Zohran Mamdani will be the first New York City mayor to be sworn in on a Quran when he takes office at midnight on Jan. 1, officials said.
Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim to lead City Hall, will use at least three different sets of Islam’s holy book to take the oath of office during his private and public ceremonies on Thursday, his spokesperson said.
The far-left pol is expected to use his grandfather’s Quran and one that belonged to black writer and historian Arturo Schomburg, lent by the New York Public Library, during a private midnight ceremony at the abandoned Old City Hall subway station.
During his daytime oath of office outside City Hall, he will again use his grandfather’s religious book and at least one other family Quran, the New York Times first reported and Mamdani’s rep confirmed.
State Attorney General Letitia James will swear in Mamdani at midnight while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will deliver the oath of office to the democratic socialist later in the day.
Recent mayors have used a variety of different religious texts with personal meaning and historical significance when getting sworn into office.
Mayor Eric Adams, who will serve one term after he dropped his re-election bid, was sworn in on a family bible and held a portrait of his late mother with his other hand as the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 2022.
Bill de Blasio opted to be sworn in on a bible that was once owned by progressive hero, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he was sworn in for his first term in 2014.
The historic bible famously went missing for hours after the ceremony, sparking a moment of panic before it was recovered.
Michael Bloomberg, whose first term came in the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, put his hand on the same Jewish bible he used at his bar mitzvah, according to a 2002 report.
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, didn’t shy away from discussing his religious faith on the campaign trail.
“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated as any other New Yorker, and yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive,” the progressive said in October as he faced criticism for posing in a photo with a controversial imam.
While Schomberg, whose Quran will be featured in the Inauguration Day ceremony, was not Muslim, he still had the religious text as part of a large collection tied to black history and culture.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1874 and later moving to Harlem, the historian, writer and activist was part of an effort to promote African American research and scholarship, according to the NYPL.
Schomberg’s Quran was picked by senior advisor Zara Rahim and Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, with the help of NYPL’s curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Hiba Abid, the Times reported.
“It’s a highly symbolic choice because we’re about to have a Muslim mayor swearing in using the Quran but also a mayor who was born on the African continent, in Uganda,”Abid told the newspaper.
“It really brings together here elements of faith, identity and New York history.”
Former House Rep. Keith Ellison, who is now Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general, was the first federal lawmaker to use a Quran during his swearing-in to Congress in 2007.
