A Historic Election in the Making:-
New York is voting in a new mayor and all eyes are on Zoran Mamdani. Now he’s 34 years old and he’s slated to win and if he does he will be the youngest ever mayor that New York City has ever had. He will also be the first Muslim mayor that this city has had. His rise has rattled the entire American political establishment.
A Two-Decade Journey for Muslim Identity:-
But this this particular journey is important on so many different levels which is what we’re going to look at in this story. to begin with, this is not just a political story. Is Zar Nani’s rise in New York City is a culmination of a two decade journey for the Muslim community reclaiming its visibility and its voice after 9/11. Remember in the years immediately after 9/11, the Muslims of New York lived almost in apologetically in suspicion and surveillance and silence and they sort of hid hid themselves away to see a Muslim man who was born in Africa in Uganda who was raised in Queens to unapologetically talk about his faith when he’s running a campaign standing on the brink of leading America’s biggest city is profoundly symbolic at this point. It represents his generation. The you know the current sort of 30 year olds or 35 year olds who are who refuse to be defined by that suspicion about their race or their religion. They’re running for office. They’re demanding no longer to be seen as outsiders but as actual New Yorkers shaping the city’s future. Mandani’s victory won’t just be his own. It would belong to his entire community. and his community is multiffold. So yes, his community is is Muslims in New York because that’s the religion he follows, but he’s also linked to the Indians of New York because his mother is Indian. He’s also linked to those who have come from Africa because that’s where he was born. He is linked to all immigrants or outsiders or people who don’t fit into the cookie cutter white American idea.
A Man of Many Roots:-
This is a victory or would be a victory on so many different levels. Now, let’s take a look very quickly as to who he is, right? So he was born like said in Uganda in 1991. He’s a young man. He’s the son of a Ugandan scholar Memud Mdani and celebrated Indian filmmaker. We all love her Mira. He was raised in New York. He’s married to a Syrian American artist called Rama Dwaji.And also not traditionally white American. Before politics he worked as a foreclosure prevent prevention counselor. He’s volunteered for local campaigns. He has described himself as a democratic socialist and joined the party of Democratic Socialists of America and he won a seat in the New York State Assembly. Since then, he introduced apparently 20 bills mostly about housing, public transport, social equality, out of which three were successful and passed into law. He’s also a hip-hop artist called Young Cardamom and you can look up some of the work that he’s done, written a song for Disney apparently. Now he’s openly celebrated his Indian roots, his multicultural roots.
From Social Worker to Political Star:-
Remember his mother is a practicing his mother is Hindu and his father is Muslim. He’s talked about how you know he grew up understanding the stories and the festivals and the faith of the Hindu people. He’s spoken at temples across the city. and he talks about how these ideals make him a proud Indian-American. Now, but the really interesting thing from my point of view of what you know why everybody’s looking at him right now is the kind of things he’s promising. He’s talking about making life affordable again in New York. So, freezing rent in rent stabilized tenants you know actually building affordable housing using city resources making city buses free. Sounds like sounds familiar doesn’t it? providing free child care for New Yorkers who are you know 6 weeks to 5 years old. Launching city this is really fascinating city-owned grocery stores that will sell essentials without profit margins. If this is sounding familiar to you, it’s a cooperative effectively upna bazar, right? So you will the city will actually create stores and they will not be privately owned. This is radical, right, for America. and it will sell janhit majari without taking any profit. So these are all very, you know, sort of very against the grain of the American ideal.
Faith, Family, and Cultural Pride:-
Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind Governor Andrew Ko, who is the person who’s going up against most likely there are two people going up against Mamani, but Ko is likely to to actually give him a run for his money in some way. He’s calling him the only person who can save New York. On Truth Social, Trump wrote that Mandani under him, the city will become a complete total economic social disaster. He’s also threatened to cut off minim federal funding from the central government or the federal government to which Mamdani has fired back is saying that we’re actually talking about the real crisis which is cost of living and that is why Donald Trump is threatened. Also want to point out the other big city that has a Muslim mayor right now is London.
A Radical Vision for an Affordable New York:-
Sadi Khan who is the mayor of London and Donald Trump in a United Nations General Assembly speech in September this year said and I’m quoting I look at London where you have a terrible mayor terrible terrible terrible mayor they want to go to Sharia law in the past he has said that the mayor of London is a stone cold loser and he has done a terrible job as a mayor so Donald Trump has not minced words when it comes to people of the Muslim religion especially leading cities and now we’re looking at New York. Remember Trump is a New Yorker. His entire like he grew up in New York. His entire fortune you know in real estate it was made in New York.
Trump’s Opposition and Political Firestorm:-
So Zaran Mandani is right now as per the polls leading most likely to win. He has the support of very young people. He has the support of immigrant people. He has the support of Hindus. He has the support of Muslims which make up apparently about a million in in strength in New York. So he is most likely to win. Now the reason why he’s making the British businessmen and the capitalists very nervous is like I said it goes against the idea of New York which is you know it’s not just any city in America. This is the crown of their capitalist economy. So and he has actually publicly said that he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist. He doesn’t believe society should be marked by such extreme inequality. So he’s talked repeatedly about redistribution of wealth, about hikes in taxes, about public ownership.
Muslim Mayors and Trump’s Hostility:-
All of these things that he’s talking about, city-owned grocery stores, rent freezing, free fair buses, all of these things are an open challenge to profit margins, right? They’re an open challenge to real estate investments, to dynamics, to business cost structures. This is not people are not something that people will enjoy. Remember, New York is also the bellweather of global capitalism. So, not only is it the sort of crown jewel of American capitalism, it’s a crown jewel of global capitalism. It sort of leads the way. So, it’s not just any city, it’s a global financial, real estate, media, corporate hub. It’s where their stock market is. It’s their it’s their beating heart of their economy. So, a progressive mayor who’s talking about redistribution of wealth. It sends a signal to the markets to you know business capital to other cities that bold reform is feasible that it’s something that can be done but obviously people who are capitalist are not going to be happy by what he’s suggesting also many democrats are centrists and businessfriendly so Mandani’s sort of insurgent campaign rewrites rules of access and power it’s also not entirely what the democrats have gone after this entire time so It’s really confusing.
A Political Earthquake Within the Democrats:-
You know, he’s also been very open about his stand that is pro Palestine. , he has been so is making a lot of the Jewish citizens apparently of New York will probably vote against him is what we are hearing. But we’ll have to see in terms of nbers what that actually plays out and what that means. Now, here’s the thing. , America’s a two-party system. So you have the Republicans who have always been very conservative. They’re conservative in terms of family values. They’re conservative in terms of religion. They’re conservative in terms of how they do business. And on the other side, you have the Democrats who are liberal. So it’s always been liberal versus conservative. Both sides have always been capitalist. now you have a different sort of left doing a resurgence.
Support from the Young and Working Class:-
Now some of the people who are looking at this are saying could this be a green shoot of a new idea because at the same time you the the Republicans led by Donald Trump at this point have become fairly right in terms of their u you know in terms of the way they look at business in terms of the way they look at capitalism in terms of the way they look at religion and conservatism. So was there room there for the Democrats to become more left rather than just the liberal idea that they were sitting on? And there were a lot of people who felt that the Democrats were not seeming interesting. They didn’t have anything new to offer. They didn’t really have an idea that would take on what Donald Trump was offering. Could not that anyone is saying Mani is going up against Trump at this point, but could it be a suggestion of a different idea if it does in fact work? And that’s the reason why everybody’s looking at it right now because it’s different from what the Democrats have offered up until now.
A Global Ripple Effect:-
So the entire platform of what he’s saying in terms of freezing of rent and giving you groceries without the margins, giving you free buses, giving you free child care, it’s apparently really resonating with the younger voters and working-class voters. Remember, in America right now, you have people who are in their early 20s who feel like their college education was just just took too much money out of their pockets. They’re not able to afford their rent. They’re not able to leave their parents’ houses.Now, his campaign is less tied to a traditional corporate donor network and is looking more at community organizing. So, it’s sort of left it’s it’s stepped out of the playbook of how politics is done in America up till now. So a victory here which signals the heartland of of capitalism would actually maybe send signals across the world and that is something to obviously look at.
A New Kind of American Dream:-
The left on the other hand is about economic equality about redist red dist red dist red dist red dist red dist red dist red dist red dist red dist red distribution of wealth public ownership and the structural change of capitalism itself about these are also sort of ideas that are held by Bernie Sanders by AOC now Zaran Modani they’re talking about more of a democratic socialist so the Scandinavian idea the European idea where everybody pools more in taxes that there isn’t so much of a difference between the very rich and the poor. So it doesn’t matter what job you have, your lifestyle doesn’t change very drastically and the government or the state provides you with a lot of basic necessities to make your life easier. That is the Scandinavian idea and that is what they are actually pushing calling it democratic socialist and not socialism .
Final Thoughts:-
The mainstream of the de of the Democrats, you know, Biden, Obama, Clinton, they are all they’ve always been like liberal. , so they’ve been pro market, they’ve been pro- free market, they are socially progressive, but they’ve always been fiscally very cautious. So they don’t go into this whole publiclyowned idea. , and so the idea of a left sort of movement in the US is new.