“It takes a toll,” a tearful Zohran Mamdani told reporters last week, referring to the vile Islamophobic abuse and death threats he has been subjected to since launching his New York mayoral campaign. “I get messages that say, ‘The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.’ I get threats on my life, on the people that I love.”
I got a little emotional myself listening to Mamdani speak. His words resonated with me after 16 years in public life as an outspoken journalist and pundit who happens to be a Muslim and also, since 2015, as an immigrant. I know very well what that “toll” is like for Muslims in the UK and the US who dare to put their heads above the parapet; my family and I have our own emotional and psychological scars to prove it. “Every morning, I take a deep breath and then go online to discover what new insult or smear has been thrown in my direction,” I wrote in The Guardian back in 2012. “Whether it’s tweets, blogposts, or comment threads, the abuse is as relentless as it is vicious.” …..,more
