When the crescent moon rises on Tuesday evening, more than half a million observant Muslims in New York City will mark the beginning of Ramadan, considered the holiest month in Islam.
Joining them will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Every year, the world’s nearly two billion Muslims celebrate Ramadan through fasting, prayer, reflection and service. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, in which observers refrain from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. They break their fasts with a large evening meal, or iftar, with family and other members of their community.
Mr. Mamdani has had to incorporate observing Ramadan into the rhythms of public life since joining the New York State Assembly in 2021 — sometimes in very public fashion, especially during his mayoral campaign last year.
At the end of a day of campaigning last March, he posted a photo of himself breaking the fast by eating a burrito on the Q train — an image that drew more than one million views and spawned a debate on social media.
But this Ramadan is likely to look very different for Mr. Mamdani, coming against the backdrop of a jam-packed City Hall schedule and the exhausting everyday demands of leading the nation’s largest city.
In the early days of the month, he will host iftar dinners with firefighters, delivery drivers and other working Muslims in the city, part of a strategy to focus on the service projects and community outreach that define the principles of Ramadan, his senior aide Zara Rahim said.
Mr. Mamdani will fast while giving speeches, traveling across the city and greeting constituents without so much as a snack or a sip of water. He will break his fast at a handful of his favorite local restaurants throughout the weeks, and his office will support meal distribution efforts that some mosques with large migrant populations are leading, Ms. Rahim said.
The mayor will also incorporate much of his campaign’s Ramadan strategy into his daily governing style. He is expected to film a few Ramadan-related videos, and his team is planning specific outreach to the city’s West African, South Asian and Middle Eastern Muslim communities in an effort to showcase the diverse backgrounds of the city’s Muslims.
The schedule of fasting while working as mayor will be a major change in routine for Mr. Mamdani, who has spoken about waking up just before sunrise during previous Ramadans to have a quick snack before starting his day as an organizer or assemblyman. Now, his days are much longer, and early-morning meals and post-sunset dinners will be worked into his governing schedule. (The shorter days of the last few weeks of winter may make the time without food or drink a bit more bearable, Ms. Rahim noted.)
Muslim members of Mr. Mamdani’s administration will also join him in observing Ramadan and play a role in how he publicly marks it.
During his first Ramadan as mayor, Mr. Mamdani will have an outsize platform to provide a look at the Muslim cultural experience in New York City.
The month comes at yet another somber season for many of the city’s Muslims, as both domestic and global politics have roiled their communities. The Israel-Hamas war and destruction of the Gaza Strip have forced many Palestinians to celebrate among the ruins of their homes as others across the diaspora have felt helpless to aid them. Ramadan also comes at a particularly fraught time for Muslim immigrants, who fear being targeted by federal agents while gathering for prayers or iftar dinners.
But allies of Mr. Mamdani are hoping this year’s Ramadan could inspire more pride among the city’s Muslims, who, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, have had to contend with heightened surveillance, harassment and increased Islamophobia. That includes Mr. Mamdani, who faced an onslaught of faith- and ethnicity-based attacks during the mayoral campaign, and has expressed concern that the current political climate has made Muslim New Yorkers less safe.
But for Mr. Mamdani, this period of piety as mayor could present the opportunity to showcase the realities of fasting and living one’s faith as a political leader.
“There’s the physical aspect, but there’s also the emotional and spiritual aspect during the month of Ramadan,” said Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer, the executive director of the Islamic Center at New York University. “In a role like the mayor’s, it’s another layer of stress. But perhaps it could be a source of support.”
More than 20 percent of America’s Muslims live in New York City, according to an analysis from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Past mayors have marked Ramadan with events or proclamations that have served as overtures to the city’s Muslim communities. Michael R. Bloomberg hosted iftar dinners at Gracie Mansion and defended the construction of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan in 2010. Bill de Blasio allowed the city’s public schools to close in recognition of two of the highest Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. Eric Adams hosted Ramadan celebrations in each of the five boroughs.
For the several hundred thousand Muslim New Yorkers also observing Ramadan in their workplaces, groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations will offer support and anti-discrimination advocacy.
It is not Mr. Mamdani’s first time organizing around Ramadan. When the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 kept people from gathering and increased food insecurity among many Muslims in the city who had lost their jobs, the mayor, then a housing organizer, set up a food distribution program in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. His efforts, which he made during his first campaign for the State Assembly, raised more than $50,000 to buy and distribute food from businesses in the area.
He has already made clear this year that Ramadan has been on his mind. During an address to state lawmakers in Albany last week to make his pitch for budget items, Mr. Mamdani said he would release details of his preliminary budget on Tuesday, noting that it would be the first day of Ramadan.
“It’s a great way to start it,” he said.
Maya King is a Times reporter covering New York politics.
The post Mamdani Ushers in a New Tradition: Ramadan in City Hall appeared first on New York Times.
