English transcript

Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed when a radio host said that I would cheer another 9-11.

Yesterday, Eric Adams said that we can't let our city become Europe. He compared me to violent

extremists. And he lied again and again when he said that our movement seeks to burn churches

and destroy communities. The day before that, Curtis Lewa slandered me from the debate stage

when he claimed that I support global jihad. And every day, Super PAC ads imply that I am

a terrorist or mock the way I eat. Push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether

they support invented proposals to make halal food mandatory. Or political cartoons that represent my

candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center. But I do not want to use this

moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City.

I want to speak to the memory of my aunt

who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.

I want to speak to the Muslim who works for our city.

Whether they teach in our schools or walk the beat for the NYPD.

New Yorkers who all make daily sacrifices for the city they call home only to see their leaders spit

in their face. I want to speak to every child who grows up here, marked as the other. Who is

randomly selected in a way that never quite feels random. Who feels that they carry a stain that can

never be cleaned. Growing up in the shadow of 9-11 I have known what it means to live with an

undercurrent of suspicion in this city. I will always remember the disdain that I faced. The way

that my name could immediately become Mohammed. And how I could return to my city only to be

asked in a double mirrored room at the airport if I had any plan on attacking it. And since I was very

young I've also known that I was spared the worst of it. I was never pressured to be an informant

like a classmate of mine. I've never had the word terrorist spray-painted

on my garage as one of my staff had to endure. My mosque has never been set on fire.

To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct.

There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.