For the First Time in the Mayor’s Race, Cuomo Campaigns at a Mosque

He received a lengthy and warm introduction from one of the mosque’s leaders and rose from his chair. Then, as congregants watched with some bemusement, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo stared intensely at a small notecard and mangled a traditional Arabic greeting. “Assalam Alaikum,” he finally said, haltingly and after several attempts.

The slip-up might not come as a surprise. Though Mr. Cuomo has held frequent events at churches, synagogues and Sikh temples, Friday’s visit to the Futa Islamic Center in the Bronx was his first campaign event held at a mosque since he declared his run for mayor in March. Mr. Cuomo, who served as governor of New York for 10 years, faced widespread criticism after he struggled during a primary debate to remember the last time he had visited a mosque at all.

In his remarks on Friday, Mr. Cuomo spoke of New York as a beacon for newcomers seeking economic opportunity, a message that seemed to resonate with many congregants of the mosque, many of whom emigrated from West Africa.

Mr. Cuomo told the congregants that his grandfather’s journey from Italy nearly 100 years ago was no different than theirs, and said that, if elected, he would ensure they found the success that had brought them to New York in the first place.

And in a tacit response to the front-runner in the mayor’s race, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who captured the Democratic nomination by focusing on affordability, Mr. Cuomo said he would make buses and subways free for families making less than $50,000 and work to reduce the cost of housing.

“People talk about affordability," he said. “Affordability is a new fancy word, because they have to come up with a new fancy word for an old problem. The old problem is the middle class, the working families, the poor, are under tremendous economic pressure.”