Though they number a million or more, Muslims in and around New York have not been top of mind.
If you use Uber or Lyft, the chances are your driver was named Mohammed something or Akbar. Car services aside, Muslim New Yorkers are prominent in health and home care, culture, the arts, politics, policing, traffic enforcement and food services, among many other areas.
Most don’t think twice if they see a high-style New York woman wearing a hijab, the traditional headdress (although burqas, the full body garb that covers the face and speaks to more conservative religious beliefs, are still fairly exotic).
Long Island hosts major mosques near towns from Deer Park to Bay Shore, Huntington to Hicksville. Across the river in New Jersey, the south side of Paterson, renamed its main street Palestine Way, a Muslim-dominant neighborhood is called Little Ramallah after the most prominent city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Who knew? A couple of seismic events propelled a closer look at this, the third-largest ethnic group in the city and suburbs.
Start with politics. By the time you read this, the polls may have shifted slightly, but as of the end of July, in the race for mayor of New York City, a Muslim, state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, 33 years old, is the clear leader. He’s polling at 38.5% versus former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 24.6%, Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa at 14.5% and current Mayor Eric Adams at 10.7%.
Anything can happen in politics, but right now the only way Mamdani loses is if either Sliwa, Cuomo or Adams drops out. Knowing each of that trio of big personalities well, dropping out is not in their nature. So, get ready for the Big Apple’s first Muslim mayor.
He has made outsized promises, mostly concerning affordability in rent-stabilized housing, free buses, and city-owned or operated grocery stores. They sound great except for the part about who pays. His answer is high-end earners and businesses. Deeply troubling is his utter lack of experience earning a living or running a business.
While that might torpedo a traditional candidate, Mamdani’s campaign is buoyed by energetic young people, attracted to his socialist agenda and repulsed by Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.
Young New York voters, including most first-time voters, many of them Jewish, have embraced Mamdani because he and they are profoundly critical of Israel.
The ongoing starvation/horror story in Gaza is unlikely to be resolved before November’s general election, so get used to the phenomenon of a Muslim mayor in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Tel Aviv.
The other big story concerning Muslims in and around New York involves the 36-year-old NYPD cop Didarul Islam. He was shot dead trying to save the occupants of 345 Park Ave. during that deadly attack, which claimed four lives last week.
In the words of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who wore a hijab in his honor at his memorial, “He represented the best of New York City, an immigrant from Bangladesh who put on a uniform to protect and serve us all.”
Still fewer than 1% of the U.S. population, there are Muslim heroes and villains.
From Uber drivers to comedians, college professors to City Hall, their impact on American life has barely begun.
