New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani met and posed for a photograph with controversial figure Siraj Wahhaj on Friday, sparking outrage, given this imam’s extreme statements and past as an unindicted coconspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
“Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders,” Mamdani wrote on X/Twitter, publishing a photograph of himself embracing Wahhaj and Democrat New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam.
The US Justice Department has alleged that Wahhaj was one of the coconspirators involved with the seditious conspiracy case of the Islamic Group terrorist leader Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.
Known also as “the blind sheikh,” Rahman and his network of nine supporters were convicted for various jihadist terrorist plots, including assisting the WTC bombers, plotting to murder Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and planning to bomb bridges and tunnels in New York City.
Wahhaj gave a character testimony for Rahman, describing him as a “bold, strong preacher of Islam,” and as a man respected for his memorization of the Quran. He also praised a few other suspects in Rahman’s network.
According to Paul M. Barrett’s 2007 book, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion, Wahhaj did not believe the FBI’s allegations of conspiracy involving people he had associated with on multiple occasions.
In response to the campaign photograph, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday, per Forbes, that it was a “shame.”
“The Mamdani thing is – it’s a disaster waiting to happen,” said Trump. “I think it’s a shame that that particular man is endorsing him and very friendly with him. You can see there’s a relationship. He blew up the World Trade Center, right?”
US Vice President JD Vance took to X to remark that he had been “informed that Democrats are opposed to any kind of political violence” and consequently looked “forward to them universally condemning Mamdani for campaigning with an unindicted coconspirator in a terrorist plot that killed six New Yorkers.”
New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik slammed Mamdani on Facebook as a “jihadist” who was “openly campaigning with terrorists.”
The imam denied having plotted against the US government in a 2009 Muslim Student Association lecture, according to the New York Post.
CAIR – the Council on American-Islamic Relations – condemned the “dishonest and defamatory attacks” on Wahhaj in a Sunday Instagram post, saying that if he had been involved in the 1993 attack that claimed the lives of six individuals, he would have been in prison.
“‘Unindicted coconspirator’ is a label that the government has repeatedly used to smear American Muslims who have done nothing wrong,” CAIR said, adding that Wahhaj was a “widely respected faith leader and advocate for peace and justice who has been a pillar of New York City for decades.”
CAIR noted his role in combating drug addiction and crime in his neighborhood.
The New York Post reported that Mamdani said on Sunday that the imam had met other mayors in the past and that the faith leader had only become a point of contention because of the Democratic candidate’s own religious background.
Wahhaj has made statements favoring peace, such as denouncing political violence like the assassination of Kahane and other acts of terrorism.
Yet, based on Barrett’s book, Wahhaj has also made controversial remarks, casting doubt, for instance, on the authenticity of video footage of Osama bin Laden boasting about orchestrating the September 11 attacks.
The imam reportedly has railed against homosexuality, called for the stoning of adulterers, and advocated for polygamy as well. He allegedly stated that Islam would prevail over democracy and “every kind of system. And you know what? It will happen.”
Three of Wahhaj’s children had also been involved in terrorist plots. All the same, they did tell CNN that he had been estranged from them and aided police in locating them.
Notably, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton, as well as group leader Jany Leveille were sentenced to life in prison for a kidnapping and terrorism plot in 2024.
In 2017, Wahhaj’s namesake had kidnapped his three-year-old son from his mother in Georgia and absconded with him to New Mexico. According to the US Justice Department, the group, led by Leveille, engaged in cult-like behavior in which the child was treated as being possessed by demons.
The cell deprived the boy of medication and subjected him to daily exorcisms. He died two weeks after the kidnapping. They believed that the child would be resurrected.
Moreover, the group created a fortified compound, amassed an arsenal, and conducted military training with their other children to fight the US military, the FBI, and the US government in a holy war meant to convert the country.