Note: This is a repost of my op-ed that placed first in a BYU writing contest. The title was originally less provocative in order to suit BYU’s more conservative tastes, but this was my working, and preferred, title.
“After 9/11 we said ‘Never Forget.’ I think we sadly have forgotten,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) posted on X last June, when Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Muslim American, had just cruised to victory in New York City’s mayoral primary.
She was not alone in such sentiments. Conservative activist Laura Loomer declared that Mamdani’s win signaled the impending destruction of New York City, while Donald Trump Jr. quoted a post about New Yorkers voting for a second 9/11.” Yet Mace’s post was particularly disturbing. Mace once characterized herself as a Republican moderate, even breaking with the party’s MAGA line at times. Yet she confidently attacked Mamdani, not on policy—on faith.
Her boldness demonstrates the depth of a certain hate festering in far-right American politics: Islamophobia seems to be verging into the political mainstream.
Months after Mace’s post, early on November 5, 2025, the Associated Press announced Mamdani’s victory in the mayoral race. Islamophobia immediately surged online. Advocacy groups reported a 238% increase in anti-Muslim and anti-South Asian slurs; 91% specifically targeted Islam. Terms like “Islamist” and “New Yorkistan” went viral. Conservative activist Amy Mek posted an old video of the Islamic call to prayer, or adhan, playing in New York—lied that it was taken during Mamdani’s tenure—and called it “the sound of conquest… one amplified ‘Allahu Akbar’ at a time.”
Unlike Islamophobia, the adhan is not a call to conflict; it is a call to peace.
While fury circulated online, I woke up to the hauntingly beautiful strains of the adhan floating around my head, every day before the sun rose.
I spent last fall in Rabat, Morocco, studying the Arabic language. I lived steps away from a mosque, in a little apartment where my devout Muslim host mother fed me and washed my clothes daily. I walked to school by hijab-wearing women with warm smiles, children who helped me practice my Arabic, and old men who cared for the street cats.
Islamophobia escalated as I fell in love with the believers. While anti-Muslim content trended, my hijabi speaking partner, who I now call my Moroccan sister, knitted me a birthday gift and prayed for me; loving others is one of Islam’s central tenets. While Fox News comment sections percolated with hate, my host brother unhesitatingly pressed money into the hands of beggars; charity is another tenet. While thought leaders caricatured Islam, I puked my guts onto my host mother’s bathroom during a memorable night of illness—she gently stripped away my clothing, washed it, put me to bed, and mopped my vomit off her tiles.
Selflessness is another of Islam’s central tenets.
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Like Muslims, we have been called to live differently from other faiths. We have been caricatured as threats, too—polygamists, cultists, anti-Christs. I know what it is to live a faith that others fear, and I know fear is not discernment. So when I heard accusations of jihadism in New York, I paid attention to real jihadism demonstrated in Morocco.
Jihad, meaning “striving,” is defined violently by extremists. However, most Muslims interpret jihad as spiritual striving: continual effort to be a better, kinder, more God-fearing person.
During fall 2025, tens of thousands of Moroccans marched for reforms to education, healthcare, and employment. The government responded forcefully. I watched peaceful protesters dragged into vans by heavily-armed police; but they continued anyway—still peaceful. I saw pain, courage, and striving for a better world.
I saw the adhan exemplified. “Allahu Akbar”—did Mek know what that phrase meant when she posted it? It means God is greatest. Greater than hate and evil. This belief motivated those good deeds gracing my life last semester. It compels Moroccan people to strive for justice. This is true religion, true Islam.
This is not a New York story. Islamophobia is rising nationally, urged by leaders from all across the country. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tn.) wrote that Muslims “don’t belong in American society,”; a similar post by Georgetown University’s Republican chapter surfaced;13 Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fl.) posted, “we need more Islamophobia, not less.”
Mamdani is Muslim. He is also the city’s youngest mayor since 1892. He served as a foreclosure prevention counselor and built his mayoral platform on free public transport, affordable groceries, universal childcare, and public safety reforms. In other words, he seems to be a true jihadist—his policies aim to serve. He uses Democratic Socialist tactics; it is fair to criticize these as ineffective.
But it is unfair to attack Mamdani’s Muslim identity. It could be one of the best things about him.
The adhan in New York was characterized as a threat. But I know those who pray to it—I know Islam better. Before I would suppress it, I would let the call to prayer ring from every corner in the city. Unlike Islamophobia, the adhan is not a call to conflict; it is a call to peace.