New York City's leading mayoral hopeful, Zohran Mamdani, just stepped into a firestorm by cozying up to a controversial imam with a past that raises serious eyebrows, as the New York Post reports.
The 34-year-old Democratic Socialist met with 75-year-old Imam Siraj Wahhaj on Friday, posting a photo and glowing praise for a figure tied to the deadly 1993 World Trade Center bombing, prompting sharp backlash from Muslim scholars and activists who fear this legitimizes extremist views.
Let’s rewind to the 1993 bombing, a tragic attack that claimed six lives in the heart of New York.
Federal prosecutors once labeled Wahhaj an “unindicted co-conspirator” in that attack, noting that some of the masterminds frequented his mosque.
Though never charged due to insufficient evidence, and while Wahhaj has consistently denied any wrongdoing, his rhetoric over the years hasn’t exactly screamed “peace and harmony.”
He’s called for Muslims to weaponize American democracy for Islamic causes, denounced the U.S. government as devil-controlled, and even mused to the Wall Street Journal about a future where strict Islamic law -- think stoning adulterers and chopping off thieves’ hands -- might “persuade” America.
Adding fuel to the fire, Wahhaj later defended the 1993 attackers while branding the FBI and CIA as the “real terrorists.”
His own son’s conviction for training teenagers for violent terror attacks at a grim New Mexico encampment -- resulting in a life sentence -- doesn’t help his case, though Wahhaj called the behavior “sick” and claimed he tipped off police to stop it.
Still, he insists he rejects violence and has no ties to terrorism, a stance that critics find hard to square with his public statements.
Enter Mamdani, who waltzed into Wahhaj’s mosque in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, snapped a photo, and hailed him as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”
That glowing endorsement has moderate Muslims like Dalia Ziada, a scholar with the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, sounding the alarm. “By embracing Wahhaj, Zohran Mamdani is sidelining moderate Muslims and normalizing an extremist ideology that once inspired terror on American soil and still fuels radicalization within segments of the Muslim community today,” Ziada told Fox News.
Her point cuts deep -- posing alongside figures with such baggage risks alienating those fighting to keep faith separate from fanaticism, while sending a troubling signal to a city still scarred by past attacks.
Then there’s Soraya Deen, founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement, who’s equally disturbed by Mamdani’s move, especially noting the absence of women in the photos from Wahhaj’s mosque. “Despite the gender jihad women are facing in the Muslim world, Mamdani poses for a photo op that emboldens the men suppressing women’s rights,” Deen told Fox.
Deen, who heard Wahhaj speak two decades ago, recalls being floored by his rhetoric back then, and she’s not buying the “community pillar” narrative now. Her critique isn’t just about ideology -- it’s about a mayoral candidate seemingly blind to the optics of gender exclusion in a progressive city like New York.
Mamdani’s decision to align with Wahhaj isn’t just a political misstep; it’s a slap in the face to those who’ve worked tirelessly to steer Muslim communities away from radical fringes. While free speech allows for controversial figures to have their say, a potential city leader amplifying such a voice feels like a reckless gamble.
