New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism after appearing with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a controversial religious figure. A photo of the two men smiling at the imam\u2019s Brooklyn mosque was posted to Mamdani\u2019s social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imam Wahhaj was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing by federal prosecutors. He has publicly defended those convicted in the attack and once referred to the FBI and CIA as the \u201creal terrorists,\u201d though he denies supporting violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The imam also testified as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a convicted militant Islamist leader. A foreign intelligence assessment further cites a sermon where Wahhaj called for raising a 10,000-man army for a nonviolent \u201cjihad\u201d in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wahhaj has a history of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, having labeled the community a \u201cdisease.\u201d In a 2017 sermon, he cited a teaching that the punishment for homosexual acts is death, though he discouraged direct violence and encouraged inviting gay people to Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The intelligence assessment suggested Mamdani\u2019s alliances with such figures could pose a national security threat. The candidate\u2019s appearance also included Councilman Yusef Salaam of the exonerated \u201cCentral Park Five.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani\u2019s Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa, called the association \u201cdisqualifying.\u201d Sliwa stated that New York needs a mayor who protects citizens from terrorism, not one who \u201cembraces terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident has sparked a significant controversy in the mayoral race, placing Mamdani\u2019s political judgment and associations under intense public scrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism after appearing with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a controversial religious figure. A photo of the two men smiling at the imam\u2019s Brooklyn mosque was posted to Mamdani\u2019s social media. Imam Wahhaj was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing by federal prosecutors….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4533,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4531\/revisions\/4533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}