Many people know that the new mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, is a Muslim and an immigrant, but far fewer realize that he is a Shia Muslim.
It adds an extra layer of understanding to his outlook and advocacy.
The Shia tradition, particularly the Twelver branch, places deep emphasis on justice, equality, and standing up against oppression. These are values that often resonate in Mamdani’s political and social work.
His father, Mehmood Mamdani, and his faith, while a personal aspect of his life, is part of a broader family history rooted in the Indian diaspora of East Africa and have informed his father’s academic work on identity and politics.
The family belongs to the Khoja community, many of whom became Shia Muslims. Specifically, they are Twelvers, who believe in a line of twelve Imams and that the Twelfth Imam is currently in occultation (hidden from the world) and will return in the end times.
Today, Khoja Twelvers increasingly follow the same religious authorities as other Twelver communities worldwide while preserving their ethnic identity.
Khojas trace their ancestry primarily to the Gujarat and Sindh regions of what are now India and Pakistan.
The community’s name derives from the Persian word “khwaja,” meaning master or lord. Historically, Khojas were a mercantile community who converted to Islam between the 14th and 19th centuries, with many initially following Nizari Ismaili Shiism before a significant portion transitioned to Twelver Shiism in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This group rejected the concept of a living, present imam and instead accepted the Twelver doctrine that the twelfth imam remains in occultation (hidden) until his eventual return.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, and raised in New York from age seven, Mamdani openly discussed his religious identity. “I am a Shia Muslim,” he stated, “but I was raised in an interfaith family.
Mamdani was raised in an interfaith household (his mother is Hindu), and he has described his Muslim identity as an important cultural and personal aspect of his background.
His father’s background has influenced his academic work, such as his book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, which critiques the political categorization of Muslim identities in Western discourse and emphasizes the complexities of culture and politics beyond simple religious labels.
Zohran Mamdani (now mayor of New York City) has also spoken publicly about his Twelver Shia faith during his political campaigns, often in the context of combating Islamophobia and representing the diversity of his constituents.
Ultimately, for Zohran Mamdani, his faith is intertwined with his personal history and perspective on postcolonialism, identity, and the importance of understanding complex social and political dynamics rather than reducing them to narrow cultural or religious stereotypes.
