{"id":56361,"date":"2025-07-05T22:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T02:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56361"},"modified":"2025-07-05T22:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T02:06:20","slug":"demonising-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56361","title":{"rendered":"Demonising Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nJune 28, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>I arrived in New York on Thursday. The cooling breeze was welcomed. It was not as hot as Tuesday when New York City\u2019s JFK airport reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature recorded since 2013, while Central Park \u201cbroke a record set all the way back in 1888\u201d. (June 23, New York Daily News.)<\/p>\n

However, the weather on Tuesday did not prepare New Yorkers for the political tsunami that disrupted the city that day. Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a Muslim of Uganda heritage, defeated Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York State and a scion of a prominent New York political family, in the Democratic primary for mayor.
\n
\nMamdani\u2019s victory shocked New York City\u2019s Jewish population of approximately 2,109,300 people, the home of the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. In 2011, according to the UJA-Federation of New York, \u201cThe five boroughs of New York proper was home to 1,086,000 Jews, representing 13% of the city\u2019s population.\u201d Jews are about 13% of New York\u2019s 4.6 million active voters. As many as one in five Jewish Democrats voted for Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Mamdani attracted special attention because he is a Muslim and democratic socialist. The Associated Press described him as \u201ca young progressive upstart who was virtually unknown when the contest began…He has been a member of the State Assembly since 2021. [If] elected mayor, he would be the first Muslim and Indian mayor [of the city]\u201d. (Quoted in Express, June 26.)<\/p>\n

Mamdani offered an optimistic message to many New Yorkers, particularly the younger ones. He wants to make the city affordable for those people who are suffering from the enormous cost of living in New York. He argued that \u201caffordability has become perhaps the most important issue on voters\u2019 minds, as rents remain historically high, while the costs of other essentials, including groceries, have surged as well.\u201d (New York Daily News, June 26.)<\/p>\n

Mamdani promises to freeze rents for stabilised tenants, make public buses free, and drastically expand subsidised child care. Such a programme appealed to many poor Americans who suffer from these economic burdens. Many black Americans voted for Cuomo although many others left the city for more affordable urban and rural destinations.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s victory unearthed a great fear among New York Jews and those in the larger society. Katie Glueck and Lisa Lerer bemoaned: \u201cNow, as Israel\u2019s standing in the United States has fallen precipitously since the Gaza war, New York City Democrats appear likely to nominate a mayoral candidate who does not shy away from his record of anti-Israel activism, underlining an extraordinary departure from past mayors and from current Democratic leadership in Washington.\u201d (The New York Times, June 27.)<\/p>\n

Glueck and Lerer also expressed the anxieties of their people: \u201cZohran Mamdani\u2019s success in the city…offered the starkest evidence yet that outspoken opposition to Israel and its government—and even questioning its existence as a Jewish state—is increasingly acceptable to broader swathes in the party, even in areas where pro-Israel Jews have been a bedrock part of the Democratic party.\u201d (The New York Times, June 27.)<\/p>\n

Bill Ackman, a Jewish billionaire fund manager, predicted \u201cNew York City under Mamdani is about to become much more dangerous and economically unviable…Socialism has no place in the capital of our country.\u201d (Financial Times, June 28.) He promised to finance a more centrist candidate to challenge Mamdani. A Muslim of socialist persuasion should not become New York\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n

Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have demonised Mamdani. They have called him \u201ca hate figure\u201d and a \u201cdangerous radical\u201d, while Wall Street financiers say, \u201cHis populist policies will trigger a stampede of capital out of New York.\u201d (FT, June 28.)<\/p>\n

Many Jewish leaders are infuriated by his refusal to condemn the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d. He has called Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza \u201cgenocide\u201d. When pressed about Israel\u2019s right to exist, he responded that Israel \u201chas a right to exist and a responsibility, also to uphold international law\u201d. (June 27, NYT.) Such a response irks many conservative Jews to madness.<\/p>\n

Mamdani is a breath of fresh air to American politics. The Times of India reminds us that at the heart of Zohran\u2019s legacy \u201cstands his father, Mahmood Mamdani, a political thinker shaped by exile, rooted in anti-colonial critique, and internationally renowned for shaping how the world understands state authority and post-colonial governance\u201d. (June 25.)<\/p>\n

Most of us were required to read Mahmood\u2019s book, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. This may be one reason why he named his son after Kwame Nkrumah, the great African revolutionary and first prime minister of Ghana.<\/p>\n

No matter how those on the right try to disparage Mahmood\u2019s son, we should all wish him well in the forthcoming New York mayoral election. It\u2019s the progressive thing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe June 28, 2025 I arrived in New York on Thursday. The cooling breeze was welcomed. It was not as hot as Tuesday when New York City\u2019s JFK airport reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature recorded since 2013, while Central Park \u201cbroke a record set all the way back in … Continue reading Demonising Mamdani<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,39],"tags":[171,1766],"class_list":["post-56361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-usa","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-zohran-kwame-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56362,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56361\/revisions\/56362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}