Democrat Zohran Mamdani was photographed alongside an imam linked to the 1993 WTC attack
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The Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, found himself at the center of controversy after posting a photograph in which he appears smiling and arm in arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an Islamist preacher identified by the FBI as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
El candidato demócrata junto al imán acusado por poner bombas.
Mamdani himself shared the image on X during a campaign visit to Masjid At-Taqwa, a mosque located in Brooklyn. “Today I had the pleasure of meeting Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,” wrote the candidate, without mentioning his host's controversial past.
Who is Siraj Wahhaj?
Wahhaj was included on the list of co-conspirators in the 1993 terrorist attack against the World Trade Center, in which six people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
Wahhaj fue señalado por los fiscales como co-conspirador del atentado al World Trade Center de 1993. Although he was never convicted, he appears in the court documents of the case and even testified in defense of the “blind sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, leader of the extremist group responsible for the attack.
In subsequent years, Wahhaj continued with a strong religious discourse and expressed sympathies toward figures convicted of terrorism. In 2018, three of his children were detained in New Mexico accused of keeping minors in a camp where, according to the FBI, armed training with ideological purposes was conducted.
The controversy shaking progressivism
The photo caused immediate criticism among American leaders and journalists, who pointed out the double moral standard of American progressivism: while they condemn the supposed “hate speech” on social media, they maintain ties with individuals linked to religious extremism and the glorification of terrorism.
Local analysts emphasized that Mamdani is part of the most radical wing of the Democratic Party, linked to the “Democratic Socialists of America” (DSA) movement, which promotes socialist-style economic reforms, confiscatory taxes, and a foreign policy hostile toward Israel.
Mamdani, candidato demócrata.
The Mamdani case reflects a global trend of contemporary left-wing politics: the alliance between “progressive” discourse and figures or regimes of questionable democratic reputation. From Latin American Chavismo to political Islamism.
At a time when the West seeks to reaffirm its values, the left continues to demonstrate the emptiness of the discourses it keeps.
