Open letter to Zohran Momdani.
A Muslim American Responds to Your Absence at the Israel Day Parade
Mr. Mamdani,
As a Muslim American, I am ashamed of your decision to skip New York City’s Israel Day Parade.
Not because attending would have required you to support every policy of the Israeli government. It would not.
What it would have required was the courage to stand publicly with New York’s Jewish community at a moment when antisemitism is reaching alarming levels across America.
Instead, you chose absence.
You chose to distance yourself from an event celebrating Jewish identity, Jewish history, Jewish survival, and the Jewish people’s connection to their ancestral homeland.
I attended.
I marched alongside Holocaust survivors, Jewish families, veterans, community leaders, and fellow Muslims who believe that standing against antisemitism is not optional.
Again and again, Jewish New Yorkers thanked us simply for showing up.
Think about that.
One of the most successful, influential, and historic communities in New York was grateful that Muslims were willing to stand beside them publicly.
That should concern every elected official in this city.
The Jewish people have a right to exist.
The Jewish people have a right to security.
The Jewish people have a right to self-determination.
These should be uncontroversial statements in a democracy.
Yet many Jewish New Yorkers increasingly feel that support for their identity is treated differently than support for every other minority community.
If a politician deliberately skipped a parade celebrating Black heritage, LGBTQ pride, Asian American heritage, or Muslim identity, questions would immediately follow.
Why should Jewish identity be any different?
Leadership is not measured by how loudly a politician speaks to supporters.
Leadership is measured by whether they are willing to stand with communities even when doing so is politically inconvenient.
The Israel Day Parade was not a celebration of war.
It was a celebration of a people who survived exile, persecution, pogroms, terrorism, and the Holocaust.
You had an opportunity to stand with them.
You chose not to.
As a Muslim American who believes in coexistence, I believe that was a mistake.
As an American who values equal treatment, I believe it sends the wrong message.
And as someone who spent the day speaking with grateful Jewish New Yorkers, I can tell you that your absence was noticed.
New York deserves leaders who build bridges, not leaders who avoid them when the political cost appears too high.
History remembers those who show moral courage.
It is far less generous to those who remain absent when courage is required.
Respectfully,
Mansoor Hussain Laghari
Founder & President
Global Youth Unity Project
Muslim American, U.S. Army Veteran, Human Rights Activist
