[INVITATION] Reading Session on: “What Can Malaysians Learn from the Election of Zohran Mamdani in New York?”
Muziru
Date: Sunday, 7th December 2025
Time: 7PM – 9PM
Venue: Baitul Azizah, Presint 18, Putrajaya Bandar Filsafat
Presenter:
Dr. Nader Hashemi
Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Georgetown University
Register at: https://forms.gle/rttzFC51roHhT27HA
On November 4, 2025, Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City. He ran on a platform that focused on the theme of affordability, shaped by democratic socialist ideals and his immigrant Muslim identity.
It was a stunning victory that shocked American’s political establishment. A year ago Mamdani was polling at one percent. Few people knew his name. He faced the former Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, who everyone assumed would coast to an easy victory given his name recognition, political career, family background and his political relationships with the ruling elites of New York.
What social conditions gave rise to this stunning victory? Is Zohran Mamdani the future of American politics in the era of Donald Trump? How did his Muslim background shape his campaign and his electoral victory? Finally, what lessons can we learn from this story that apply to other cities and countries around the world?
This talk will examine these questions. It will be helpful to view this short Al Jazeera Fault Lines Documentary before coming to the Reading Session to facilitate our discussion after the talk: “Zohran Mamdani vs. the Machine.”
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l07-V2rCebw
Program
7.00-7.30PM : Maghrib prayer
7.30-7.40PM : Welcoming speech by Moderator, Dato’ Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa
7.40-8.30PM : Presentation by Dr. Nader Hashemi
8.30-8.55PM : Discusion
8.55PM-9.00PM : Conclusion by Moderator
9.00PM : Tea
Organized by: Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF)
Speaker’s Biography
Dr. Nader Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (Oxford University Press, 2009) and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future (Melville House, 2011), The Syria Dilemma (MIT Press, 2013), Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2017) and a four-volume study on Islam and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies (Routledge, 2023). His intellectual and research interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and political theory, in particular debates on the global rise of authoritarianism, religion and democracy, secularism and its discontents, Middle East and Islamic politics, democratic and human rights struggles in non-Western societies and Islam-West relations. His book Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies has been translated by the Islamic Renaissance Front as ‘Islam, Sekularisme dan Demokrasi Liberal: Membentuk Teori Demokrasi Untuk Masyarakat Muslim’ in the year 2016.