The Rev. Al Sharpton blasted what he called Islamophobic hate speech in the city’s race for mayor as Muslim Democratic frontrunner Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani made a campaign stop in Harlem on Saturday, claiming divisive language will only pit New Yorkers “against each other.”
“I am outraged at the ugly Islamophobia that has been used in this campaign,” Sharpton told members of the National Action Network at the House of Justice in Harlem with Mamdani by his side. “To act as though every Muslim is a terrorist and connecting (him) to something as ugly as what happened to us on 9/11 is an insult to the intelligence of all New Yorkers.”
During his speech, Sharpton introduced the audience to Rev. Travis Boyd, the pastor of Sharon Baptist Church in the Bronx. Boyd’s mother was killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, when Boyd was just a child.
“That little boy, who was a victim of 9/11, says that you can’t use my mother’s death as a political prize,” Sharpton said, turning to Boyd.
“Who you gonna vote for Tuesday?” Sharpton asked him.
“Mamdani,” Boyd said to a round of applause from the audience.
The National Action Network doesn’t endorse political candidates, but Sharpton spoke warmly about Mamdani as the assemblyman tries to court Black voters. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent in the mayoral race, addressed NAN at its national convention and has been invited to be on Sharpton’s show on Sunday.
The race for mayor — in which Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, is the front-runner, according to polls — has been laced with Islamophobic phrases and imagery, the Queens assemblyman and his supporters claim.
Last month, Cuomo appeared to chuckle when conservative radio personality Sid Rosenberg said that Mamdani would be “cheering” another 9/11.
Mamdani immediately lashed out at his opponent’s reaction, saying Cuomo’s goal was to “smear and slander.”
“Don’t play us against each other,” Sharpton warned Saturday as the heated race enters its last three days.
During a campaign stop with Mayor Adams in Queens, Cuomo said it’s actually Mamdani who has been the most divisive one in the race.
“He has been divisive and offensive throughout this whole campaign,” Cuomo said. “And pointing out that he has been offensive doesn’t make me the offender.”
“There’s a long list of offensive things he has said,” Cuomo said. “Not denouncing ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ which means ‘kill the Jews.’ Not recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. These are highly offensive to the Jewish community. Giving the proverbial finger to the Christopher Columbus statue is highly offensive to the Italian American community. Calling the NYPD racist. That’s offensive to the NYPD.
“Calling Barack Obama evil and a liar — evil and a liar. Barack Obama — first Black president, to call him evil and a liar,” Cuomo went on. “And you want to talk about tone? After you use those words, you take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga in Uganda — smiling. She proposed the death penalty for gays. And you want to talk about offending people? I mean, there’s a long list of offensive things he has said. How about the video with him saying, ‘When the NYPD has its boot on your throat, it was laced by the IDF’?”
“I resent the divisiveness,” the ex-governor said, “because what makes the city work is unity and bringing people together.”
Mamdani said that Islamophobic rhetoric surfacing from supporters of Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa was “desperate.”
“It is still so unbecoming of a city that we all love and that we call our home,” Mamdani said Saturday. “This kind of naked bigotry and racism is something that many of us have come to expect from Washington, D.C. But to see someone so unabashedly running on that same kind of a vision for this city is the same person who does not know what the people of the city are looking for.”
Following his visit to NAN, Mamdani traveled to Brooklyn where he met up with state Attorney General Tish James and spoke to members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in downtown Brooklyn.
With three days to go until the next leader of the city is decided, Mamdani leads the pack of candidates, according to most polls — although one poll released Friday night shows Cuomo catching up and well withing striking distance.
Sharpton said Mamdani was the only mayoral candidate that consistently “showed up” to NAN events as the campaign drew on.
“(When) we got down the road, we said, ‘It’s time for us to march on Wall Street.’ Only one candidate showed,” Sharpton said. “When we honored our culture at Lincoln Center just about a month and a half ago, honoring Stephanie Mills and honoring Babyface and others, only one showed. Here we are on Saturday. It’s the Saturday before Election Day, only one candidate showed up.”
“This is not just a campaign stop,” Sharpton said. “He’s been here.”
Mamdani thanked Sharpton and NAN for taking him “from 1% in the polls to being on the precipice to being the next mayor.”
“You have shown a belief (in me),” he said. “You have shown a faith.”
