Young Muslims loved Zohran Mamdani, and their parents listened to them Many Muslim Americans in New York City were impressed by Mr. Mamdani’s campaign and thrilled at being able to see themselves reflected in a mayoral candidate.

(NY Times) It was late in the afternoon on Tuesday, and Bilquees Akhtar was still at work as an assistant to the principal of EPIC High School North in Richmond Hill, Queens. Suddenly her phone exploded with text messages and DMs on Instagram and TikTok from her five adult children. Each of them had already cast a vote for Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.

“MOM, WHY ARE YOU STILL AT WORK?” Ms. Akhtar’s 24-year-old son, Humza Mehfuz, wrote to her. “YOU HAVE TO VOTE!”

While Ms. Akhtar had previously supported Mr. Mamdani’s main opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo, when he ran for governor and, years before that, had voted for his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, she told her children to calm down. After their relentless campaign of showing her TikTok videos of Mr. Mamdani — “This kid is brilliant,” she had to admit, “and so friendly!” — she had made her decision.

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