Muslim mayors in the secular West: rewriting inclusion

Express Tribune

17-07-2025

In December 2001, the release of Monsoon Wedding brought two enemies and neighbours — India and Pakistan — back into a charmingly ambivalent cultural dialogue. The film, incrusted with varicolored threads, also revivified Farida Khanum's 'Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo' in a tragically comic moment that only our desi urban audiences, caught between modernisation and tradition, can truly appreciate. I was personally enthused by the subtle exposé of the girl child abuse and the perfidy of a so-called father-figure uncle. It was notable that the director was Mira Nair.
Almost a quarter-century later, her 33-year-old son Zohran Mamdani, a Gujrati Shia Muslim through his father, the renowned political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, is making headlines for entirely different reasons. After winning the June 24, 2025 Democratic primary, he is poised to become New York City's first Muslim and Indian-Ugandan mayor, with his bold "lunatic" political agenda.
I hold profound respect for him not only for his principled stance on the genocide in Gaza, but also for his courage in calling out Narendra Modi, the butcher of Gujarat. In doing so, he stands apart perhaps even above most of the living recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. His moral vision, one can only hope and pray, is authentic, and his elite connections in India and Pakistan do not lead him to bargain it away. While his victory will remain unique and grand like the city itself, it is essential to acknowledge that he is not the first one in this role in the secular West, a part of the world often perceived, and to an extensive extent experienced, as biased against Muslims.
In recent years, Muslim Americans have progressively entered local politics, with a modest but meaningful rise in mayors across the US. Abdullah Hammoud became Dearborn, Michigan's first Arab-Muslim mayor in 2021. Mohamed Khairullah, a Syrian-American, has led Prospect Park, NJ, since 2006 and is known for advocating immigrant rights. Ali Saleh in Bell, California, represents a growing presence of Arab-Muslim leadership in immigrant-community-oriented politics. Sadaf Daniel Sheffield, born in Chicago to Pakistani-Yemeni parents, made history as the first Muslim woman mayor in the US.
In Canada, Naheed Nenshi, a devout Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati descent raised in Alberta, served three terms as mayor of Calgary from 2010 to 2021. In the UK, London has had, since 2016, Sir Sadiq Khan, the British-born son of a Pakistani bus driver and seamstress whose administration has reshaped how a global city understands civic leadership rooted in working-class, legal and multicultural values.
The country has also witnessed significant symbolic signposts: Nasim "Nash" Ali, a Bangladeshi-origin Muslim, served as the youngest mayor of Camden in 2003-2004, and as far back as 1938, Dr Chuni Lal Katial, of Punjabi Kashmiri heritage, became Mayor of Finsbury denoting one of the earliest instances of South Asian leadership in Britain. Since 2018, Rokhsana Fiaz has served as the directly elected Mayor of Newham, becoming the first Muslim woman to lead a London borough in that capacity.
In May 2023, Lubna Arshad, born in Oxford to Pakistani parents, was sworn in as the city's first Muslim and first woman of colour to hold the ceremonial role of Lord Mayor. In 2024, Mohammed Asaduzzaman in Brighton and Hove, Shahin Ashraf in Solihull, and Syeda Khatun in Sandwell each became the first Muslim mayors in their respective boroughs. In 2025, Rukhsana Ismail became Mayor of Rotherham, bringing a strong background in social justice and charitable work. Such appointments mirror a momentous adjustment in the civic representation of British Muslims, particularly women, and herald a larger societal approval of their leadership in public life.
The Netherlands gave the world Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Moroccan, son of an imam, who served as Mayor of Rotterdam from January 2009 to October 2024. A Belgian of Turkish descent, Emir Kir has served since 2012 as Mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, the smallest and poorest municipality in the Brussels-Capital Region and is the first mayor of non-European origin in the area. Amra Babic made history in October 2012 as mayor of Visoko, Bosnia, becoming the first hijab wearing female mayor in the country and likely all of Europe. Her election winning around 30% of the vote was celebrated as a milestone for religious and gender representation.
In Australia, the story is quieter but no less powerful. Seema Abdullah, a Pakistani-origin woman of Bihari ancestry, was elected Mayor of Greater Shepparton in Victoria from October 2019 to 2020. Seema is a wife, a mother, an immigrant, a community worker, an IT expert, a Chevening scholar and LSE alumna. Her trajectory extends confidence to all bright and hardworking people from middle class origins.
The word "mayor" comes from the Latin maior, meaning "greater", and once signified civic authority and social stature. In Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, the role becomes a stage for personal tragedy and public scrutiny. What ties these Muslim mayors together is not their faith alone but it is the act of leading while being visibly 'other' or an "outlier". They may be speculated or criticised for just the token figures for optics. Shaped by struggle and animated by community legitimacy, they challenge elite capture, inexcusable consensus in politics and stereotypical myths about Muslims. Their very presence restores belief in humanity and the celebration of diversity.
Like a Hardy protagonist, the mayoralty once a symbol of class, privilege, old money and imperial governance is now undergoing an ethical and representational transformation. It is being redefined by the new chapters in a new civic story written not by expunging the past, but by adding the omitted voices to its present. Today, public figures like Zohran Mamdani earn the role of mayor with new meanings, branded with justice, courage and morality. Their ascent, though limited in number, is metaphorically influential. For Muslim-majority states, it also summons a question: how open and prepared are we for the very inclusion we so often demand, expect, and seek elsewhere?