Teaneck Mayor, Mohammed Hameeduddin, speaks at the ground breaking. Teaneck began a project that will refurbish sidewalks on both sides of Teaneck Rd. from Robinson St. to Tryon Ave. The project will also add street lighting and benches for pedestrians to sit, along the sidewalk. March 18, 2019
Sadaf Jaffer of Montgomery Township was the first female Muslim to serve as mayor. She declined to run for a second term in the state Assembly, citing anti-Muslim harassment. February 29, 2024.

Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City’s first Muslim mayor has been hailed as a historic milestone, and that is true — for the Big Apple.

But across the Hudson River and around the country, Muslim mayors have been quietly serving their communities for decades.

Muslim mayors now lead city and town halls in California, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Maryland. New Jersey alone has had at least seven Muslim mayors, including two currently in office: Mohamed Khairullah, who has led Prospect Park for nearly 20 years, and Ted Green, East Orange mayor since 2018.

“It’s a natural progression,” said former Teaneck Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin. “There has been a lot of work by Muslim organizers. But it’s also the PTA moms, and the soccer coaches and the baseball coaches and the hundreds of Muslims who are volunteers, the everyday heroes who interact with society. People understand that Muslims are giving back.”

In some towns and cities, Muslim mayors have served their communities and have been reelected or reappointed to multiple terms away from the national spotlight. Others, like Mamdani, have attracted national attention because they are historic “firsts,” or because they have been the target of Islamophobic campaigns waged against them.

They are part of a growing trend of Muslim Americans — including Black pioneers, immigrants and the children of immigrants — running for public office across the country.

Where it started: A small town in Texas

The first Muslim mayor in America wasn’t elected in a liberal stronghold but in Kountze, Texas, a small town of just over 2,000 people about 85 miles northeast of Houston.

In 1991, voters there chose Charles Bilal, a Black Muslim, as mayor. Bilal and other Black Muslim leaders helped open doors for later generations of Muslim Americans seeking public office.

Their numbers surged about 10 years ago, said Wa'el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage, a Muslim voter mobilization group. It was a response, he said, to Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign trail and later as president.

But local issues have been at the heart of mayoral races.

Like many of his Muslim counterparts across the country, Mamdani did not campaign on his faith. A democratic socialist, he ran on a platform centered on affordability — calling for free buses, universal child care and a citywide rent freeze.

Fifteen years ago, when Hameeduddin campaigned, he focused on better funding for first responders and building community partnerships.

“Like Mamdani, I didn’t run on a message of being Muslim,” he said. “We ran on a universal message of making the lives of the citizens we represent better. But neither of us shied away from being Muslim.”

Their political involvement also reflects changing demographics, as more Muslim families move to the suburbs, enroll in local schools and seek a voice in how their towns are governed.

Mohammad Ali Chaudry, who became a leader of interfaith dialogue after 9/11, served as mayor of Basking Ridge from 2004 to 2007. Chaudry, who was born in Pakistan, said now younger generations are leading the way.

“This is their place of birth and where they are growing up,” he said. “It’s important to them to take part and to be involved.”

Other Muslim mayors in New Jersey have included Eman El-Badawi in Cranbury, Sadaf Jaffer in Montgomery Township and Samir Elbassiouny of Washington Township in Warren County. In some New Jersey municipalities, mayors are elected directly by the people. In others, they are elected to town councils or committees, who then vote for mayor among their membership.

When faith becomes an issue

Even as they center local issues in their campaigns, some Muslim leaders have been unable to shake scrutiny and bigotry over their faith.

Mamdani repeatedly faced attacks by conservative media, anti-Muslim activists and lawmakers calling him a “terrorist,” a “jihadist” and “evil.” They have also claimed he was part of a larger plot to take over and impose Islamic law in America.

Jaffer faced similar attacks when she became mayor of Montgomery Township, in Somerset County. People around the country saw news of her becoming the first female Muslim mayor. Then, they repeatedly harassed her, mostly in the form on online hate and messages.

It continued when she was elected to the state Assembly. She chose not to seek a second term, citing concerns for the safety of her family.

Running for local office can also be challenging because of “gatekeepers” in the party establishment, she added. Democratic leaders, she said, drove her out of her position as local party chair because of her vocal support for Palestinian rights.

Seeing it happen again to Mamdani, she said, was “painful.”

Despite gains in local and state office, Muslims — who make up about 1% of the U.S. population — still lag behind in representation in elected office, said Alzayat, of Emgage.

While its members may be cast as outsiders, the Muslim faith has been a fabric of the country since its founding. Nearly a third of African slaves were Muslim, according to scholars.

NJ leads the way

New Jersey municipalities can’t compare in size or prestige to New York City. The biggest of the municipalities led by a Muslim mayor — East Orange — is home to about 72,000 people.

But they trump New York — and all other states — in the sheer number and breadth of municipalities represented by Muslim elected officials. Currently, more than 50 serve on school boards and municipal councils and in the Legislature, reports the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New Jersey chapter.

CAIR’s New York chapter identified two serving in that state's Legislature and three on the New York City Council. It had no reports of any Muslim having served as a mayor in the state.

Despite lackluster support from the Democratic establishment, Mamdani rallied diverse support among New Yorkers who rejected an Islamophobic campaign to undermine his run. Now he’ll be leading a city where an estimated 9% of residents are Muslim.

To many, Mamdani’s win turns politics on its head and makes anything seem possible.

Hameeduddin sees more gains ahead as Muslims continue to volunteer, organize and run for office. As people get to know their Muslim neighbors, it breaks down the trope of “outsider” that has long cast a shadow over their communities.

“It goes to show,” he said, “that the ‘boogeyman’ tactics that people try to say about Islam being the enemy — people are seeing through that.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Zohran Mamdani makes NYC history for Muslims, but smaller-town mayors led the way

Reporting by Hannan Adely, USA TODAY NETWORK / NorthJersey.com

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