As the New York City mayoral election enters the final stretch, with the Muslim American Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani maintaining a sizable lead in all of the polls, a familiar beast has reared its head: blatant Islamophobia.

Most of those dabbling in outright bigotry are unsurprising: right-wing shock-jocks and the pro-Trump New York Post. But what has made many of these forays into the gutter most surprising — and disconcerting — is that they’ve been endorsed, either tacitly or explicitly, by Mamdani’s chief rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic Party’s primary election but has continued running as an independent candidate.

When, for example, a right-wing radio host told Cuomo that Mamdani would be “cheering” if there were another 9/11-style terrorist attack on New York, Cuomo did not only fail to challenge this bigoted smear; he chuckled, then added, “That’s another problem.” And when Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo suggested that Mamdani would force women in New York City to “cover up” — which, she claimed, was already the case in “largely Muslim” London — Cuomo not only let the smear go unchallenged, but noted that Mamdani is “dual citizenship” (he was born in Uganda) before saying he “just doesn’t understand the New York culture,” including “what 9/11 meant.”

Some observers believe Cuomo, who needs to consolidate support from every anti-Mamdani voter possible to have a chance to win, is knowingly stoking Islamophobia, one of New York City’s longest and — especially since 9/11 — ugliest political traditions. Mamdani seemed to suggest as much himself when he said in a recent speech: “In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement,” and evoked the fear his friends and family had felt walking the streets as Muslim New Yorkers.

That fear is well-grounded, as Debbie Almontaser, a senior adviser of Emgage, a nonprofit focused on........

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