From burqa-clad Statue of Liberty to death threats: Mamdani faces Islamophobic attacks after NYC primary win

Supporters of US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement ( MAGA) shared an image of a burqa-clad Statue of Liberty after Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primaries. Mamdani has been facing a barrage of Islamophobic attacks after he won the race against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Soon after Mamdani’s win, MAGA supporters started sharing edited pictures of the Statue of Liberty, taking jibes at the 33-year-old who can become the city’s first Muslim mayor. Joining the crusade was. American far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene shared the digitally altered photograph after a Gujarati-Muslim politician’s win.

This hits hard. pic.twitter.com/YUrNTZW5lq

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) June 25, 2025

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MAGA supporter Don Keith was another right-wing politician who shared the photograph with a mocking caption, “Congratulations, New York”. Apart from this, photographs of Mamdani wearing a kurta and pyjama also circulated on social media with the caption “Never Forget,” which seemed to be referencing the 9/11 attacks by the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001.

After 9/11 we said "Never Forget."

I think we sadly have forgotten. pic.twitter.com/f3iCXKUIRa

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) June 25, 2025

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From Hamas sympathisers to terrorists, Mamdani sees raw Islamophobia

Since winning the primaries, Mamdani’s critics have been hurling all sorts of names against him. “Hamas terrorist sympathiser”, “jihadist terrorist”. Not only this, people are also calling for his deportation, predicting another 9/11. The New York state assembly members have been subjected to death threats and xenophobic rhetoric from prominent Republican figures.

New York City councilwoman Vickie Paladino described him as a “known jihadist terrorist” and “communist” in a radio interview, calling for his deportation despite his American citizenship. Even senior members of the Trump administration are also piling on the racist rhetoric.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, an architect of mass deportations, said: “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.” The New York representative Elise Stefanik, Trump’s one-time pick for UN ambassador, sent fundraising emails branding Mamdani a “Hamas terrorist sympathiser” before the race was even called.

Donald Trump Jr did not shy away from doing the same as well. He amplified a post reading, “I’m old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it,” adding: “New York City has fallen.” However, Mamdani is not the first Muslim politician to face such attacks.

The playbook targeting Mamdani – questioning loyalty, invoking terrorism and weaponising faith – has been deployed against Middle Eastern and Muslim candidates and officials for nearly two decades. “Many of the trends we are seeing mirror common Islamophobic content- Muslims as other and as a threat,” Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) research and advocacy director Corey Saylor told The Guardian. While Mamdani still has a long way to go to be the NYC Mayor, the attacks against him have raised concerns about the revival of Islamophobia in the United States.