Oct. 24, 2025, 2:56 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 24, 2025, 3:00 PM EDTBy Alexandra MarquezOne day before early voting begins in the New York mayoral race, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani condemned the “racist, baseless” attacks he’s faced in recent days, saying the attacks exemplify the islamophobia Muslims all over New York face every day.”I have sought to be the candidate fighting for every single New Yorker, not simply the Muslim candidate,” Mamdani told reporters gathered outside of a mosque in the Bronx. “I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality, I could define myself as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker, no matter their skin color or religion, no matter where they were born.””And I thought that if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” Mamdani added, appearing to grow emotional. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.” Mamdani, who currently represents parts of Queens in the New York State Assembly, would be the city’s first Muslim mayor.His comments come one day after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo —who lost to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary and is now running as an independent — faced criticism for remarks he made about Mamdani on a radio program.On Thursday, Cuomo appeared to agree with a conservative radio host who said that Mamdani would cheer if a terror attack happened while he was mayor.A Cuomo campaign spokesperson later told NBC News that Cuomo did not agree with the radio host’s comment.Earlier this week, in the final debate ahead of the Nov. 4 mayoral election, Mamdani defended himself against attacks from Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa that he didn’t have a strong plan to combat antisemitism in New York City.The city needs “a leader who takes [antisemitism] seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs, not one who weaponizes it as a means by which to score political points on a debate stage,” Mamdani told viewers.He also accused the other candidates of accusing him of antisemitism in part because he’s a Muslim.After Sliwa accused Mamdani of supporting a “global jihad,” Mamdani said, “I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad. That is not something that I have said, and that continues to be ascribed to me. And frankly, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election.”“They view you as the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism,” Sliwa had told Mamdani earlier in the debate, referring to members of his own family. “They cannot suddenly accept the fact that you’re coming like a firefighter and you’re going to put out these flames.”His identity as a Muslim is something Mamdani also referenced during a podcast released this week.“I do think that Andrew Cuomo, there are a number of things that he has said or done that he would not have done if I was not a Muslim candidate,” Mamdani told the hosts of the “Flagrant” podcast.In his speech Friday, Mamdani also decried what he described as a post-9/11 rise in Islamaphobia in New York City.”For as long as we have lived, we have known that no matter what anyone says, there are still certain forms of hate that are acceptable in this city,” he said. “Islamophobia is not seen as inexcusable.””In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, it seems that islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement,” he added.Mamdani also thanked his supporters who have “rushed to my defense over these past few days,” but said he was thinking, “of those Muslims in this city who do not have the luxury of being the Democratic nominee.”Mamadani has faced allegations of antisemitism for months, even before he became the Democratic nominee for mayor.The allegations largely centered on his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza, where over 60,000 people have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, according to health authorities in Gaza.He has also faced criticism over his refusal earlier in the race to denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada.”Cuomo referenced this during Wednesday’s debate, telling Mamdani, “You’re the savior of the Jewish people? You won’t denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means ‘kill Jews.'”Mamdani said in June that he didn’t use the phrase, but that mayors shouldn’t “police speech.” The New York Times reported in July that Mamdani said he would “discourage” use of the phrase moving forward.Mamdani has also sought to find commonality with the Jewish community, meeting with Jewish leaders, courting Hassidic voters in Yiddish and attending Rosh Hashanah celebrations.In his speech on Friday, Mamdani said that he has learned over the last few years that for Muslims in New York City, “safety could only be found in the shadows of our city [and] it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities.””If we were to emerge from those shadows … it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith. These are lessons that so many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught again and again,” Mamdani said. “Over these last few days, these lessons have become the closing messages of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams.”Adams, the incumbent mayor of New York City, suspended his independent campaign for governor in September and endorsed Cuomo on Thursday.The mayoral election is on Nov. 4, with early voting starting in the five boroughs on Saturday.Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.