Siraj Wahhaj had previously donated to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign and posted a video endorsement. Even as a number of papers were preparing to run stories linking Mamdani to associates of Wahhaj, he sprung the trap by tweeting a photo of himself with the imam.
Mamdani’s pretty confident about his chances and the larger goal here is to normalize the worst possible elements of Islam. So what is Mamdani normalizing here?
Take a look at our Discover the Networks profile of Wahhaj.
Wahhaj urged U.S. Muslims to become politically active as a means of augmenting the influence of their faith: “As long as you remember that if you get involved in politics, you have to be very careful that your leader is for Allah. You don’t get involved in politics because it’s the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics are a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.”
In a 1992 sermon, Wahhaj emphasized the importance of jihad to his Al-Taqwa mosque congregation: “I will never ever tell people, ‘don’t be violent, that is not the Islamic way.’ The violence has to be selected…. Islam is the only answer because it is only Islam that we do it for Allah…. [We are] commanded to do jihad….”
In an autumn 1992 address to an Islamic gathering in New Jersey, Wahhaj expressed his desire to have Muslims seize control of the United States and replace the country’s constitutional government with an Islamic caliphate. “If we were united and strong,” Wahhaj said, “we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him…. [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”
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“Islam is better than democracy. Allah will cause his deen [Islam as a complete way of life], Islam, to prevail over every kind of system, and you know what? It will happen.”
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“In time, democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
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“Wherever you came from, you came to America. And you came for one reason—for one reason only—to establish Allah’s deen [Islam as a complete way of life], as a servant of Allah.”
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“If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it’s the obedience of Allah”
So we’re pretty clear about what an elected official meeting with Wahhaj is conveying here.
Also, as a minor point, this is the city that saw the World Trade Center targeted twice by Muslim terrorists. The Democrat nominee for mayor is meeting with the imam linked by the government to the attacks.
In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, “I’m not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I’m honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list.
Moreover, a number of congregants at Wahhaj’s Al-Taqwa mosque were charged and convicted of having provided material support for Islamic terrorists during the period leading up to the World Trade Center bombing of ’93. Wahhaj testified in court on behalf of each of them.
Again, this is not accidental.
Zohran Mamdani timed this for just after the debate and before the release of the story. It means his people have feeders into the media and it means that he’s deliberately normalizing this.
