By: Ameena Khan
On Aug. 13, democratic socialist and future mayor-elect of New York City (NYC) Zohran Mamdani would arrive at Staten Island (SI), “which too often has been caricatured or ignored,” according to Mamdani, during his “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour.
With the tour aiming to highlight President Trump’s failing administration and boost campaigning for Mamdani, a group of angry anti-Mamdani and pro-Trump protestors would raid a restaurant within the “heart of NYC’s trump country,” as described by reporter Melissa Russo, where the event was being held. Numerous political banners and hateful speech were shared by the protesters, including anti-immigrant sentiments.
“It saddens me to hear the language of being told to go back where I came from,” Zohran Mamdani comments as a result of the protest. “And yet it is not surprising because it is so much of what characterizes President Trump’s politics.”
And as a Staten Islander myself who, like Mamdani, is a Muslim of South Asian descent and child of immigrant parents living in NYC, I couldn’t agree more.
Watching the media report this incident and reading all the blatantly racist and Islamophobic comments directed at the South Asian Muslim candidate for mayor filled me with frustration.
Like Mamdani, it was saddening yet not surprising, because this was the everyday life and reality for brown immigrant Muslims like us living in NYC.
Scrolling on my phone, I would look at the Staten Island Advance post’s comment section and constantly see remarks such as “Looks like New York City forgot about 9/11,” and gifs of the Twin Towers under posts regarding Mamdani.
Did these people still really believe in 2025 that people like him and me were entirely responsible for the terrorist attacks by an extremist group with their own ideology that does not represent Islam? I knew this would just be the beginning of the absolute bigotry and hypocrisy I have seen from my borough during the NYC mayoral race and election.
That same night, as if on cue, I received a text and email from Team Zohran, from when I subscribed to join Mamdani’s campaign a month ago after learning about him, and had almost forgotten. There was going to be a canvassing event the following Sunday, on Aug. 17, at noon in SI at St. George in the North Shore. Looking at the message on my laptop and the angry SI protestors shouting hateful words on my phone, I took it as a sign, a step forward, inviting me to challenge the political climate of my conservative, republican borough.
Canvassing was a great opportunity not only to further engage with my community and with politics, but also to educate others, reach out to them, and listen to their concerns.
“I didn’t vote in the last [Presidential] election; it’s all a scam,” one resident had told us when we had asked if they were informed about the election.
In SI, North Shore residents are mainly a democratic, more diverse urban population. Compared to the older South Shore residents, who lean towards a predominantly white population with republican values.
Interestingly enough, unlike the South Shore residents in my area, who have been spreading misinformation and discriminatory rhetoric regarding Zohran Mamdani, the St. George residents were patient, interested, and listened to us, expressing support and discussing his policies and promises to NYC’s citizens.
If people wanted to criticize and question the democratic socialists’ policies and ideas, they had every right to do so. I do not have an issue with criticizing him, even though I have personal concerns about him, as no politician, human in fact, is above criticism. However, if these people were going to spew blatant lies and accusatory comments with no basis and rooted in bigotry, then of course, there’s going to be a problem.
After all, not only is it fear-mongering, disinformation, filled with racism and Islamophobia towards Zohran Mamdani, but it also normalizes a rise in hatred and discrimination against those who share the same background or identities.
“And I know that though there are Staten Islanders who are passionate in their support for Donald Trump, there are some of those who voted for both of us,” Mamdani stated at his SI Tour stop. Empathetically expressing. “And I do not blame them because what they may have heard is a through line in just how suffocating this cost of living is.”
The Staten Island Advance proclaimed the borough as the “Lone Borough against Mamdani,” during Zohran Mamdani’s win as mayor-elect in November 2025.
Additionally, Tom Wrobleski, senior opinion writer of the Advance, remarks that it is “not an outcome that most Staten Islanders wanted.”
The issue with SI lies within Mamdani’s own words: we have been way too “caricatured and ignored.”
Mamdani speaks for Staten Islanders, including myself, when he says: “[…] despite the caricatures of this island and this borough, we know that progressive ideas have a home here just like so many others.”
However, if SI wants to be heard, Staten Islanders as a whole must deconstruct their own prejudiced bias and engage their concerns and criticism to Mamdani in civil conversations, rather than aggressive protests and threats of deportation.