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Anti-Mamdani hate surges around NYC Mayoral race: Report
Stop AAPI Hate said the spike “underscores how anti-Asian racism and anti-Muslim hate remain urgent issues today.”
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Malvika Choudhary - Sat, 15, Nov 2025
- 15:36 EST
- 25
Zohran Mamdani / Stop AAPI Hate
A sharp rise in Islamophobic and anti-South Asian slurs targeted at New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, was recorded in online spaces linked to extremist activity in the weeks surrounding the city’s 2025 mayoral election, according to a new report.
New data compiled by Moonshot and analyzed by Stop AAPI Hate shows that Mamdani—who on Nov. 4 became the first South Asian and Muslim American elected mayor of New York City—faced an escalating wave of hate as his campaign gained national attention.
Also Read: Zohran Mamdani’s Rakhi wish faces racist backlash
Stop AAPI Hate said the spike “underscores how anti-Asian racism and anti-Muslim hate remain urgent issues today.”
Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 11, researchers monitored content on 4chan, Gab, Patriots.win, and Telegram using Boolean searches for the most common anti-Muslim and anti-South Asian slurs linked to Mamdani. Stop AAPI Hate noted that the methodology was tailored for rapid assessment and should not be compared directly to long-term datasets.
A 238 percent surge in slurs directed at Mamdani
The analysis found a 238 percent increase in slurs targeting Mamdani over the six-week period. Islamophobic slurs accounted for 91 percent of the 1,566 instances recorded, with anti-Muslim terms rising by 175 percent.
The first major spike followed the Oct. 16 mayoral debate. A second surge appeared after a political official referred to Mamdani as the “jihadist candidate” who would “destroy New York,” prompting a wave of posts falsely linking him to “jihad” and “terrorist” themes.
A New York Post article on Oct. 18 attempting to connect Mamdani to a “terror-linked imam,” widely condemned as Islamophobic fearmongering, further fuelled the rise. After his victory received widespread media coverage, slurs peaked on Nov. 9 at 180 in a single day—a 2,150 percent increase from Oct. 1.
On Nov. 7, the Anti-Defamation League’s launch of a “Mamdani Monitor,” which alleged “antisemitic behavior” without evidence, was criticized by advocates as “blatant Islamophobia.” Another spike followed.
The "New York State Council of Churches" teams up with IAMC to target… Hindus. We truly live in a surreal world where entitled non-Hindu activists feel empowered to pontificate to practicing Hindus on what their faith should and should not be. And all under a supposed… pic.twitter.com/MSNoyQXF2h
— CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) (@CoHNAOfficial) November 14, 2025
Researchers also documented the emergence of “zutt,” a slur originating from 4chan and used to sexualize and demean Mamdani, his wife, and Muslim New Yorkers through distortions of a historical term.
South Asian communities caught in the crossfire
Anti-South Asian slurs rose throughout the period and remained high after the election. Terms such as “paki,” “jeet,” and related variants appeared 122,789 times across monitored platforms.
Posts questioned Mamdani’s immigration status, portrayed South Asians as “scammers” or “terrorists,” and used xenophobic narratives predicting immigrants would “overrun” New York City. Stop AAPI Hate said these findings are consistent with earlier data showing elevated anti-South Asian racism since the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle.
A CAIR report recorded at least 127 violent hate-related posts in the 24 hours following Mamdani’s Democratic primary victory in June 2025—a fivefold increase over normal levels—and 6,200 Islamophobic posts that day, with 62 percent originating from X.
A study by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that from June 13 to 30, posts referencing Mamdani generated 419 million engagements, many framing his identity as a threat.
Conservative activists and MAGA-aligned influencers also used rhetoric invoking the Sept. 11 attacks, terrorism, and anti-immigrant sentiment to portray Mamdani as a danger to New York.
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