Watch: Zohran Mamdani becomes first New York mayor to be sworn in on the Quran

Zohran Mamdani became the first New York City mayor to be sworn in using the Quran, in a symbolic inauguration performed at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. The ceremony for Democrat Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, took place in an abandoned subway station beneath city hall. In a statement he said the location was a “physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives”, adding: “that ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past”. Mamdani took his oath with his hand on a Quran once owned by his grandfather, which was held by his wife Rama Duwaji.