New York Muslims mark gains 25 years after 9/11 backlash

Muslim New Yorkers say their community has gained visibility and political power 25 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks triggered years of Islamophobia and surveillance.

Asad Dandia, a 33-year-old historian who leads walking tours focused on New York's Muslim communities, was eight when he watched the attacks on television at his Pakistani immigrant parents' home. He said he later came to see himself as fully part of the city despite being targeted after 9/11.

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people after militants hijacked airliners and flew them into Manhattan's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers revolted.

Muslims reported increased assaults and harassment after the attacks, and some stopped wearing visible religious markers such as hijabs. US authorities also required thousands of men and boys to register with the government, leading to many deportations.

In New York, police surveilled hundreds of Muslims as part of a counterterrorism strategy, often targeting people without evidence of wrongdoing. Dandia said that when he was a 19-year-old college student, a young Bangladeshi man joined his mutual aid charity and became close to him before revealing seven months later that he was an NYPD informant sent to monitor him and his community.

Dandia and rights groups later won a legal settlement that restricted the NYPD from launching similar surveillance programs and created a watchdog to monitor the force.

New York now has Mayor Zohran Mamdani, described as the city's first Muslim mayor, and the city is set to have what is described as the largest mosque in the state. More than 100 mosques have been added in New York since 2001, and around nine percent of the city's population is Muslim.

Islamophobia has not disappeared. In March, a far-right influencer organised a rally outside the mayor's residence under the slogan "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City." A conservative senator has said Mamdani should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and former mayor Rudy Giuliani said it offended him that Mamdani would attend the 9/11 memorial service.

Dandia said he remained optimistic about the Muslim community's place in New York, pointing to institutional growth and wider recognition from other New Yorkers.