Hi everyone-
Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani will use a Quran for his swearing in. He is the first New York City mayor to do so. He plans to use three different Qurans, one that belonged to his grandfather, another that once belonged to Harlem Renaissance writer Arturo Schomburg, and another that belongs to his family.
A New York Public Library Curator of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies unsurprisingly seems to love the move. "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," she told The New York Times. "It really brings together here elements of faith, identity and New York history."
Mamdani brought up Islam repeatedly in his campaign, mostly to tell people they were Islamophobic if they questioned him. There are about 1 million Muslims in New York City. Past mayors have used the Bible for their swearing in, but there are other elected officials who have used a Quran, notably Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom her colleague Tom Emmer calls "the most duplicitous con artist I have ever seen."
AG Keith Ellison, Rep Rashida Tlaib, and others have all used a Quran during their swearing in. Ellison used a Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson. It's said to represent cultural diversity and be symbolic of religious freedom, but it also seems to be about a capitulation of Christendom to a religion that has been a long-time foe.
In Minnesota, Trump has frozen all federal child care payments. The move was announced by Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O'Neil. He's said that all ACF payments to states for child care will now "will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence" before money is sent. He's demanded a full audit of every child care center cited by Nick Shirley in his mega-viral report. And they've "launched a dedicated fraud-reporting hotline and email address at https://childcare.gov."
"We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud," he said. It kinda feels like playing whack-a-mole. As the feds tackle fraud in Minnesota, it's rearing up in Washington, Ohio, Maine, and there additional programs Mamdani is planning to ram through in New York will likely have safeguards that are no better than the fins and flippers the MTA is using in a failed attempt to thwart fare-beaters.
Libby