Sadiq Khan and Zohran Mamdani: Two faces of London and New York

Hakikul Islam Khokon,
London Mayor Sadiq Khan and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani—both Muslim, liberal, and children of immigrant families. But their political path and reality are completely different. On the one hand, Khan is an established centrist politician of the UK Labor Party, while Mamdani is the fresh face of progressive left politics in the US, inspired by the ideals of democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders.

Sadiq Khan was born into a working-class Pakistani family in London. The son of a bus driver, the child, who grew up in public housing with seven siblings, went on to become London’s mayor for three terms. The cornerstones of his politics—affordable housing, public transportation and environmentally friendly urban policies.

On the other hand, 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda and immigrated to New York as a child. His father is a university professor and a renowned filmmaker. The family is educated and middle class, financially relatively well off. From that context, Mamdani built his socialist political vision—affordability, his main promise in the New York mayoral election.

The two leaders have simultaneously become targets of right-wing politics in the United States and the United Kingdom. President Trump called Sadiq Khan a ‘stone cold loser’ on the one hand, and Mamdani a ‘pure communist’ on the other hand. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has described them as members of a ‘red-green alliance’—where red stands for left-wing politics, and green for Islam.

The attack affected not only political but also personal security—both of which had to increase security measures.

The position of the two on the question of the Gaza war is also a reflection of different realities. Under pressure from public opinion in London, Sadiq Khan publicly called for the recognition of a Palestinian state and called Israel’s operation ‘genocide’.
Mamdani’s position in New York is more nuanced—he has been in favor of a cease-fire from the beginning, but has come under intense criticism from the Israeli side. Republican leaders have labeled him a “jihadist”, which Mamdani’s campaign team has condemned as “racist and Islamophobic”.

15 percent of London’s population is Muslim, New York’s Muslim population is only 6 percent, and the Jewish population there is more than double that. Therefore, the reality of voting and politics in the two cities is also different.

Khan represented Muslim identity in London in a consistent way—participating in Eid celebrations, but serving as mayor in a Christian cathedral. He voted for LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage.

Mamdani, on the other hand, has built a joint platform of young voters, progressive women, and the immigrant community—reinvigorating New York’s left politics.

Sadiq Khan has been blamed by right-wing groups for ‘London’s rise in crime’, but he has data to show that violent crime has actually fallen.

Even his rival, Andrew Cuomo, has implicitly doubted Mamdani. Yet Mamdani did not stop; In his words, “The United States entered a political darkness during the Trump era, now is the time to get out of that darkness.”

If Mamdani is elected mayor of New York, two of the world’s largest cities—London and New York—will be led by two Muslim, liberal politicians. Despite their different experiences, they share the same symbol—the possibilities of multicultural urban life and the face of human resistance against right-wing politics.

Sadiq Khan knows from experience in London that diversity is strength. And Zohran Mamdani proves that preserving that diversity is the main challenge of progressive politics. Courtesy: New York Times