Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited an Astoria mosque Tuesday night to break his Ramadan fast with dozens of Bosnian New Yorkers in what the mayor described as a homecoming to the assembly district he once represented.
Mamdani, who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, attended the Masjid Islamic Unity & Cultural Center at 31-33 12th St. on March 17 for iftar, the fast-breaking meal enjoyed after sundown throughout the month of Ramadan.
The mayor, who once represented the mosque while representing the 36th Assembly District in the state legislature, said Tuesday’s visit felt like a homecoming.
“In many ways, this is a return home for me,” Mamdani said before breaking his fast. “It truly is coming back to the very people that have made this city special for so long.”
Mamdani said it was an honor to visit the mosque as the first Muslim mayor in the city’s history and praised all attendees who voted in the 2025 mayoral election.
“You did not do something small,” Mamdani said. “You did something big. You saw yourself in a city that is also your own. You saw yourself in its politics. You saw yourself in its future. … I would not stand before you as the mayor of this city, if it wasn’t for every single New Yorker who told themselves that this would be the time that they would participate.”
The mayor added that people in the Astoria mosque and in mosques across the city had been “overlooked” in city politics because of their religion.
Speaking to mostly Bosnian Muslims, Mamdani noted that some in the local community had fled a genocide to reach New York, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Bosnians by the Army of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War in the 1990s.
“I know that many in this community came here after a genocide, came here out of necessity to find a place of safety, to find a place where one could be oneself and not have to worry about what that meant for themselves,” Mamdani said. “I know that there are many who still mourn brothers and sisters, family members who are lost or taken.”
After delivering remarks, Mamdani joined the community for prayer and broke his fast while chatting to locals.
The mayor also posed for photographs with young children and observed plans to redevelop the mosque during the visit.
Ramadan will end at sundown on Thursday, March 19, or Friday, March 20, depending on the sighting of the new moon.
