Mamdani’s victory also repudiated the Islamophobia of U.S. politics – Mondoweiss

When the polls closed in New York City, announcing Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nominee for mayor, the outcome was never supposed to look like this.

For months, Zohran Mamdani’s opponents tried to reduce his candidacy to a caricature. They darkened his skin in campaign ads and sharpened his beard. They flooded the city with rhetoric that collapsed criticism of Israeli apartheid into accusations of antisemitism. They leaned on the same script that for decades has cast Muslims…