Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City shortly before midnight on January 1st, becoming the first Muslim to lead the largest city in the United States (U.S.), after taking the oath on the Qur’an.
The ceremony was held at the abandoned Old City Hall subway station, one of the city’s original stations built in 1904, which has been out of use since 1945.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath together with Mamdani’s family ahead of a public ceremony on Thursday afternoon, which was led by Senator Bernie Sanders.
According to several U.S. media outlets, among the Qur’ans used during the ceremony was a copy that belonged to Mamdani’s grandfather and another that was once owned by Black writer and historian Arturo Schomburg, which was loaned by the New York Public Library.
Mamdani (34) is also the first person born in Africa to serve as mayor of New York City. He was born in Uganda to parents who were Indian immigrants.
He won the mayoral election on November 4th, defeating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, marking a historic victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
As a democratic socialist, Mamdani ran a campaign focused on affordability and the expansion of social services, promising free buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores, an expansion of rent-stabilized housing, and an increase in the minimum wage to 30 dollars per hour by 2030.
