On Tuesday night, not a seat was empty at Moka & Co., a coffee shop nestled among the halal takeout restaurants and Yemeni cafes that line the streets of Astoria, Queens.
Hundreds of people had crowded into the shop an hour before polls closed for an Election Night watch party hosted by the Muslim Democratic Club of New York and several other Muslim and South Asian groups.
As the first results in the New York City mayor’s race began to appear on three large televisions, those in the crowd chatted excitedly in English, Bangla and Arabic. What once seemed impossible now appeared almost certain: New York’s hundreds of thousands of Muslim residents would live in a city led by its first-ever Muslim mayor.
When the race was officially called for Zohran Mamdani just after 9:30 p.m., chants of “Mamdani!” rang out. Cellphone flashlights lit up the cafe as the excited throng sought to record history. The atmosphere was electric.
“Alhamdulillah,” one young man said to a friend, using the Arabic phrase giving thanks to God.
“It’s surreal,” said Fatima Khan, 32, adding that she was in awe to be in the presence of so many Muslim leaders at a single cafe. “He won!” she shouted, barely able to contain her enthusiasm.
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