WARNING: Anti-Muslim Hate & Islamophobia Is Skyrocketing

Zohran Mamdani's primary election win has unleashed anti-Muslim hate—and we need to be ready to fight back with justice

The ink has barely dried on Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City—and already, the coordinated Islamophobia machine is kicking into overdrive. If you thought the post-9/11 era or the 2011 “Shariah law scare” were the peak of anti-Muslim hysteria in America, I regret to inform you: we’re about to surpass it. Let’s Address This.

Zohran Mamdani (Left) and Brad Lander (Center)

Donald Trump wasted no time unleashing a bigoted tirade against Mamdani—a U.S. citizen, an elected official, and now a front-running mayoral candidate. This is not new for Trump, a man whose entire political career is built on white grievance and manufactured Muslim threats. But what is especially insidious—and what corporate media refuses to acknowledge—is that every racist thing Trump has said about Mamdani has already been said by Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and billionaire Cuomo donor Whitney Tilson.

Tilson’s smear campaign against Mamdani was one of the most vile in recent memory. He peddled grotesque Islamophobic ads falsely accusing Mamdani of wanting to kill Jews—an outrageous and dangerous lie with echoes of 20th-century blood libel propaganda. And the New York Times—with full knowledge of these attacks—endorsed Tilson anyway. What signal does that send to Muslim Americans across this country?

Let’s be clear: Democrats will not defeat Trumpism by acting like Trump. You cannot denounce white supremacy at brunch and then endorse it at the ballot box. Islamophobia is not just a Republican problem—it is deeply embedded in bipartisan political strategy, media narratives, and donor influence. And it is used, always, to protect the status quo and vilify anyone who challenges concentrated wealth and power—especially if they are brown, Muslim, and unapologetically working-class.

Now that Mamdani has prevailed, the billionaires who bankrolled Cuomo’s failed comeback have already pledged to spend even more to defeat him in the general. And right-wing outlets are following suit. Stephen Miller—the architect of Trump’s Muslim Ban—shared a tweet suggesting Mamdani’s mere election proves “the warning of failed immigration.” Imagine saying this about the city that literally has the Statue of Liberty calling on the world to send us its immigrants.

Meanwhile, mega MAGA cultist Charlie Kirk spouts hate so deranged it borders on parody. He wants us to panic over one Muslim mayor while ignoring the fact that white Christian men have killed 8,842 Americans in just the last year. Since 1865, over 5,000 Black Americans (conservatively) have been lynched and murdered by white supremacist groups like the KKK—groups that proudly self-identify as “Christian.”

By Charlie Kirk logic, should all white Christians be banned from politics? This isn’t just stupidity. It’s strategy. And for those who doubt that the KKK self-identifies as Christian, let the KKK disabuse you of that notion.

Again, I share this not because I think anything the KKK does is Christ-like, but to point out the absurdity of maligning the masses due to the extremism of the few. If we can recognize that 150 years of white supremacist KKK terrorism does not represent white people, surely anyone with a functioning frontal cortex can recognize that 19 hijackers don’t represent 1.6B Muslims.

Speaker Mike Johnson has now joined the chorus, describing Mamdani as “radical”—language lifted straight from the Bush-Cheney playbook used to justify illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That dehumanizing rhetoric isn’t just about polling. It’s about giving MAGA extremists permission to escalate from hate speech to hate crimes.

I was 19 years old when 9/11 happened. I remember what it felt like to walk through airports and classrooms with eyes following me. I remember the spike in hate crimes. I remember how silence became complicity. But I didn’t have the platform then that I do now. Today, I plan to use this platform to demand humanity, demand justice, and demand accountability of those who do wrong.

And I know I’m not alone. Zohran Mamdani’s win is proof that the American people—Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers, everyone—are ready for bold, just leadership—not bought-and-paid-for puppets of billionaire interests. But the road ahead will be rough. The backlash will be real. And the lies will multiply.

So we fight back.

We stand in solidarity with Zohran.

We call out Islamophobia from all sides, not just the GOP.

We recognize that the MAGA movement is no longer a political party—it’s a white supremacist cult. And we act accordingly.

The time is now. I ask you to stand with me. Subscribe. Share this message. Speak out at your schools, workplaces, churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. The only way hate wins is if we let it go unchallenged. The only way we win is if we keep showing up.

Let’s get to work.