Just one day after the first New York City mayoral debate, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani shared a smiling photo with a Brooklyn imam who had been named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — a terrorist attack that killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and wounded more than 1,000 others.
Mamdani grinned while standing arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj at his Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque.
“Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. A beautiful Jummah,” Mamdani wrote on X.
Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. I was also joined by CM @dr_yusefsalaam of Harlem. A beautiful Jummah. pic.twitter.com/4kcN4CGlUk
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 18, 2025
Wahhaj took the stand in defense of the notorious “blind sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical cleric convicted of conspiring in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. “After the bombing, the U.S. government recorded the sheikh encouraging further violence against targets in New York and New Jersey,” ABC News reported.
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Some statements Wahhaj has made in the past:
“I pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army, and I’m serious about this. We were very close, recently. We had made intention to raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
“I’m not telling you, no, don’t pick up a gun, no. Just march. March through the city of New York. Let them hear your voice. Let them hear it at night. Let them hear it 24 hours, until the whole city can’t sleep.”
As Daniel Pipes reported, in 1992, Wahhaj stated, “If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. … Take my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”
In a September 1991 speech in Toronto, titled “The Afghanistan Jihad,” Wahhaj stated, “Those who struggle for Allah, it doesn’t matter what kind of weapons [you use], I’m telling you it doesn’t matter! You don’t need nuclear weapons or even guns! If you have faith in Allah and a knife! If Allah wants you to win, you will win! Because Allah is the only one who fights. And when his hand is over your hand, whoever is at war against my friends, I declare war on them…. The Americans are not your friends … The Canadians are not your friends … The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah.”
Here’s Mamdani’s Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, calling America “filthy” and “sick”, saying it’s an honor to die in Jihad and saying that getting involved in “politics is a weapon in the cause of Islam” pic.twitter.com/eBR4SoI7X6
— Daniel Greenfield – “Hang Together or Separately” (@Sultanknish) October 19, 2025
Conservative political figures blasted Mamdani:
Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis stated on X: “If you had told people after the 9/11 attacks on the WTC that, within a quarter century, NYC would elect a mayoral candidate who campaigns with an unindicted co-conspirator in the bombing of the WTC, you would have been considered to have a few screws loose. Yet, here it is. From fighting jihad to embracing it. What a slap in the face to the memories of those killed in both the 1993 and 2001 jihadist attacks on the World Trade Center.”
If you had told people after the 9/11 attacks on the WTC that, within a quarter century, NYC would elect a mayoral candidate who campaigns with an unindicted co-conspirator in the bombing of the WTC, you would have been considered to have a few screws loose.
Yet, here it is.… https://t.co/RHp8FmCzoi
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 19, 2025
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) posted: “’I am not a jihadist.’ [poses arm-in-arm with an indisputable jihadist 💋👨❤️💋👨🔥] You are being LIED TO, and let’s be honest—you know you’re being lied to.”
“I am not a jihadist.”
[poses arm-in-arm with an indisputable jihadist
💋👨❤️💋👨🔥]You are being LIED TO, and let’s be honest—you know you’re being lied to. https://t.co/aJQc1BxRKG
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 18, 2025
Former CBS correspondent Lara Logan chimed in: “Imagine being a New Yorker who lived through 9/11 and voting for this?”
Imagine being a New Yorker who lived through 9/11 and voting for this? https://t.co/Pk5HwVR268
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) October 20, 2025
