Now that I return to The Palestinian Illustration Project, I’m happy to say that New York City has elected its first Muslim mayor: Zohran Mamdani. In light of all of the Islamophobic backlash toward Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, I’m reminded of my conversation with Italian journalist Carolina Pedrazzi, my former Columbia Journalism School classmate who has reported from Palestine.
In one of her WhatsApp voice memos to me, she said:
“As a Muslim woman, I think it’s our responsibility as human beings, it’s the reason God put us on Earth, is to contribute and create goodness.”
I hope that with Mamdani and Duwaji in the public eye, the mainstream American understanding of Muslim people will only widen and deepen. May this empathy extend to the people of Palestine, especially those in Gaza.
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