Muslims of New York

In November, a New York City man was caught on camera ranting against an Arab Uber driver. “You’re a loser. You’re not even from here,” he yelled, punctuating his tirade with expletives and the word “terrorist.” In January, a Trump supporter in Elizabethtown, New York, told NPR: "I feel that if a Muslim woman wants to move into this country, she needs to leave her towel home.” Last week, a Kansas man shot at two Indians at a bar after allegedly shouting, ”Get out of my country.” Apparently, he thought they were Iranian.

This hate crime, ignorant statement, and racist rant all have one thing in common: they assume that Muslims are un-American—at best, strange outsiders; at worst, existential threats. But photographs of Muslim New Yorkers displayed in a new installation at the Museum of the City of New York subvert that notion. The collection includes images by the photographers Alexander Alland, Ed Grazda, Mel Rosenthal, and Robert Gerhardt, who captured the lives of Muslims in the city in the 20th and 21st centuries.