hall.

Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory on November 5, 2025, represents a watershed moment in this trajectory. This political victory demonstrates that:

Demographics matter, but only when organized
Decades of grassroots organizing create the foundation for electoral success
Cross-community coalitions amplify power
Young, progressive leadership can inspire mass movements
Islamophobia will be defeated through moral clarity and political organizing
Muslim New Yorkers are here to stay, and they will shape the city’s future

The city that Malcolm X called home, where the first mosque opened in 1931, where immigrants from every Muslim-majority nation have settled, where communities survived 9/11 and the War on Terror—this city is now a global beacon for Muslim political power in the 21st century.

When historians look back, they will identify two dates as pivotal: June 24, 2025—the night Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary—and November 5, 2025—when he was elected as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, making Muslim New York’s political coming-of-age undeniable.

The infrastructure was built. The organizing was done. The community mobilized. And history was made.

New York City: Setting the Standard for Muslim Political Power Nationwide

Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory offers a blueprint for Muslim communities across the United States—but replicating this success requires understanding what made it possible.

The Difference Between Electoral Infrastructure and Organizing Infrastructure

In the years since 2016, Muslim communities nationwide have built impressive electoral infrastructure:

Over 50 Muslim Political Action Committees (PACs) have been established
Numerous 501(c)(4) organizations support Muslim candidates
Donor networks can raise significant funds for viable candidates
Endorsement organizations can mobilize votes during election cycles

This electoral infrastructure is valuable and necessary. But it is not sufficient.

New York City’s success stems from something deeper: decades of community organizing infrastructure that existed before Mamdani ever ran for office.

What New York Built That Others Haven’t

The key difference is long-term investment in grassroots organizing:

New York invested in:

Membership organizations like DRUM (5,000+ members) built over 25 years
Youth organizing programs that trained the next generation
Worker organizing around taxi drivers, home care workers, street vendors
Immigrant rights campaigns that built trust and relationships
Legal defense networks that protected communities from state violence
Know Your Rights trainings in living rooms and community centers
Coalition-building across Black, Latinx, Asian, and Arab communities
Cultural institutions like the Shabazz Center that connected history to present struggle

Other cities have invested in:

Election-cycle mobilization
Candidate recruitment
Fundraising networks
Get-out-the-vote operations

The distinction is crucial: Organizing creates the conditions for electoral success, not the other way around.

Why PACs Alone Won’t Win

Many Muslim communities have concluded that the path to political power is through:

Fundraising for Muslim candidates
Building endorsement networks
Mobilizing voters during elections

These activities matter. But without underlying organizing infrastructure, they produce:

Shallow victories that don’t create lasting power
Candidates disconnected from grassroots movements
Donor-dependent campaigns vulnerable to corporate capture
Limited volunteer capacity that can’t scale
No infrastructure to hold elected officials accountable

New York’s victory wasn’t just about having a charismatic candidate (though Mamdani is charismatic). It was about having organized communities ready to mobilize.

The Lesson for Muslim Communities Nationwide

For Muslim communities in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Philadelphia who aspire to similar political victories:

First: Invest in organizing infrastructure BEFORE electoral campaigns

Build membership organizations rooted in working-class communities
Organize around material issues: housing, wages, healthcare, education
Train youth in organizing skills
Create spaces for political education
Build coalitions across racial and ethnic lines
Provide services that build trust and relationships

Second: Support politically viable AND movement-grounded candidates

Look for candidates who emerge FROM organizing movements
Prioritize candidates with track records of community accountability
Support candidates who speak to working-class material needs
Avoid candidates who only mobilize during election cycles

Third: Recognize that organizing is long-term work

DRUM was founded in 2000; Mamdani won in 2025
Malcolm X organized in the 1960s; that legacy continues today
Linda Sarsour built AAANY for 15 years before the Women’s March
Imam Siraj Wahaj spent decades transforming Bed-Stuy before gaining national recognition

Political power grows from organized power, and organized power requires patience.

The Risk of Shortcuts

Some Muslim communities may look at Mamdani’s victory and conclude: “We need to find our own charismatic Muslim candidate and raise money for them.”

This approach will fail without the underlying infrastructure. A candidate without organized communities behind them is just an individual—vulnerable, isolated, and ultimately limited in what they can achieve.

The New York model isn’t about finding the right candidate. It’s about building the right infrastructure so that when candidates emerge, they have movements behind them.

Beyond Electoral Politics

Finally, New York’s organizing infrastructure wasn’t built for electoral politics—it was built for community power:

DRUM organized for worker rights whether or not elections were happening
AAANY provided services to 6,000 people annually
Masjid al-Taqwa transformed Bed-Stuy through community organizing, not electoral campaigns
The Shabazz Center preserved Malcolm’s legacy as a form of political education

Electoral victories like Mamdani’s are the fruit of this work, not the goal. When communities organize for power—not just for elections—they build sustainable infrastructure that produces multiple victories over time.

The Promise and the Challenge

New York City has demonstrated that Muslims can win executive power in America’s largest city. But the victory didn’t come from PACs, donor networks, or charismatic candidates alone.

It came from:

60+ years of organizing (Malcolm X to Mamdani)
Decades of patient institution-building
Thousands of trained organizers
Millions of doors knocked
Endless WhatsApp groups, kitchen table conversations, and community meetings

For Muslim communities nationwide, the question isn’t whether they can replicate New York’s success. The question is whether they’re willing to invest in the long-term organizing work that makes such victories possible.

The infrastructure must be built. The organizing must be done. The community must be mobilized. And then—history can be made. And it is what will carry Muslim New York forward to 2100 and beyond.

The lesson is clear: Political power grows from organized power, organized power requires decades of patient institution-building, and that work honors the legacy of those who came before—from Malcolm X to Adama Bah, from Imam Siraj Wahaj to Linda Sarsour, from Betty Shabazz to Asad Dandia, from the Central Park Five to Zohran Mamdani. The arc from Malcolm’s organizing in the 1960s to Mamdani’s victory in 2025 is not a straight line—it’s a tapestry woven by thousands of organizers, built mosque by mosque, campaign by campaign, victory by victory.

[Forthcoming Part 2: “The Next 75 Years: New York City as a Global Muslim Capital (2025-2100)” →]

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