Mamdani’s stunning victory in New York will have ramifications beyond the Big Apple, writes Humza Yousaf

In what I suspect will long be remembered as a turning point in US politics, Mamdani has risen from virtual obscurity to become the face of a progressive renewal in the Democratic party.

It is worth noting that when Mamdani launched his primary campaign, reports described him as having barely 1% support in the polls, underscoring the magnitude of what has just been achieved.

He ran a campaign grounded in a progressive vision for ordinary New Yorkers, describing himself as a democratic socialist.

Mamdani’s bold policy agenda - free public buses, rent-freezes, universal childcare, city-owned grocery stores, taxing the wealthy - was unapologetically radical. This is the oxygen progressive Democrats, people like Mamdani, AOC and Bernie Sanders, have brought to the Party. They are breathing new life into a party that has been withering on the vine after Kamala Harris’s ill-fated, listless and lethargic Presidential campaign last year.

It is quite remarkable, we live in a time when two of the world’s great cities, London and New York, now have progressive Muslim mayors. That fact should not be treated as an anomaly or a threat. It should be celebrated as a blueprint for progress in the 21st century and speaks to the strength of inclusive, civic, multiracial, and forward-looking nations

And yet, New York’s Mayoral election was also a stark reminder of how precarious representation remains. Whenever Muslims choose to put their head above the parapet, whenever they decide to participate in public life, anti-Muslim hatred rears its ugly head.

In Mamdani’s case, the hate didn’t come from anonymous keyboard warriors, instead it came directly from senior sitting members of Congress and established media platforms.

Just take the awful Ted Cruz meme on X calling Mamdani a "communist jihadi," or Mamdani’s scandal-ridden opponent Andrew Cuomo, who laughed in agreement when a radio host suggested Mamdani would celebrate another 9/11 in New York.

The same Andrew Cuomo whose team deliberately darkened and enlarged Mamdani’s beard on their campaign literature.

Of course, Mamdani has never supported terrorism, in fact quite the opposite. But for many, those facts are beside the point.

Shouting “terrorist” or “jihadi” at a Muslim who dares stand for public office is the equivalent of the medieval blood libel directed at Jews in Europe. It plays on people’s worst fears and tries to suggest disloyalty and a dark ulterior motive, where none exists.

Mamdani and his London counterpart, Sadiq Khan, were not elected because they are Muslim. They were elected because of competence, the refusal to settle for fear and division, and their pride in being progressive politicians who love their home cities.

For all the talk of being an Islamic extremist, it is worth noting on the very day Mamdani’s campaign ended in Papi Juice, a gay bar in Brooklyn, his detractors were still trafficking in Islamophobic tropes. That ought to tell you everything you need to know about the veracity of the claims made by his hate-filled critics.

It is the sad reality that Muslim politicians who dare to stand for elected office, and have the audacity to win, face a barrage of racism and Islamophobia throughout their careers. I know it from personal experience, and so do others such as Ilhan Omar, Sadiq Khan and Zarah Sultana among them.

Over recent years we have seen the rise of the “Schrödinger’s racist” - the far-right bigot who demands Muslims integrate, and then when we do, when we stand for election, when we succeed, we are accused of taking over.

There is little doubt about the scale of fear Muslims have during these perilous times. Rampant Islamophobia now includes attempted arson at mosques, children’s graves desecrated and violent assaults on Muslim men and women.

Some of the media coverage and political discourse of Muslims today echoes the vile antisemitism Europe witnessed during the 1920s and 1930s. If left unchecked, the consequences could be devastating not just for Muslims but for democracy itself.

And yet, for now there is hope. That hope is shining from the torch of the Statue of Liberty in New York, and the name of that hope is Zohran Mamdani.

He stands not as a token but as a testament to what happens when progressive, courageous voices refuse to be silenced. His victory shows that politics of inclusion, vision, competence and bravery can still win. It is a victory for New York, for the Democratic Party and for all those who believe in the dignity of our shared civic life.

And therein, there is a lesson for all progressives. The politics of hope can triumph over fear.

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Humza Yousaf MSP is the former First Minister of Scotland, and the first Muslim Leader of a majority non-Muslim nation in the West.

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