How race-baiting against Zohran Mamdani continues an American political tradition

"Terrorist supporter", "antisemite", "foreign invader".

These are just a few of the anti-Muslim racial tropes frequently hurled at Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim-American frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race.

While such overt anti-Muslim racism recalls the rapid surge in Islamophobia after 9/11, race-baiting against religious minorities has a far longer history in American politics.

One need look no further than the grandparents of today's Irish, Italian, and Jewish-American politicians.

The similarities between the anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish race-baiting of a century ago and the rampant anti-Muslim attacks against Mamdani today are glaring.

That they come from members of communities once excluded from politics on account of their Irish, Italian, Jewish or Catholic identities offers another lesson: deploying racism against the newest wave of immigrants has long been the price of entrance into America's political elite.

Rhetorical weapons

When the first Irish American, Al Smith, ran for the US presidency in 1928, American Protestant groups used two familiar rhetorical weapons to defeat him: race-baiting and xenophobia.

Protestant nativists warned that voting for Smith was a vote for the foreign, alien influence of the Pope. The election of a Catholic would mark the beginning of the end for American liberty and Protestantism, according to the Ku Klux Klan.

And, like Irish Americans running for office at the time, La Guardia's Catholic faith made him a target of accusations of loyalty to the Pope rather than to his country of citizenship

A few years later, in 1933, Fiorello Raffaele Enrico La Guardia became the first Italian-American mayor of New York City. As we are witnessing today with Mamdani, the race-baiting against his campaign was systematic and fierce.

"Vote for a Real American, Not a Dago!" was a common slogan peddled by La Guardia's political opponents. Mockery of his distinctively New York City accent (associated with Italian immigrants) painted him as an alien foreigner who threatened American culture.

And, like Irish Americans running for office at the time, La Guardia's Catholic faith made him a target of accusations of loyalty to the Pope rather than to his country of citizenship.

Jewish-American candidates also faced overt antisemitism. Meyer London was among the first Jews elected to the US Congress in 1913, despite enduring antisemitic attacks from his opponents.

His socialist platform appealed to his largely working-class and Jewish constituents on the Lower East Side. Coupled with his immigrant background, London faced similar accusations of disloyalty and of being a foreign radical as those levelled against Mamdani today.

Turning on others

A hundred years ago, Catholics and Jews were race-baited when they entered politics. Today, it is Muslims.

Perversely, it is the descendants of these same minority communities who are now perpetuating xenophobia against the newest immigrants to the US.

Take, for example, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Roman Catholic whose mother is of Italian ancestry, writing in a fundraising email to her New York constituents: "The idea that a self-avowed socialist and Hamas Terrorist sympathizer like Zohran Mamdani could become the next mayor of New York City truly makes me sick." 

Italian-American New York City Councilmember Vickie Paladino also attacked Mamdani, accusing him of hating the US and calling for his deportation.

Both politicians seem to have no qualms about taking the place of the white nativists who, just a century ago, discriminated against their grandparents' Catholic communities and accused them of being tools of the papacy.

Likewise, Jewish-American Congressman Randy Fine has accused Muslims of a global conspiracy, mirroring the antisemitic trope of Jews conspiring to take over America. Fine warned that Mamdani would "do to New York City what Khomeini and Khamenei did to Tehran. We cannot let radical Muslims turn America into a Shia Caliphate."

Fine's Islamophobic statements are comparable to the antisemitic leaflets attacking New York City mayoral candidate Hyman Greenberg in 1962, asking: "Would you want Liberty Avenue to become a Pitkin Avenue every Sunday? We would not."

The reference to Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn, where many Orthodox Jews lived, was an antisemitic warning of a supposed Jewish invasion, mirroring Fine's Islamophobic accusations of a Muslim one.

American rite

Each time a wave of new immigrants arrives to work in jobs undesirable to Americans, establish small businesses and participate civically in their new country, they experience an American rite of passage: xenophobia.

At the turn of the 20th century, mass migration from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe made New York City the most diverse city in the country. Irish Americans, most of whom were immigrants, constituted 20 percent of New York City's population, while Italian Americans accounted for 18 percent. Both groups were Catholic, triggering white Protestant nativism much like that directed against Muslims today.

During the same migration wave, two million Jews fled persecution in Eastern Europe for the United States. Most had settled in New York City, comprising around 30 percent of its population by the 1920s.

It is from this mass migration of Jews, who faced overt antisemitic discrimination for decades, that many of today's Jewish-American politicians and officials descend.

Yet some, such as Stephen Miller, the notorious anti-immigrant senior policy and homeland security adviser, seem to have readily taken up the mantle of American xenophobia against other religious and ethnic minorities.

"NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration," was Miller's response to Mamdani's candidacy and the nearly one million Muslims living in New York City, comprising about 10 percent of all residents.

Equally ironic is Miller's proclaimed concern about discrimination against Jews, as he simultaneously fuels bigotry against Muslims from his powerful perch in the White House.

Breaking the cycle

Despite the massive amounts of money and race-baiting, Mamdani is doing what Jewish and Catholic American candidates before him did under similar circumstances: staying focused on the policies that serve New York City's diverse population while leaning into his immigrant background and Muslim identity.

"I will be a Muslim man in New York City. I will not change who I am. I will not change how I eat. I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to. But there is one thing I will change: I will no longer look for myself in the shadows - I will find myself in the light," he declared.

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To be sure, Mamdani's victory would signify a historic step forward in the gradual ascendance of Muslim Americans into the political elite.

But just as Barack Obama's election to the presidency increased anti-Black racism, the election of Mayor Mamdani will enrage Jewish and Catholic white nativists who perpetuate the politics of exclusion that have long defined America's ruling class.

With each new generation, Muslims will eventually overcome the challenges posed by Islamophobia to enter the political elite, even if it takes longer than it did for their Jewish and Catholic counterparts.

The broader challenge facing all Americans, however, is whether they can break the cycle of systemic race-baiting in politics.

If past is prologue, the prognosis is not promising.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.