The Democratic frontrunner for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was recently pictured smiling while standing with Siraj Wahhaj, a notable Brooklyn imam and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, The Post reports. The socialist candidate posted the picture from the imam's Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque to X following the first mayoral debate, with Councilman Yusef Salaam also appearing in the photo.
Mamdani described his meeting on X, saying, "Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation's foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century," as The Post conveyed. Wahhaj, who leads the Muslim Alliance in North America, was labeled an "unindicted co-conspirator" by prosecutors in the 1993 WTC attack that killed six, The Post disclosed. He also publicly defended the plotters as being targeted by the "real terrorists," the FBI and CIA, though he has denied any connections to terrorism in the past.
Mamdani appears smiling, arm-in-arm with '93 WTC bombing co-conspirator and terrorist apologist https://t.co/rfVqaBvj2J pic.twitter.com/CIz7YqMiln
— New York Post (@nypost) October 18, 2025
Further court trials saw Wahhaj testifying for the terrorist leader behind the bombinb Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, whom he called a "respected scholar." A foreign intelligence assessment obtained by The Post Saturday revealed that in an early 2000s sermon, Wahhaj, born Jeffrey Kearse, called for a gun-free "jihad" on New York City with a 10,000-man army. He was quoted urging followers, "I pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army, and I'm serious about this," and to "Just march. March through the city of New York."
Wahhaj has also condemned the LGBTQ community, according to the same intelligence report. In a sermon reported by Islamist Watch in 2017, he preached about the punishment for same-sex relations, stating, "The Prophet Mohammad said the one who does it and the one to whom it is done to, kill them both." Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa called the meeting "disqualifying," adding that Mamdani should not embrace terrorists if he intends to protect New Yorkers, The Post reported.
In 2018, Wahhaj's children were arrested for holding 11 minors in "Third World" conditions in a New Mexico desert compound. Wahhaj, however, insisted he called the police on his own son and daughters, leading to their subsequent life sentences. Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an independent mayoral contender, sharply criticized Mamdani's controversial photo, noting it occurred weeks after he posed with the Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kadaga, who promotes oppressive anti-LGBT laws.
Cuomo told The Post Saturday, asking, "The same person who preaches radical hate toward the LBGTQ community, just weeks after Mamdani was caught posing with a family-friend Ugandan politician who passed a law sentencing gay people to jail for life? When people tell you who they are, you should believe them – and Zohran, wipe that smile off your face." Mamdani is also mentored by Linda Sarsour, an Israel-hating, Palestinian-American activist connected to Wahhaj. Vice President JD Vance also took to X to condemn Mamdani, calling for Democrats to reject the candidate for campaigning with a terror plot co-conspirator, The Post stated.
