One candidate, Zohran Mamdani, said he would refuse to travel to the Jewish state.
Photo: Getty Images
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Over the summer, during the first Democratic primary debate in New York City, all nine candidates were asked where their first trip abroad would be if elected. Most said Israel. One candidate, Zohran Mamdani, said he would refuse to travel to the Jewish state.
That answer set the city’s Sheikh Musa Drammeh ablaze. How could the only Muslim candidate on stage refuse to go to the Holy Land, Drammeh wondered, especially when New York is home to America’s largest Jewish community?
Drammeh has dedicated much of his life to building bridges between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Bronx, as well as fighting extremism and antisemitism.
“This guy is the first Muslim candidate on stage with the privilege that never existed before,” Drammeh said. “What he prioritizes becomes the priority [for his followers]. If we allow his refusal to go to the Holy Land, then antisemitism will increase, anti-Israel sentiment will increase, and it will be normalized.”
Motivated by that conviction, Drammeh told his wife he would organize a group of Muslim leaders to travel to Israel on Mamdani’s behalf, creating, as he put it, a situation where the candidate’s refusal would be “null and void.” He then wrote an open letter inviting others to join him on the journey.
The Jewish NGO Sharaka saw the letter and contacted Drammeh. Together, they organized a mission of eight imams and other Muslim leaders — seven from the United States, one from Germany and many from New York — who have been in Israel since Oct. 25.
The delegation is visiting Jerusalem’s historic and holy sites, meeting experts and community leaders, sitting with Israeli Arabs, and connecting with interfaith rabbis. They have also toured the sites of the Oct. 7 atrocities to better understand the current war and geopolitical reality, and participated in a seminar at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum. There, they discussed the Holocaust, extremism, modern genocides and ways to promote coexistence in their own communities/
Sharaka’s Holocaust education program manager, Alyssa Annis, said that rising antisemitism and racism have deepened social divides across the United States. The Muslim leaders participating in the Sharaka mission, she said, are active in their communities and committed to combating this trend.
“I think these Muslim leaders need to come to Israel; they need to learn more about the Holocaust for them to combat extremism and antisemitism in their own societies,” Annis said.
Annis noted that some participants were “a bit scared,” not only to acknowledge the bridge-building work they’re doing within their own communities, but also to admit they came to Israel. Still, she said, they arrived determined to learn, understand and bring those lessons home. “They walked into that Hall of Names at Yad Vashem at the end, and they started crying,” Annis recalled.
She added that since Oct. 7, Sharaka, along with diplomats at various levels, has worked to maintain trust between Jews and Arabs from the Abraham Accords countries: the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain. That effort, she said, has been “very difficult.” But as the war winds down and hopefully the final deceased hostages return home, she hopes “people will be a little bit less scared to be a moderate voice publicly.”
Another Muslim leader on the trip, Aicha Cisse, described New York as “so divided,” saying that in recent years, it has felt as if people with opposing viewpoints can no longer be friends... This polarization, she added, has grown even sharper ahead of the upcoming mayoral election, particularly around Mamdani’s candidacy.
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Over the summer, during the first Democratic primary debate in New York City, all nine candidates were asked where their first trip abroad would be if elected. Most said Israel. One candidate, Zohran Mamdani, said he would refuse to travel to the Jewish state.
That answer set the city’s Sheikh Musa Drammeh ablaze. How could the only Muslim candidate on stage refuse to go to the Holy Land, Drammeh wondered, especially when New York is home to America’s largest Jewish community?
Zohran Mamdmi is an exceptionally divisive individual, whom I regret to say will most likely become mayor.
Drammeh has dedicated much of his life to building bridges between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Bronx, as well as fighting extremism and antisemitism.
“This guy is the first Muslim candidate on stage with the privilege that never existed before,” Drammeh said. “What he prioritizes becomes the priority [for his followers]. If we allow his refusal to go to the Holy Land, then antisemitism will increase, anti-Israel sentiment will increase, and it will be normalized.
I'm not looking forward to what will happen between the Muslims and Jews in NYC.
Sometimes you say things that make me wonder. What do you look forward to? New Yorkers of all stripes and colours living together in peace and harmony? Or, do you look forward to death and mayhem. Ll? I live in Bronx America in a historic building home to probably every race, culture and religion imaginable. I've lived the campaign start to stop and let me tell you what. Coumo resorting to rank r1acial and cultural bias has gone over like a lead balloon. Adams is just awful. His administration horribly corrupt. Coumo was run off for good reasons before. He needs to retire. He Trump's and the MAGA'S candidate.though. People were afraid of the first Catholic, the first Jewish, the first black mayors. There is a word for the irrational fear of Muslims Buzz. You should be wishing Mandani well. From your comments it seems that you imagine bad bad things to come for New York City. Why Buzz why? Also, are you able to watch the NYC Marathon today? Does that look like a violent shithole in the background to you? Check out the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade next month! For fuck sake! Thid is New York City you are wagging about. The Greatest City In the World! Trust us to pick the best candidate to be our mayor. Only New Yorkers vote. Zohran To Win!
Nobody knows or cares who yout mayor is...
Why do you care so much about our mayor?
What causes your dread and fearful omens?
Popular likeabe charming amiable Muslims?
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I've also felt that way at times. After years (well decades actually) of using social media . . .many comments have piqued my curiousity.
And, IMO, that's a good thing!
Actually I do know one person who actually does cares who becomes the next mayor of NYC!
Wait a minute!
Wait just one gosh darn minute!
Now that I think about it, I actually know at least two people who care about that!!!
One lives in Manhattan, and the other lives in Florida of all places!!! (But she's originally from Virginia).
True, Staten Island MAGA are Coumo voters.
Reading the comnents online by country yokels, throwback hicks, hillbillies, rank foreigners, flatlander inbreds, klansmen, skin heads and assorted MAGA'S expressing their hair on fire fears regarding Zohran Mandani's candidacy has been quite entertaining. Mandani is btw the only remotely likeabe candidate running. I saw every commercial, the debates, the entirety of it up close. Let me tell you. Islamaphobia does not play at all well here, any better than racism, sexism, homophobia, cultural bias, religious extremism or other prejudices.
Maybe Staten Island. That shit thrives there.
Predicting the Fall Of New York is ridiculous.
If people of all stripes can and do live together in peace, prosperity and relative harmony in New York City? Why the fuck can't the Hatfields & McCoys in Israel?
And Mamdani voters are antisemite HAMAS supporters who hate America or just worthless takers who think he will steal from the Producers to fund their lazy worthless asses, what they are too stupid to understand is the producers can leave.
You make my point quite eloquently...
New Yorkers get to pick their mayor.
Out of towners get to carp about is...
Yes, the Ayatollah Khomeini coalition is wining. The far left is playing the role of useful idiots, just like they did when helping to overthrow the Shah.
Because the Hatfield's won't say the McCoy's have a right to live.
There reason there's little or no crime in NYC has always been a mystery. (I've often pondered that fact myself...)
And of course you've never ever commented about any Canadian (or Chinese) elected officials.
(sarc)
If people of all stripes can and do live together in peace, prosperity and relative harmony in New York City? Why the fuck can't the Hatfields & McCoys in Israel?
Apparently you're not familiar with Israel's Hand in Hand schools:
Hand in Hand is building inclusion and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel through a growing network of bilingual, integrated schools and communities.
Launched in 1997 with 50 children, there are now over 2,000 students across Hand in Hand campuses in 6 locations from Jerusalem to the Galilee.
Hand in Hand was established to combat one of Israel’s greatest existential threats: the growing social alienation and lack of trust between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. We believe that education is key in changing this.
Hand in Hand is building inclusion and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel through a growing network of bilingual, integrated schools and communities.
FWIW, there are some 20 or so Arab countries. Do you know how many have integrated programs like this?
(Integrated programs with the purpose of teaching respect and mutual understanding between their Muslim populations and other (non-Muslim) groups....)
If you have access to Wikipedia, there's an excellent article there about Hand in Hand schools:
Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish–Arab Education in Israel
are almost a million Muslims in NYC.
no kidding… that’s how an anti semite terrorist supporter who pals around with a guy who claimed America deserved 911 can win an election. Mass immigration and a core of anti leftists make a lethal combination.
Will Mamdani ever campaign with an American flag, I wonder.
I find it interesting that you were specific about certain prejudices, they did not include "antisemitism", which is probably one of the worst.
Or Seeds of Peace Camps.
LOL. That'll be the day. The Torah doesn't tell the Jews to kill Muslims, but the Hadiths tell Muslims to kill the Jews.
If Mandani not wanting to dignify the current regime in charge in Israel and an old photo-shopped picture of Zohran with an unidicted co-conspirator are your trump cards against him, then sixteen credible accusations of gross sexual misconduct that cost New Yorkers SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS to settle are my royal strait flush against Coumo. I actually like Curtis Sliwa. He loves the city and speaks a lot of truths. He is also kind of lovably nutters...
If our members here made equally prejudicial comments about a Jewish candidate based on fear and hyperbolic false accusations it would rightfully be condemned as rank antisemitism.
Look up! Look down! Look around! You see?
I was talking abut Buzz's mayor though I don't know or care who yours is either...
I was speaking my mind ON TOPIC!!!! Were you?
In my experience, the people who are "predicting the fall of New York" are in the minority!
Motivated by that conviction, Drammeh told his wife he would organize a group of Muslim leaders to travel to Israel on Mamdani’s behalf, creating, as he put it, a situation where the candidate’s refusal would be “null and void.” He then wrote an open letter inviting others to join him on the journey.
The Jewish NGO Sharaka saw the letter and contacted Drammeh. Together, they organized a mission of eight imams and other Muslim leaders — seven from the United States, one from Germany and many from New York — who have been in Israel since Oct. 25.
Drammeh appears to be a really good man, and I wish him much success in his quest to bring the two faiths into a form of brotherhood. Just north of Toronto city limits, on Bayview Avenue, there was a mosque next door to a Temple, and they shared a parking lot. There were many interfaith events, attendances at each other's services and celebrations, and when 9/11 happened the strong young Jewish men from the temple immediately contacted each other, arranged to bring baseball bats, crowbars and whatever such weapons they could find and surrounded the mosque in order to prevent anyone from attacking or vandalizing it, and remained there until the police took their place. That's a form of brotherhood that you will rarely see today,
Its nice to see that sort of thing happening!