Democratic Party leaders should get behind Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders urged even as anti-Muslim online posts targeting the New York City mayoral candidate surged.
The influential US senator from Vermont said Mamdani is just what the Democrats need.
“Democratic Party Leaders: You have talked for six months about the need to create political excitement to get working class and young people involved in the political process. That’s exactly what Zohran did. Get behind him,” Sanders posted on his X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
Anti-Muslim online posts targeting Mamdani have surged since his Democratic primary upset this week, including death threats and comments comparing his candidacy to the September 11, 2001 attacks, advocates said on Friday.
There were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign in the day after polls closed, said CAIR Action, an arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group, which logs such incidents.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist and a 33-year-old state lawmaker, declared victory in Tuesday's primary after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat.
Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim and Indian-American mayor if he wins the November general election.
About 62 per cent of the anti-Muslim posts against Mamdani originated on X, CAIR Action said.
People close to Republican President Donald Trump, including one of his sons, are among those spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric, advocates said.
Donald Trump Jr, the President's son, wrote on X on Wednesday that "New York City has fallen" while sharing a post that said New Yorkers had "voted for" 9/11. Also on Wednesday, Republican US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted an AI-generated picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burqa.
The New York City Police Department said earlier this month its hate crime unit was probing anti-Muslim threats against Mamdani.
Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, which documents hate against Asian Americans, and CAIR said attacks against Mamdani mirrored those endured by other South Asian and Muslim political figures, including former vice president Kamala Harris and US representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
Muslim-American members of the US Congress Rashida Tlaib, !than Omar, Andre Carson and Lateefah Simon released a joint statement on Friday calling “vile, anti-Muslim, racist attacks,” on” Mamdani.
"The vile, anti-Muslim, and racist smears from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle attacking Zohran Mamdani cannot be met with silence,” they said.
"These hateful, Islamophobic, and racist tropes have become so entrenched and normalized in our politics. We know these attacks all too well. At a time of increased violence against elected officials, we cannot allow the attacks on Zohran Mamdani to continue. They directly contribute to the ongoing dehumanization and violence against Muslim Americans. We unequivocally reject the normalization of anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering and call on elected leaders across our country to speak out."
Republicans have called Mamdani antisemitic, citing his pro-Palestinian advocacy and his criticism of Israel's military assault on Gaza after an attack by Hamas militants in October 2023.
Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and has the backing of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish. Lander also ran in the Democratic primary.
Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitism and Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, with fatal US incidents including the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington and the stabbing of a Muslim child in Illinois.
Mamdani and other Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, said their criticism of Israel is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.