Black kids protecting their Latino neighbors from ICE
Asad Dandia
@asadfromnyc.bsky.social
Local NYC historian, urbanist, organizer. I once sued the NYPD for spying on me, and now run a walking tour company called New York Narratives. Write to asad@newyorknarratives.com to chat! (Trying to be more active here)
@asadfromnyc.bsky.social is facilitating walking tours that bring the histories of NYC policing to life through November. Looks like the next tour is on Aug 29 crookedideas.org/empirecity/
Empire City Live - Crooked Ideas
Empire City - The police tell us their job is to “serve and protect” — but what if their original purpose was something else altogether?
crookedideas.org
“The mayor’s statement on Benjamin Netanyahu affirms his commitment to universal human rights and dignity for all…Even if he does not have the power to enforce an I.C.C. warrant as a municipal leader, it’s about the principle of the matter.” @asadfromnyc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/n...
Mamdani Knew He Couldn’t Arrest Netanyahu. But He Could Denounce Him.
In a video message, the mayor of New York City said he could not legally arrest Israel’s prime minister but reinforced his position as a voice of the international left.
nytimes.com
I am going to break my rule about reading the article first again to make the point that OF COURSE Brooklyn chose the most Brooklyn-looking man on earth to be its (His? Her?) historian.
After about 7 years of being hidden behind scaffolding and netting, the Flatiron Building is finally showing its facade again seen during sunset in New York City, Wednesday evening #newyork #newyorkcity #nyc #sunset #flatironbuilding
Nothing I love more than to be out connecting with our community & our history, and excited I had the chance to do it with @asadfromnyc.bsky.social! Thank you Asad for helping showcase some of our rich & diverse history uptown — and how our working class community is at the heart of it all.
"Mamdani represents something that, until recently, was considered impossible: an Indian American rising to one of the most influential elected offices in the country, without the backing of the pro-Modi lobby." Hat tip to @asadfromnyc.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/the...
The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States
Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America
newlinesmag.com
“It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to win a citywide election without the support of South Asian communities,” Dandia said. “It’s not just that South Asians are building power. They’re building progressive power. They’re building socialist power.” newlinesmag.com/argument/the...
The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States
Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America
newlinesmag.com
The rising political power of South Asians can be compared to that of the Irish at the turn of the last century, who went from being outsiders to dominating the Catholic Church, politics and labor unions in New York @asadfromnyc.bsky.social tells @yashicadutt.bsky.social
The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States
Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America
tinyurl.com
Spoke to over 100 NYU students today about the history of Arab, South Asian, and Muslim NYC in a core undergrad class. Students are all excited about the future of this city, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to give them more grounding in its past and present. Invite me to yours!
Before joining last night’s campaign party, I sat with Marshall Ganz, the social movement scholar who devised Obama’s 2008 campaign strategy. I asked him: Is this an Obama 2008 moment? He said, “It’s different, instead of maximizing support [like Zohran], Obama kept minimizing opposition.”
Quote from me for Al-Jazeera on Cuomo trafficking in Islamophobia while also inciting sectarianism within the Muslim community: “Sadly he knows he can weaponize both Islam and Islamophobia, because treating Muslims both as tools and as targets is politically profitable.”
More people have already voted in the New York City mayoral election on an odd year than the entire populations of Boston, Miami, Detroit, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
I was born and raised in New York City. I’ve never left and don’t really know another “Home.” But I love it—because Home happened to be the most diverse and dynamic city ever known to humankind. Today I voted for my brother Zohran Mamdani because I know he loves every inch of it the way do.
Got up at 5am and into a suit so I could join hundreds of people to walk with our next mayor by 6 on the Brooklyn Bridge as the sun rose to mark the start of a new day in NYC. I wouldn’t do this for anyone else even if they paid me, so you know I’m really about it for our boy.
"Asad Dandia, a New York urban historian who is part of Mamdani’s informal 'kitchen cabinet' that advises him, said many younger voters have only ever known Trump. But with Zohran's campaign, 'they get to be part of something that speaks to them.'" www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
'Our country has failed them.' Zohran Mamdani talks to USA TODAY about younger voters.
Early voting has appeared to skew towards older voters and Andrew Cuomo has gained in the NYC mayoral polls, making youth turnout key for Mamdani.
usatoday.com
My father and I were invited to a private community event earlier this afternoon to hear my friend Zohran Mamdani speak. Remember: It isn’t *just* young people who’ve been activated by this campaign 😌❤️.
i will defend to the death my country, the New York City Subway System 🫡
Asad Dandia@asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 9mo agoHappy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.
Happy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.
13,000 people attended tonight’s rally. I’m sorry to be always be that New York Exceptionalist, but this could not happen anywhere else, and no mayoral candidate in modern US history could do it except one of our own. And what a blessing to witness it all.
Life is pretty rough for our Muslim friends on the other site, so I’m reupping this piece on one of the very greatest New Yorkers @asadfromnyc.bsky.social to try and get him to spend more time here, where it’s much more sane.
The City Reporter@thecityreporter.nyc · last yr.Historian Asad Dandia, a city character in his own right, is showing the history of Muslims in New York while also trying to help elect the city’s first Muslim mayor. buff.ly/HMbY2zn
My man @asadfromnyc.bsky.social 🙌🏼🙌🏼🔥🔥🙏🏼🙏🏼😌😌
Asad Dandia@asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 10mo ago“For Asad Dandia, an urban historian, Mamdani’s success to date is a culmination of 400 years of Muslim history in the city, stretching back to the enslaved Africans brought to New York, about 30 percent of whom were Muslim.” www.aljazeera.com/news/longfor...
“‘We could not hide that we are Muslim,’ Dandia said, referring to himself and Mamdani. ‘Yet we do not anchor our politics on identitarian terms. Adequate housing is a ‘Muslim issue’, public transit is a ‘Muslim issue’, universal childcare is a ‘Muslim issue.’” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
From scapegoats to city hall: how New York Muslims built power and shaped Zohran Mamdani
Muslim New Yorkers have steadily become a political force amid post-9/11 Islamophobic sentiment. Mamdani is their most accomplished expression
theguardian.com
Such kind words from a scholar of New York City! One day we will co-curate a walking tour together based on your book! :)
prithi@prithik.bsky.social · 10mo agoLoved seeing this @asadfromnyc.bsky.social Shout out to this wonderful CUNY colleague www.thenation.com/article/soci...
“For Asad Dandia, an urban historian, Mamdani’s success to date is a culmination of 400 years of Muslim history in the city, stretching back to the enslaved Africans brought to New York, about 30 percent of whom were Muslim.” www.aljazeera.com/news/longfor...
NYC working-class Muslims see progress in Mamdani, but policies win votes
History-making run met with pride, prejudice, but many Muslim New Yorkers more focused on message of affordability.
aljazeera.com
““I want people to understand that the city progressively unfolded through these struggles, and the best way to do that, I think, is to walk the streets and to see the sites of contestation,” he added. “The streets of New York bear witness to our labor.”
Asad Dandia@asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 10mo agoJust over one year after launching my own walking tour company, my work now has a feature profile in THE NATION: “I don’t want New York to be seen as just a collection of monuments and structures. I want it to be understood as a collective of stories and people.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...
“Dandia takes New York back from the systems that surveilled him. In East Harlem, he chronicles the rise of Muslim Boricuas. In FiDi, he traces the forced displacement of Syrian émigrés. In upper Manhattan, he follows the specter of Malcolm X.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City
Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.
thenation.com