Two days back, London Mayor Sadiq Khan shared his thoughts on Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral win in New York, in Time Magazine.
“I’ve never defined myself as a Muslim politician, but rather as a politician who happens to be a Muslim. My decision to run for Mayor of London was motivated by one thing alone: my determination to improve the lives of people in my city. During my first mayoral election campaign, I promised to be a mayor for all Londoners. Yet time and again, rival candidates sought to define me solely by my faith.”
“Days before I was elected, my main opponent even penned a newspaper article accusing me of being friends with terrorists, accompanied by an image of a double-decker bus destroyed by the horrific 7/7 London bombings”, he wrote.
When Sadiq Khan congratulated NYC’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, saying that New Yorkers had “chosen hope over fear, unity over division,” the gesture carried more than just goodwill between two leaders.
Khan, London’s mayor since 2016, and Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democrat who defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election, represent different generations and different political instincts. Yet their rise and the backlash they face traced remarkably similar contours.
As The New York Times observed, “both have been thrust into prominence — and sometimes attacked in the same breath — as they navigate the nationalist and xenophobic movements that have built across the US, Europe and beyond. Both have had to increase their personal protection in response to the threats.”
In 2016, Khan became mayor of London as Britain voted to leave the European Union.
That same year, Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign inspired Mamdani and a wave of young progressives to embrace democratic socialism in the US.
Since then, the two have lived in separate political worlds.
Khan, a centrist establishment figure of the UK’s Labour Party, and Mamdani, a democratic socialist who energised New York’s younger, Left-leaning electorate.
Khan, 55, rose from public housing in south London, the son of a Pakistani bus driver and a seamstress. He became a human rights lawyer before entering Parliament, representing the area where he grew up.
Mamdani, born in Uganda to Indian parents, anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair moved to New York at age seven and worked as an adviser for tenants facing eviction before entering politics in 2020.
Both men’s personal stories are woven into their political identities.
Khan calls himself “a proud Brit, a proud Englishman, a proud Londoner and a proud Muslim.”
Mamdani vowed during his campaign, “I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own.”
Their faith and how others weaponise it has been central to both their public lives.
Khan’s Conservative rival in 2016, Zac Goldsmith, was accused of anti-Muslim prejudice for suggesting that Khan had ties to extremists.
Mamdani’s critics said similar things: Cuomo laughed along with a radio host who suggested Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack, while Republicans frequently, and falsely, branded him a “jihadist” and “Hamas supporter.”
Donald Trump has been one of the loudest voices against both mayors. He has called Khan a “stone cold loser,” a “nasty person,” and a “terrible mayor,” even claiming he wanted to bring Sharia law to London.
And the president labelled Mamdani a “pure communist.”
In his article for Time Magazine, Sadiq Khan has now given an answer to these hate speeches.
“It is hard not to read these outlandish claims as a symptom of a deepening fear among President Trump and his allies that, in places like London and New York, this form of toxic politics does not work. The fact that both cities now have Mayors who are also Muslim is extraordinary, but—in two of the most diverse cities on Earth—it’s a bit beside the point. We did not win because of our faith. We won because we addressed voters’ concerns, rather than playing on them”, he wrote.
Khan’s record includes free school meals for all primary pupils, a freeze on transit fares, and his environmental policy: expanding London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, which charges polluting vehicles a daily fee.
Mamdani’s platform has been promising free childcare, free buses, affordable housing, and city-run grocery stores.
Matthew McGregor, CEO of the London-based think tank 38 Degrees, told The Times, “We’re in a moment of populist, far-Right uprising in both countries. And the centre Left has had the stuffing knocked out of them. Sadiq and Zohran are unusual and inspiring in how they are using their cities’ power to drive progress forward.”