(Religion News) On June 5, at the historic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York’s mayoral candidates were invited by an interfaith panel of religious leaders to discuss their visions for the city and its religious communities.
Only four candidates of the June 24 Democratic primary had responded to the invitation — Jim Walden, Michael Blake, Scott Stringer and Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a 33-year-old state legislator and Muslim Indian immigrant whose core campaign issue was making New York a more affordable place to live. (Jim Walden is running as an independent.)
Asked about his plans to tackle religious divisions in the city, Mamdani discussed his own experience facing Islamophobia after 9/11. “It’s a fear that I remember all too well as a young Muslim man growing up in New York City. My aunt, who was a doctor and who wears a hijab, felt like she could not exist in public life anymore,” he said.
