Post #4750

🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣ To honor his Muslim faith, Mamdani was sworn in using a Qur’an, Islam’s holiest book, becoming the first mayor in New York City to do so. He was sworn in at midnight with his hand on his grandfather’s Qur’an and one that belonged to Arturo Schomburg, a Black writer and historian, which was lent to the mayor by the New York public library. The midnight ceremony will be followed by a 1pm public event at which the new mayor will be introduced by political ally and Bronx Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and sworn in by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Mamdani’s office has said the choice to be sworn in at the old city hall subway station reflected his “commitment to the working people who keep our city running every day”. The day’s events are a culmination of a remarkable rise to power in the US’s most populous city, both for a political unknown and for the Democratic Socialist party that Mamdani, elected as a Democrat, represents. The first signs of Mamdani’s electoral potential came earlier in the year, ahead of a primary vote that saw him knock out former governor Andrew Cuomo, who later ran as an independent candidate. Adams, then under the scrutiny of federal prosecutors, chose not to seek the Democratic nomination. In April, Mamdani was trailing Cuomo 36% to 64%. Those numbers shifted after Mamdani’s savvy political campaign took off on social media; his robust grassroots efforts appeared to energize first-time voters struggling with the high cost of living in the post-pandemic city. Democrat campaign veteran Hank Sheinkopf said that Mamdani “represents the city of the future – a more Asian city, a more Muslim city, and what could be a more leftwing city”. In November, the then state assemblyman won the election with 50.78% of the vote, defeating Republican activist Curtis Sliwa and Cuomo. In his victory speech, Mamdani spoke of his commitment to working New Yorkers who did not normally have access to the levers of power. “Let the words we’ve spoken together, the dreams we’ve dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together,” he said. “New York, this power, it’s yours. This city belongs to you.” #mamdani#newYork#mayor#muslim#city 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸