NEW YORK (RNS) — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted his first interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s midtown self-discipline on Friday morning (Feb. 6). For this 300 and sixty five days’s breakfast, native clergy joined the mayor in condemning the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
All the map in which via the event, Mamdani signed an executive dispute to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers from coming into metropolis property with out a judicial warrant.
“ICE is more than a rogue company. It’s a manifestation of the abuse of strength,” Mamdani talked about forward of signing the doc amid applause. “With out a doubt, there isn’t very one of these thing as a reforming one thing so corrupt and gross.”
Government Tell 13 will additionally prevent the federal government from getting access to New Yorkers’ non-public records and form an interagency response committee on immigration, the mayor talked about.
All the map in which via the outdated school breakfast, Mamdani, who began constructing ties with native faith leaders all the map via his advertising and marketing campaign, made obvious that he hoped to work with them to put into effect his affordability agenda and reinforce the metropolis’s immigrant communities amid ICE operations within the metropolis. All the map in which via the event, speakers drew on heaps of non secular teachings to dart clergy to shield immigrant communities all the map via the 5 boroughs.
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All the map in which via his 20-minute deal with, Mamdani referenced teachings from the Bible, the Torah and the Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred Hindu text, on the need for the faithful to esteem strangers. The mayor, citing Deuteronomy 10:17-18, which speaks of God caring for strangers, commended the almost 200 faith leaders in attendance to achieve the identical.
Of us abet an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s midtown self-discipline on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, hosted by mayor Zohran Mamdani. (RNS characterize/Fiona André)
“We can count on our faith to present an embrace of every other,” he talked about.
Mamdani, the metropolis’s first Muslim mayor, popular that his non-public tradition modified into basically based on a memoir of immigration: the Prophet Muhammad’s hurry from Mecca to Medina.
“Let us provide a recent path — no doubt one of defiance via compassion,” talked about Mamdani, after praising the instance space by Minnesota protesters Alex Pretti and Renée Lawful, both killed by ICE brokers deployed within the divulge.
After a gap musical performance by Qais Essar, Sonny Singh and Sukhmani, which drew on Sikh, Sufi and Afghan cultures, leaders took activates stage, all denouncing the administration’s immigration policy as in opposition to their faith teachings.
In her welcoming remarks, Aliya Latif, the newly appointed executive director of the Mayor’s Suppose of work of Faith-Based Partnerships, talked about NY clergy ought to mobilize as forcefully as clergy who secure protested ICE operations all the map via the nation.
“Faith leaders secure answered to this crisis with the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They’ve prayed with their toes,” she talked about. “Our most unique take a look at might be how we esteem basically the most susceptible amongst us.”
Rabbi Emily Cohen, senior rabbi at West End Synagogue in New york, additionally applauded faith leaders who secure taken heart stage within the negate ride in opposition to ICE operations.
“Religion is often characterised as a residence for the actual, but I’m continuously inspired by the non secular left … by standard individuals that wear their faith no longer as a swimsuit of armor, guarding in opposition to the utterly different, but as a huge coat warming us in opposition to an icy world,” she talked about.
Dr. Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer, the manager director of New York College’s Islamic Middle, talked about that because the Quran teaches Muslims to honor all human beings, he inspired faith leaders to recommend for a gradual medication of immigrants all the map via the nation.
“We’re no longer called to 1 map of deepest piety but to 1 map of steady braveness,” he talked about. “Faith leaders and faith communities will secure to be the voices of sense of right and unsuitable, standing with the susceptible, defending human dignity and reminding society that every single no doubt one of us carries this intrinsic honor.”
Attendees included congressional candidate and dilapidated NYC comptroller Brad Lander, New York Muslim Democratic Membership’s lead counsel, Ali Najmi, St. John the Divine’s dean the Rev. Winnie Varghese and Clarendon Avenue church’s the Rev. Charles Galbreath.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, senior rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue, additionally attended the event. All the map in which via the mayoral advertising and marketing campaign, Cosgrove talked about he believed Mamdani posed a “risk to the safety of the New York Jewish community” attributable to his criticism of Israel.
RELATED: ‘I of course feel like I’ve lost my home’: Some NYC Jews who hoped Mamdani would lose secure in mind their future
This 300 and sixty five days, main Jewish organizations withdrew their sponsorship of the interfaith breakfast, in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, UJA-Federation of New York and the New York Board of Rabbis.
The event additionally featured prayers by a revered Buddhist grasp, His Eminence Gegye Yongyal Rinpoche and Queens-basically based totally mostly Hindu priest Uddab Shastri. Imam Ammar Abdul Rahman, the Muslim life director at Fordham College, additionally prayed that faith leaders translate the day’s conversations into ride.
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