On Sunday, March 8, the 19th day of Ramadan, the NYPD Bomb Squad reported that a suspicious device was found in a Honda parked outside of an Upper East Side home. The home is Gracie Mansion, resident of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji.

As Mamdani approaches the mark of his first 100 days in office, and as we approach the end of Ramadan, attacks and criticism regarding Mamdani’s Islamic faith have reached new heights – and are getting closer to him. 

On Saturday, March 7, a group led by pardoned January 6 riot participant Jake Lang, spent the afternoon in front of Gracie Mansion in a protest called “Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City.”

“I’m the first Muslim mayor of our city. Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home,” said Mamdani in a press conference on March 9. “While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen. Ours is a free society where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not belong only to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone. I will defend that right every day that I am mayor, even when those protesting say things that I abhor.”

Lang paraded a live goat around and called it Mamdani’s ‘second wife.’ He brought an entire cooked pig, ridiculing Mamdani to break his fast with it. Lang ultimately abandoned it in front of Effy’s Cafe, a kosher establishment nearby. Meanwhile, his fellow protesters shouted Islamophobic chants. A group of nearly a hundred counterprotesters shouted back, coming up against the NYPD barricades.

Emir Balat and Ibrrahim Kayumi, both teenagers, had traveled to the protest from Pennsylvania. The pair allegedly threw two explosive devices, and federal prosecutors said at least one had cited the terrorist organization ISIS after their arrest. 

“They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference. “Part of our initial investigation was to determine what energetic substance, if any, was used…And our analysis showed that one of the devices deployed by the subjects contained the substance triacetone triperoxide,” a highly volatile and dangerous substance derived from acetone and hydrogen peroxide. 

“I admire Mayor Mamdani and his patience and response to the attack and protest,” said Jasmine Al Rasheed, a graduate student at Columbia University who is part of the Muslims for Health Equity board. “I’m so happy to have a Muslim mayor, but it takes a lot of bravery to be different in today’s environment. I also hate that this attack occurred in Ramadan, but I think it is reflective of the country’s anger right now. Additionally, we are being told the attackers were Muslims connected to ISIS and I feel that this shows how fragmented the Muslim American community is right now. With all the global chaos going on between Iran and Palestine, the Muslim American community does not feel like a united front.”

The protest is just the latest in a string of Islamophobic and xenophobic comments since Mamdani began his run for mayor. 

For The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Action, recent events such as the daycare scandal in Minnesota means having to find new ways to combat Islamophobia. As Executive Director Basim Elkarra told The Polis Project: “During Ramadan, a time when Muslims around the world focus on reflection, service, and compassion, these types of attacks are particularly painful for many in our community. But more importantly, they reinforce a pattern in which Muslim public officials and community members are singled out and vilified simply for who they are.”

During the campaign, his opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s supporters paid for several mailers and advertisements with Islamophobic rhetoric. The candidate went on a conservative radio show and laughed at the idea of Mamdani “cheering” for another attack similar to September 11th. 

Anti-Muslim rhetoric has also been on the rise online, according to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH). The recent U.S. and Israel attack on Iran has added fuel to the fire. Language such as calling Muslims “rats,” “pests,” “vermin,” and “parasites” has been a common pattern detected in such posts. Cuomo’s campaign also included events hosted by Gujarati Samaj of New York, a nonprofit group that has platformed anti-Muslim, Hindu supremacist speakers in the past.

To track this, the CSOH analyzed posts and replies on X by using questions designed to capture dehumanizing language targeting Muslims from January 1 through March 5. CSOH data also revealed a sharp spike in anti-Muslim posts on February 28, the day the US-Israel war on Iran began.

What seems to be the catalyst for the latest wave of hate towards Mamdani in particular is his relationship with President Donald Trump.

Despite strong opposition from MAGA supporters, President Trump has met with the mayor of his hometown twice so far. During their first meeting last fall, Trump and Mamdani discussed the affordability crisis in New York City. In their next meeting held last month, Mamdani focused on building more affordable housing in the city. Perhaps due to Mamdani’s apparent, inherent charm or him bringing the president a custom mock newspaper with Trump’s name in the headline, the relationship between the pair is unexpectedly friendly and warm. While Trump has made his disagreements with many of Mamdani’s policies clear, he has also repeatedly referred to Mamdani as a “nice guy,” including in his State of the Union speech. 

In a since-deleted post on social media, conservative WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg not only called for Trump to stop “complimenting” Mamdani, but also referred to the mayor as an “America-hating, Jew-hating, Radical Islam cockroach running our once beautiful city.” 

Though Rosenberg issued an on-air apology for the comments, Mamdani was not personally sent the apology and said that “time will tell” if it was sincere.

Inside City Hall, Islamophobic attacks target not just Mamdani, but the city’s Muslim residents. Recently, New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino was charged by the Council’s standards and ethics committee last week for social media posts she made last December, where she called for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations” among other Islamophobic sentiments. 

“I think anybody who has the president’s ear that can pull him away from extreme policies is a good thing,” Corey Saylor, CAIR’s research and advocacy director, said. He added: “I would argue that it’s just good advocacy to have some people inside, who can talk directly to the president and hopefully dissuade him from extreme policies. And then some people who are on the outside, who can sue. All of that is done to protect the civil rights of all Americans. So that’s a good approach, and what I’ve seen with Mamdani is that he has not sacrificed his authenticity for that relationship.”

That same day, the Department of Homeland Security arrested Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva, who was released following a conversation between Mamdani and Trump, according to the former’s post on X. With incidents like Aghayeva, or even of graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, this type of pressure and legal involvement is necessary, Saylor said. 

“We see that again and again, the government will make very serious allegations against people, and then bring nothing to court to prove that,” Saylor said. “So litigation has worked and then public pressure also remains a tool for pushing back.”

“So the language that we’re seeing, certainly good to retract, but it can lead to the type of dehumanization necessary for these extreme policies, such as people wanting to ban the practice of the world’s second largest religion from the United States,” Saylor said.

“I am not ashamed of who I am,” Mamdani said. “I am not ashamed of my faith. I am not ashamed of being the first Muslim mayor in the history of our city. And there’s no amount of racism that will change that I lead or the commitment that I hold to each and every New Yorker in this city.”