Earlier this week in Manhattan, a man stepped up to a microphone at a press conference. His hands were shaking as he added his own story to the chorus of his fellow New Yorkers, and his voice cracked when he raised it for emphasis. He got the name of the mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wrong, mispronouncing it in a different way every time he said it. He clutched a photo of his late wife that had been enlarged for the television cameras.
He wasn’t alone in this. Nearly everyone standing behind the podium, barring a city council member or two, held a similar picture. The early September sun made the crowd look sweaty and the speakers wan. Their gripes boiled down to a list of Arabic names, and their aim was clear: Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, should not be allowed near lower Manhattan’s “hallowed ground” on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. According to the group, 100,000 people have signed a petition demanding this.
