Any Muslim American who runs for public office knows one thing immediately: the scrutiny will be ugly, and it will come to fruition quickly. Islamophobia is never subtle. And the moment Democratic nominee for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani stepped into the spotlight, I knew he would be a target for some pretty traditional racism — and some weird stuff none of us could’ve seen coming.
One recent post on X perfectly captures the sheer absurdity of the Islamophobia he navigates on a daily basis. It started when an X user posted a photo of bacon frying with the caption, “Just wanting to share some bacon with all of my loveable [sic] Muslim peeps this morning. It’s the least I can do.” Another user then decided to rope Mamdani in, quoting the post with, “Hey @ZohranMamdani, this is for you, Bone-Petite! [again, sic].” This clownish post was only further punctuated by bad spelling.
Mamdani gets plenty of hate — from bigoted conservatives who despise him for being Muslim and from within the Democratic Party, where his socialist politics have made him an easy target. So he doesn’t respond to everything. But this particular exchange clearly stood out to him, probably for the same reason it stopped the rest of us. It was unbelievably stupid.
