Mamdani defends meeting radical imam by wrongly claiming wasn't a big deal when prior mayors did so

Front-running New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is defending his decision to meet with (and praise) a radical Brooklyn imam — claiming that prior NYC mayors had also met with him and falsely asserting that they did not garner national attention.

Mamdani spoke at imam Siraj Wahhaj's Brooklyn mosque Friday and praised him on X as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”

The imam has a long history of incendiary commentary and appeared as a character witness for Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman – commonly known as the “Blind Sheikh” – who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995 for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other plots to bomb major NYC landmarks.

Mayoral opponents of Democratic nominee Mamdani — former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa — each criticized Mamdani over his praise of Wahhaj, and Mamdani pushed back against the criticism. And they will likely make the meeting an issue when the debate again Wednesday night, ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4. 

“The same imam met with Mayor Bloomberg, met with Mayor de Blasio, campaigned alongside Eric Adams, and the only time it became an issue of national attention was when I met with him,” Mamdani, a Muslim, said to reporters over the weekend. “That’s because of the fact of my faith and because I’m on the precipice of winning this election.”

Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio indeed appear to have largely avoided criticism for meeting with Wahhaj, although Adams's mayoral office disputed that Adams had ever campaigned with Wahhaj.

However, in 2009, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor, his decision to meet with Wahhaj did, in fact, result in negative national attention, including stories by the Associated Press and Fox News, as well as articles written by local news outlets such as the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

Current mayor, Eric Adams, when he was Brooklyn Borough president, tweeted in December 2015: “Congrats to our Golden Cornerstone honorees inc.: Overseer Dorothy Wright, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik!” The photo showed Adams next to Wahhaj.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported at the time that Adams “honored clergy from each of the three Abrahamic faiths who have served their communities and the wider society for the longest” and that “Imam Siraj Wahhaj has served his community since 1976.”

Adams's office told Just the News that Zohran’s claim that Adams had campaigned with Wahhaj, however, was false, with the mayor's office saying that when Adams was Brooklyn Borough President and running for mayor, he visited multiple mosques as part of a ‘mosque tour’ but that he did not actually campaign with Wahhaj.

"If the assemblymember [Mamdani] wants to liken himself to Mayor Adams, perhaps he should also join the mayor in condemning Hamas, denouncing the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ accepting the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition for antisemitism, and speaking out against the surge of vile antisemitic hate we've witnessed across our city and country since October 7th," Adams press secretary Kayla Mamelak Altus told Just the News. "Something tells me he won’t."

De Blasio did also speak at Wahhaj’s Brooklyn mosque in May 2021 alongside his then-wife, Chirlaine McCray, whom he separated from in 2023. While de Blasio did not directly mention Wahhaj in his remarks at the mosque, McCray said, “Imam Siraj – it is an honor, such a deep honor to be with you to celebrate this Weekend of Faith on Mental Health.”

Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him through his campaign. 

Bloomberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him through his Bloomberg Philanthropies. (He was a Democrat until 2001. He then switched to Republican before running for mayor. He became an independent in 2007, then registered again in 2018 as a Democrat.)

De Blasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him through his website.

Mamdani effusively praises the radical imam

Back in June, Wahhaj recommended that his followers vote for Mamdani, saying, “Allah has blessed us. We have a very, very good candidate. His name is Zohran Mamdani.”

Wahhaj and Mamdani also praised each other during remarks Friday at the Brooklyn mosque.

“We have a lot to do. Inshallah [God willing], real soon we’re going to have a new mayor in New York City,” said Wahhaj, who made a face as if pretending to act shocked. “And he might be sitting right here somewhere.” Wahhaj then pretended to look around.

“I’m not sure, but he looks like him. My family will tell you how much love I have for him. … One of the best ever that I’ve ever heard ever, and I’ve met all the mayors of New York City. I’ve never met one like this young brother here, Mamdani,” Wahhaj said. “Now, I’m not going to tell everyone to go vote for Mamdani – though you should – but I want to say that we’re very happy to have him.” 

Wahhaj then directed his remarks to Mamdani directly: “I want to let you know that our prayers are with you. I love you more than you can ever imagine. Don’t ever stop doing what you’re doing. … I told some people I’m gonna try to change the law in America so you can run for president.”

Mamdani then took the microphone.

“It is such an honor to be here with you, imam. To be here at Masjid Al-Taqwa. And to be here the day after the first debate in the general election. 

"And in that debate I spoke about what it means to be a Muslim in this city,” Mamdani said. “We are on the brink of not just winning this race, but winning a future where respect and dignity are afforded to all of us.”

He also argued, “We are in a city where we know that it’s not just that Muslims belong here. But we can belong in the leadership of this city as well.”

“To be a good Muslim is to be a good person," he also said. "It is to help those in need and harm no one. Look at the history of this masjid. That is the history we are speaking of – of believing in a future that those around could not yet see." 

Mamdani also added: "We know there is more because we see glimpses of that city. We see it in this masjid. We see it in this imam. We see it in so many that we hold so dear. ... When I stand on that stage, and I have a former governor trying to make me feel ashamed for standing up for universal human rights – and extending them to Palestinians as well – I know I am not alone.”

After that line, members of the crowd began to yell “Allahu Akbar!” – meaning Allah is the greatest.

The Daily Caller previously reported that a super PAC called "Unity and Justice Fund" supporting Mamdani’s campaign for New York City mayor accepted $1,000 from Wahhaj. 

Bloomberg’s meeting with Wahhaj got national attention — and criticism

Bloomberg met with Wahhaj in November 2009 in the wake of the mass shooting terrorist attack by U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot and killed 13 members of the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan had communicated with American-Yemeni cleric and al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack.

Bloomberg’s mayoral office soon set up a meeting with NYC Muslim leaders – including Wahhaj.

The Associated Press headline stated that “Bloomberg shakes hands with terrorist’s associate.”

“Bloomberg says he would not have shaken the hand of a character witness for a convicted terrorist if he had known about his history,” the wire service wrote.

The report also stated:  Wahhaj “was among clergy members invited to meet the mayor Wednesday” and that he “was a witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up city landmarks.” 

The news outlet noted that “Bloomberg says he will in general continue to reach out to every group as mayor” and “says he believes he was doing that while meeting with Wahhaj, the leader of a large mosque.”

The Fox News headline was that a “Radical Muslim Cleric Who Defended World Trade Center Bombers a Guest of NYC Mayor.”

The national outlet wrote that Bloomberg “welcomed to City Hall an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, later claiming he didn't know the radical Muslim cleric had been invited.” The outlet further noted that Wahhaj “has called the FBI and CIA the ‘real terrorists,’ defended the convicted World Trade Center attack plotters, and said his hope is that all Americans will become Muslim.”

The New York Post headline stated that “Bloomberg regrets greeting ‘93 WTC ‘plotter’.”

The NYC tabloid reported that “Bloomberg says if he had known a Brooklyn imam was a character witness for a convicted terrorist he would not have greeted him. Siraj Wahhaj was among clergy invited to meet the mayor, who shook his hand on Wednesday.” 

The outlet said that the mayor said "if he had recognized the man’s background, he would not have greeted him” but that “as mayor, Bloomberg says he will in general continue to reach out to every group” and that “he believes he was doing that while meeting with Wahhaj, the leader of a large mosque.”

The Post followed up with another story headlined “Controversial imam visits QC [Queens College].” 

The tabloid said that “Wahhaj had also recently made headlines after the Bloomberg administration said it regretted meeting with the imam in a roundtable Mayor Michael Bloomberg held with religious leaders to discuss concerns about Muslims being targeted following the Fort Hood shooting, in which U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 people.”

The New York Daily News reported that “the mayor’s office admits it goofed when it invited a Brooklyn imam linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to City Hall for a Muslim community meeting on Wednesday.” 

The outlet said that “the imam’s past wound up overshadowing the get-together and the mayor’s red-faced staff later said Wahhaj should never have been there in the first place.”

“If we were aware of his full background, it would have been done differently,” an anonymous Bloomberg aide reportedly told the outlet.

“He was invited by staff because he leads a large mosque in Brooklyn,” Bloomberg mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser also said. “The mayor had never met him and wasn’t aware of his background.”

“We’re trying to reach out to leaders in various Muslim communities throughout the city, because we’re trying to prevent the sort of anti-Muslim backlash we’ve seen elsewhere” after the Fort Hood shootings, Loeser reportedly said.

The Observer also had a headline saying, “Bloomberg Explains, Defends the Imam Meeting. Michael Bloomberg took a hit in the tabloids today for including a controversial Imam in his meeting with Muslim leaders.”

The outlet reported that “today, Bloomberg – with purposeful calm – told reporters he probably wouldn’t have invited Siraj Wahhaj had he known of the imam’s background, which includes being identified by the FBI as ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing and appearing as a defense witness for the man convicted of plotting to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel and United Nations building.”

“But the important thing is, I’m going to keep this city open to everyone,” Bloomberg was quoted as telling reporters at City Hall.

The outlet added that “Bloomberg seemed to defend the concept of inviting Wahhaj” when the mayor said that “incidentally, he is the leader of a large mosque. And we’re going to reach out to everybody. I don’t care what their background is. We do not want to have people in this city who feel that they are so estranged from the community that they start fighting the community.”

“My job is to reach out to everybody and that is exactly what we did and what we will continue to do,” the outlet quoted Bloomberg as saying.

An opinion piece for Forbes said that “Wahhaj was invited to a conference with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings. In a nauseating twist, Mayor Bloomberg shook the hand of a man who actively contributed to the terrible attacks on America's great city.”

The opinion piece added: “If Wahhaj were in another country he would be actively targeted by our military. But in the heart of our country, protected by the same civil liberties he is so actively trying to destroy, Wahhaj spreads his radical message with impunity.”

The leftwing Village Voice also ran the seemingly sardonic headline of “Bloomberg Linked to Terrorist.”

The outlet said that Bloomberg’s office “invited Siraj Wahhaj, ‘linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,’ to meet at City Hall to discuss ways to keep the lid on anti-Muslim violence after Fort Hood. Thus, Bloomberg is Linked to Terrorist, or at least to someone Linked to Terrorism, which as history shows is close enough for journalism.”

Wahhaj was a well-known “terrorist apologist”

The prosecution against the Blind Sheikh grew out of the federal investigation into the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White and then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy sent a February 1995 letter to the defense team providing a list of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the case against the Blind Sheikh. Wahhaj was on the list.

McCarthy, now a contributing editor at National Review, has called Wahhaj a “sharia-supremacist imam” and has said it is fair to call Wahhaj a “terrorist apologist”, but he has also repeatedly emphasized that federal prosecutors did not allege that Wahhaj was an "unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. 

McCarthy has added that “evidence about incidents at the Taqwa mosque was offered and I’m sure his name came up” in the trial against the Blind Sheikh, and Wahhaj’s character witness “testimony, inadvertently, ended up being helpful to our case.”

Wahhaj was a character witness for the Blind Sheikh in July 1995, according to court transcripts. Wahhaj said of the Blind Sheikh that “I respect him” and admitted that Rahman had spoken at Wahhaj’s mosque.

“I think one night he gave a lecture at our mosque, yes, our masjid. … Probably you are talking about late '91, early '92, I think, something like that,” Wahhaj said. “You know, it was a general kind of talk. Sheik Abdel Rahman was very popular from reciting verses from the Koran and giving explanation, but that night I can't remember the context of the talk.”

Wahhaj also said: “We had heard that this great sheikh was in America and he was like touring the country and he was in New York City and some of his entourage, the people who were with him, said how would you like for him to come to your mosque and give a talk, and we said yes, definitely.

“He is a well known scholar, he is a respected scholar. You know, people in the community, they talk about 23 well known scholars. And he is among the ones who is mentioned. He is called the hafiz of the Koran,” Wahhaj said. “He memorized the entire Koran, 114 chapters. That is why I respect him. He has memorized the many statements of Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him. And he is bold, as a strong preacher of Islam. So he is respected that way.”

McCarthy wrote in 2004 that the Blind Sheikh’s jihadist organization “was responsible not only for the WTC bombing but also the murders of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and JDL founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, a conspiracy to murder Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and, most frighteningly, a post-WTC plot simultaneously to bomb several New York City landmarks (the United Nations complex, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and the FBI's Manhattan headquarters) — stopped only because the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force managed to infiltrate the conspiracy with an informant.”

McCarthy noted that “Rahman and 11 others were ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges after a nine-month trial that ended in October 1995.”

The 9/11 Commission report said that the Blind Sheikh’s preaching had inspired the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, and that the Blind Sheikh was a spiritual guide for the Islamic Group and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the latter of which was an Egyptian jihadist group led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who would later merge his group with al-Qaeda and would serve as Osama bin Laden’s longtime deputy.

The report said Rahman “found refuge” in the U.S., and “from his headquarters in Jersey City, he distributed messages calling for the murder of unbelievers.”

The Associated Press reported in 2004 that the NYPD had placed Wahhaj, a former character witness for the Blind Sheikh, on an internal terrorism watch list and noted: “Political ideology moderately radical and anti-American.”

The City of New York Law Department said in 2013 that “the NYPD's investigation of certain individuals associated with Plaintiff Masjid At Taqwa was based upon information about their lengthy history of suspected criminal activity, some of it terroristic in nature.” 

“Certain individuals associated with Masjid At Taqwa have historical ties to terrorism. The mosque's Imam, Siraj Wahhajj, was named by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York as an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to bomb a number of New York City landmarks in the mid-1990s (the ‘Landmarks Plot’). Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the ‘Blind Sheikh,’ who is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the Landmarks Plot, lectured at Masjid At Taqwa,” the NYC law department letter added. 

“Wahhaj testified as a character witness for Abdel Rahman during Abdel Rahman's terrorism trial. Wahhaj also testified as a character witness for Clement Hampton El, a Masjid At Taqwa attendee who was convicted as one of the Blind Sheikh's coconspirators in the Landmarks Plot.”

Wahhaj sought to cast doubt on Muslim involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing during a lecture in Toronto that year, as the imam suggested the attack may have been carried out by Israel.

“Now brothers and sisters, right now as I’m speaking to you, in New York City there is a trial taking place. Four Muslims are accused of blowing up the World Trade Center in February 26 of this year,” Wahhaj said, adding, “Who blew up the World Trade Center? I don’t think that the people who did [it] is in custody.”

Wahhaj added: “I don’t know who bombed the World Trade Center. The major question is what is the objective? What we were trying to do? What was trying to be accomplished? I think that I do know that was accomplished that Muslims were accused of doing it. And it gave Muslims a bad eye in the eyes of the major media. Whose interest is it? To have Muslims looked down upon. Again it’s the government, big business and the media… Again can I say the Mossad did it? No. But I’ll say one thing. It has the fingerprints of agencies like the Mossad.”