New York mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing a barrage of Islamophobic attacks across social media and conservative political circles after his success in the Democratic primary. 

The 33-year-old Indian-origin state assembly mayor has been subjected to death threats and xenophobic rhetoric from prominent Republican figures and online activists since his primary win, reported The Guardian. 

Those targeting him have seized on his immigrant background and Muslim faith alongside his hyper-progressive positions to frame his potential mayoralty as a civilizational threat, as per the report. 

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Far-right activist Laura Loomer warned of “another 9/11 in NYC” under Mamdani’s leadership. New York City councilwoman Vickie Paladino called Mamdani a “known jihadist terrorist” and “communist” in a radio interview and called for his deportation despite his American citizenship. 

Senior figures in the Trump administration too have joined the pile-on including White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and architect of mass deportations. 

Miller claimed, “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.” 

New York representative Elise Stefanik, who was once Trump’s pick for UN ambassador branded Mamdani a “Hamas terrorist sympathiser” before the primary.

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Donald Trump Jr also joined the critics and again invoked the 9/11 rhetoric.  “I’m old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it,” he said in a post, adding “New York City has fallen.”

According to the report, Mamdani has reported multiple death threats threatening to blow up his car in the final stretch of his campaign. The New York Police Department’s hate crimes task force is probing the incidents, one of which referred to the explosive pagers used in Israel’s recent attack on Hezbollah members in Lebanon. 

“I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life, on the people that I love,” Mamdani said last week. 

“My focus has always been on making this a city that’s affordable, on making the city that every New Yorker sees themselves in,” he added.