Sometimes, just a few words can cut through a world of hate.
When Stephen King saw an online post attacking Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s newly elected mayor, he didn’t stay quiet. The hateful post showed an image of the Twin Towers on 9/11 with a caption sneering: “How does the city that suffered the biggest Islamic attack in history vote for a Muslim mayor?”
King’s reply was swift, calm, and devastatingly clear:
“Um, he didn’t do it. He was 10 at the time.”
Those eleven words spread like wildfire. Thousands applauded the author’s simple reminder of truth and humanity — that faith doesn’t define guilt, and prejudice has no logic. Mamdani, just 34, was only a child when tragedy struck in 2001.
Even so, his victory over Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa has drawn ugly, racist attacks. Yet Mamdani stood tall, saying, “I am Muslim, I am a Democratic Socialist — and I refuse to apologize for any of this.”
In an age of noise and division, it took a horror writer to remind us of something deeply human: sometimes, the scariest monsters aren’t in fiction — they’re the lies we tell about each other.
