By Syma Mohammed in New York City
Zohran Mamdani’s historic win in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor shook up the political establishment.
A Democratic Socialist assembly member from Queens, Mamdani ran on a campaign pushing progressive policies such as a citywide rent freeze, taxpayer-funded childcare and “fast and free” public buses.
New Yorkers of all faiths rallied around the 33-year-old, and on 25 June he secured a stunning political upset, defeating his main rival, the political heavyweight Andrew Cuomo.
Despite being a relative unknown before the primary election, and polling as low as one percent in February, Mamdani’s campaign mobilised a coalition of voters, including many from New York’s 600,000 strong South Asian community.
But since his shock win, some within the Indian-American community have put a target on his back, making it abundantly clear they don’t want, and will never vote for, a Muslim candidate.
Last week, at a packed event in Queens, New York, a far-right Hindu activist pulled out the knives for the progressive candidate.
Kajal Shingala, also known as Kajal Hindusthani, a keynote speaker at the event, called Mamdani a “jihadi zombie” and said New York would become another Pakistan if he was elected mayor in November.
Listed as one the top 10 purveyors of hate speech in India, Shingala’s social media accounts are rife with Islamophobic content, where she labels Muslim men as terrorists, rapists and “love jihadists” – a conspiracy theory that Muslim men are trapping Hindu women into marriage in order to convert them to Islam.
This story was originally published in middleeasteye.net. Read the full story here.
