Muslim leaders and community members voiced sharp criticism of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a controversial cleric once named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to the New York Post. They warned that Mamdani’s public embrace of Wahhaj could embolden extremist narratives and alienate moderate Muslims.
Dalia Ziada, a Muslim scholar at the Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Policy, said she was troubled by what she called the use of mosques as political stages, adding that Mamdani’s actions risk empowering ideologies long linked to radicalization. She argued that aligning with Wahhaj undermines efforts to distinguish Islam from extremism in the eyes of the public.
“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.
“It sends the wrong message to moderate Muslims who are working hard to separate faith from extremism,” she said. “And it tells the broader American public that those aspiring to lead this country have forgotten what extremist ideology once did to New York’s skyline.”
The backlash started after Mamdani posted photos of himself alongside the 75-year-old imam, captioning that they had met with “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”
Wahhaj, though never charged, was associated with several individuals involved in the 1993 bombing, which left six people dead. Over the years, he has made inflammatory remarks — calling American democracy corrupt, labeling the CIA and FBI as “terrorists,” and predicting that the U.S. would eventually adopt Islamic law.
Critics, including Muslim rights advocates like Soraya Deen, highlighted the absence of women in Mamdani’s mosque photo and said the meeting projected regressive values. Deen cautioned that the image of Mamdani praising a figure with Wahhaj’s history sends the wrong message about the progress of Muslim leadership in America.
Wahhaj has defended his record, insisting on his innocence and denouncing his son’s conviction in a terrorism-related case in New Mexico. According to The Post, “his own son is serving a life sentence after being convicted of keeping a band of teenagers at a squalid New Mexico encampment where he trained them for violent terror attacks.”
Mamdani broke his silence on the matter stating, “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 told reporters at an unrelated event, according to The Post. “That’s because of the fact of my faith and because I’m on the precipice of winning this election.”