Lefty\u00a0NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gleefully campaigned this week with a notorious, gay-hating Brooklyn imam\u00a0who is an unindicted co-conspirator in 1993 World Trade Center bombing and\u00a0who has been\u00a0linked to other terrorist activity in the United States\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including urging \u201cjihad\u201d on the Big Apple.<\/p>\n
The Democratic frontrunner to become the\u00a0city\u2019s\u00a0next mayor\u00a0was seen\u00a0laughing and grinning while\u00a0standing arm-in-arm with Siraj Wahhaj\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0imam\u2019s\u00a0Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque\u00a0in a photo the socialist posted to X a day after the first mayoral debate.<\/p>\n Councilman Yusef Salaam (D-Manhattan), a member of the Central Park 5 who was elected in November 2023, was\u00a0also\u00a0in\u00a0the photo.<\/p>\n Zohran Mamdani and City Councilmember Yusef Abdus Salaam on Friday met with Imam Siraj Wahhaj. X\/ZohranKMamdani<\/p>\n \u201cToday at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation\u2019s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,\u201d\u00a0Mamdani wrote on X\u00a0of the Friday encounter.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cA beautiful Jummah,\u201d he wrote, referencing the weekly prayer.<\/p>\n Wahhaj, 75, who also heads the Muslim Alliance in North America,\u00a0was fingered by prosecutors as an \u201cunindicted co-conspirator\u201d in the 1993\u00a0WTC bombing,\u00a0which left six people dead,\u00a0and\u00a0has\u00a0publicly defended the plotters of the attack against the FBI and CIA,\u00a0whom\u00a0he at the time dubbed the \u201creal terrorists.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The imam has previously\u00a0denied any connection to terrorism<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wahhaj was named by prosecutors as a co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/p>\n During subsequent trials, Wahhaj testified in support of\u00a0Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the infamous \u201cblind sheikh\u201d and leader of a terrorist sect out of Egypt\u00a0\u2014\u00a0calling the man a \u201crespected scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n In\u00a0a\u00a0sermon<\/a>\u00a0in the early 2000s, Wahhaj \u2014 born Jeffrey Kearse \u2014 called for an army of 10,000 men to wage what he insisted was a gun-free jihad on New York City, according to a foreign intelligence assessment obtained Saturday by The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cI pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army, and I\u2019m serious about this,\u201d he\u00a0said during the sermon, while urging his followers,\u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t pick up a gun, no. Just march.\u00a0March through the city of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n Police search on the ground in a parking garage underneath the World Trade Center on February 27, 1993 AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cLet them hear your voice. Let them hear it at night. Let them hear it 24 hours, until the whole city can\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tKeep up with today\u2019s most important news\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStay up on the very latest with Evening Update.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe were very close, recently. We had made intention to raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City,\u201d the imam said.<\/p>\n Imam Siraj Wahhaj speaks about Malcolm X on the 55th anniversary of his death during an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency in New York, United States on February 18, 2020. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cMuslim men to go fight in the way of\u00a0subhanahu wa ta\u2019ala,\u201d\u00a0added the Imam,\u00a0using a\u00a0phrase\u00a0that roughly\u00a0translates<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cglory be to Allah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence demonstrates that Mamdani\u2019s political trajectory has not only been supported by activist movements but also reinforced by endorsements and alliances noted in figures with a documented history of extremist views and activities, posing a direct national security threat to New York City and the U.S.,\u201d\u00a0according to the report.<\/p>\n Wahhaj has also derided the LGBTQ community as \u201ca disease of this society,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n Wahhaj has denied any involvement in the terror attack. AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you know, brothers and sisters, you know what the punishment is, if a man is found with another man?\u201d he once preached during a sermon first reported by Islamic Watch in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Prophet Mohammad said the one who does it and the one to whom it is done to, kill them both.\u201d<\/p>\n He discouraged his followers from open violence against the\u00a0LGBTQ community, according to the assessment, suggesting instead they\u00a0\u201cinvite them to Islam and make them feel uncomfortable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Mamdani stands with this imam is disqualifying,\u201d\u00a0said Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa.<\/p>\n Zohran Mamdani speaks during a \u201cReverse Town Hall\u201d at the 32BJ SEIU HQ on October 17, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cNew York needs a mayor who protects New Yorkers from terrorism, not embraces terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n The religious figure\u00a0also\u00a0made headlines in 2018 when three of his children were arrested for keeping 11 kids living in \u201cThird World\u201d conditions in a compound made of garbage in the New Mexico desert.<\/p>\n One of the victims told prosecutors\u00a0Wahhaj\u2019s namesake son<\/a>\u00a0was training\u00a0a 13-year-old and his teen brother to fight against non-believers through techniques including rapid reloads and hand-to-hand combat.<\/p>\n The intelligence report\u00a0claimed\u00a0Wahhaj homeschooled his children and likely shaped the extremist ideology of the busted terror cell.<\/p>\n The intelligence report\u00a0claimed\u00a0Wahhaj homeschooled his children and likely shaped the extremist ideology of the busted terror cell. X\/ZohranKMamdani<\/p>\n However, Wahhaj has\u00a0insisted\u00a0he was the one who called the police on his sick son and two daughters, leading to their arrest. They were sentenced to life in prison last year.<\/p>\n Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democratic running as an independent for mayor, ripped Mamdani for posing for the photo with\u00a0Wahhaj,\u00a0considering the imam\u2019s terrorism links and history of gay bashing \u2013 and for doing it less than two weeks after\u00a0posing in another notorious pic<\/a>\u00a0with Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca, who has pushed some of the most oppressive anti-LGBT laws in the world.<\/p>\n \u201c[Mamdani]\u00a0is proud to be standing with an unindicted co-conspirator in the 93 World Trade Center terror attack that killed New Yorkers?\u201d Cuomo told The Post Saturday.<\/p>\n Cuomo ripped Mamdani for posing with Wahhaj. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and Zohran, wipe that smile off your face.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Wahhaj is a mentor of Brooklyn-based\u00a0Muslim activist\u00a0Linda Sarsour<\/a>, the intelligence report notes.<\/p>\n