accused by Cuomo as others<\/a> of radical beliefs.<\/p>\nBut those attacks have amped up in recent days, drawing allegations from some Democrats that Cuomo\u2019s campaign is leaning into Islamophobia in the final stretch of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Appearing on a conservative radio station Thursday, Cuomo appeared to laugh along at the host\u2019s suggestion that Mamdani would \u201cbe cheering\u201d another 9\/11 attack. \u201cThat\u2019s another problem,\u201d Cuomo replied.<\/p>\n
Hours later, at an event endorsing the former governor, Mayor Eric Adams invoked the possibility of terrorist attacks in New York City, seeming to suggest \u2014 without explanation \u2014 they would be more likely under a Mamdani administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York can\u2019t be Europe. I don\u2019t know what is wrong with people,\u201d Adams said, standing alongside Cuomo. \u201cYou see what\u2019s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a debate earlier this week, Sliwa, the Republican candidate, falsely smeared Mamdani as a supporter of \u201cglobal jihad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messages left with Adams’ and Sliwa’s campaign were not immediately returned. A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said the former governor did not agree with the radio host’s comments.<\/p>\n
While Mamdani alluded to the recent attacks on Friday, he aimed his speech at his fellow Muslim New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that, and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive.”<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To that end, Mamdani said he would further embrace his Muslim identity, a decision he said he consciously avoided at the start of his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that if I behaved well enough, or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cI was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI will not change who I am, how I eat, for the faith that I\u2019m proud to call my own. But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who won the primary in stunning fashion, has faced skepticism from some in the Democratic establishment, particularly over his criticism<\/a> of Israel, which he has accused of committing genocide in Gaza. On Friday, Mamdani earned the endorsement of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\nCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, pledged Friday to further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,11260,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-15426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-national_news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}