Mayor Zohran Mamdani provides remarks and joins in morning Eid prayers with Brooklyn Islamic Heart at Prospect Park on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Picture by Kara McCurdy | Mayoral Images Workplace.
On Eid-al-Fitr morning in Prospect Park on Friday, worshippers packed the parade floor as Mayor Zohran Mamdani mirrored on the month of Ramadan that had simply ended.
“I stand here before you as our city’s first-ever Muslim mayor,” he mentioned. “When I reflect on the past 30 days of suhoors and iftars, when I think of fasting alongside the people of our incredible city, I am filled, frankly, with a deep gratitude and a renewed love for this place that we call home.”
For Mamdani, Ramadan unfolded not solely as a non secular observance however as a public one. Over the course of the holy month, New York Metropolis’s first Muslim mayor moved throughout town, becoming a member of iftars (fast-breaking dinners) with academics, supply employees, firefighters, Bosnian New Yorkers, and taxi drivers; praying Jummah in Jamaica; and breaking quick with Muslim New Yorkers on Rikers Island.
These appearances made him newly seen to many Muslim New Yorkers, not simply as mayor, however as a Muslim public official overtly training his religion whereas in workplace. Additionally they unfolded as he confronted intensified Islamophobic backlash, each on-line and outdoors his entrance door at Gracie Mansion.
Among the many most stops of the month that may stick with Mamdani “for quite some time” was his go to to Rikers Island, the place he broke quick with Muslim New Yorkers in custody and Muslim corrections employees.
“People sharing what little they have: breaking bread, offering prayer, making space for one another’s dignity even in the hardest place,” he mentioned afterward.
“In a system too often defined by what it takes, I was reminded of what it means to give—mercy, dignity, and humanity,” he added. “May we extend that mercy as far as we can.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani breaks quick with Muslim New Yorkers in custody and Muslim corrections employees throughout an iftar at Rikers Island on March 16.Picture by Mayoral Images Workplace. 
Mayor Mamdani shoots hoops with Knicks ahead Mohamed Diawara after the 2 broke their quick collectively in Harlem on March 14.Picture by Kara McCurdy | Mayoral Images Workplace.
Muslim New Yorkers say Mamdani ‘influencing the world’
In his Eid remarks on Friday, Mamdani described the month as a window into the breadth of Muslim life throughout town, which he shared along with his thousands and thousands of followers on his social media channels. For a lot of of these gathered in Prospect Park, that visibility carried deep private that means.
Imam Sirajul Islam of the Brooklyn Islamic Heart, which organized the occasion, led the Eid prayers. In an interview afterward, he mentioned many in the neighborhood took pleasure in Mamdani as a result of “he is a member of the Muslim community” who has embraced the variety of religion throughout the 5 boroughs and since “he asserts his identity as Muslim” whereas “working for everyone in the city.”
For some worshippers in Prospect Park, what stood out most was not merely that he publicly marked the holy month, however that he continued to take action regardless of the assaults. The Imam famous that, within the face of Islamophobia, the mayor “was not holding back” and continued “participating in his regular Muslim faith activities besides carrying out his official duties.”
One attendee, Zubair, 35, advised New York News that whereas he was excited to hope alongside the brand new Muslim mayor on Friday morning, he was extra grateful for the dignified method through which Mamdani has dealt with these assaults on his religion – hostility he mentioned he might relate to.
For Abar, a global scholar from Bangladesh finding out at LaGuardia Group Faculty in Queens, town “feels like home.” Surrounded by a number of of his mates whereas talking to this paper, he was grateful to be pursuing his dream of mechanical engineering in a metropolis the place the mayor just isn’t afraid to be happy with his religion.
The 25-year-old says he’s not one for social media, however his father, again in Dhaka, recurrently texts him Mamdani’s Instagram reels. “They’re all excited about the Muslim mayor in New York City.”
“He’s influencing the world,” one other attendee contended as they chased down their daughter on the parade floor, having fun with the festivities, shifting too quick to share his identify. “He’s showcasing that Muslim is not a bad word. He’s representing us.”
Abar poses with mates after Eid prayers in Prospect Park on March 20, as worshippers celebrated the vacation and Mayor Mamdani’s presence on the parade floor.Picture by Adam Daly
Mamdani addressed that rigidity immediately in his Eid remarks whereas discussing the resilience of Muslims within the Huge Apple.
“I say resilience because it is not always easy to practice our faith in this city that we know is our home,” he mentioned. “And yet I know that so many here and beyond always find a way, whether that means breaking fast while in the back of an ambulance or walking on the beat.”
Nonetheless, he framed Ramadan much less as a narrative of exclusion than as a lesson in solidarity.
“The beauty of Ramadan is that we break fast not by asking the person next to us of their name or their faith, but simply by asking if they are hungry,” he mentioned.
On Eid, Mamdani urged New Yorkers to not go away that spirit behind as Ramadan got here to a detailed.
“What I have seen over the course of this past month across our city has been too powerful and too precious to leave behind,” he mentioned. “So let us continue these acts of solidarity.”
