The Notorious World Trade Center Bombing Muslim Cleric Siraj Wahhaj and Zohran Mamdani

Siraj Wahhaj testified as a character witness for convicted terror mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj stated, on the record, that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Abdel-Rahman at his mosque, describing the latter as a “respected scholar … bold … [and] a strong preacher of Islam.”  In August and September of 2001, just prior to the 9/11 attacks, Wahhaj was a guest speaker a “Jihad Camp” in Pennsylvania. The camp was organized by Safet Abid Catovic, a leader of the Benevolence International Foundation, a “charity” that would be shut down in November 2002 on charges that it had provided funding for al Qaeda.

NYC: Siraj Wahhaj, unindicted co-conspirator in ’93 WTC bombing

…..Siraj Wahhaj, the inflammatory imam, has defended convicted bomb-plotters and called the FBI and CIA the “real terrorists.”US Attorney Mary Jo White even named Wahhaj one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the thwarted plan to blow up a slew of buildings.

“In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam,” Wahhaj said in one of his sermons.

He also said: “if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”

[..]

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in “a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends” by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

Wahhaj, imam of Al-Taqwa mosque, is a former member of the Nation of Islam and was the first Muslim to give an invocation at the House of Representatives.

Formal charges were never filed against him by White, although he did serve as a character witness for the defense in the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, “the blind sheik” who is now serving a life sentence for his role in plotting the 1993 WTC bombings.

• Advisory board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
• Advocates the replacement of the U.S. government with an Islamic Caliphate

The Notorious Muslim Cleric Siraj Wahhaj and Zohran Mamdani

By Hugh Fitzgerald, July 13, 2025:

Among the admirers and supporters of Zohran Mamdani — such people as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Linda Sarsour — we can add the name Siraj Wahhaj, an Islamic supremacist who has contributed his financial mite to a PAC supporting Mamdani. More on Siraj Wahhaj, and his support for Zohran Mamdani, can be found here: “Pro-Mamdani PAC Took Donation From Islamist Cleric Who Vouched For Terror Plot Mastermind,” by Hudson Crozier, Daily Caller, July 10, 2025:

A super PAC supporting Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City mayor accepted $1,000 from a Muslim cleric linked to the architects of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist plots.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj donated to the super PAC Unity and Justice Fund in May, days before it funneled most of its money to a PAC exclusively supporting Mamdani for mayor, campaign finance records show.

Wahhaj has called for an Islamic state in America, and Mary Jo White, formerly the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, named him among involved people who are “unindicted persons” in the trial of a terror plot mastermind praised by Wahhaj as “a strong preacher of Islam.” White’s memo also said that the people on that list “may be alleged as co-conspirators,” but Wahhaj was never charged.

Unity and Justice Fund, Mamdani’s campaign and Wahhaj, who leads the Brooklyn-based mosque Masjid At-Taqwa, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Wahhaj has denied any involvement in criminal conspiracies since the trial and called the FBI and CIA “the real terrorists.”

Three children of Wahhaj also received life sentences in 2024 on terrorism, kidnapping and conspiracy to murder charges for organizing a jihadist training compound in New Mexico used to plot attacks against the U.S. government, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Wahhaj told the press that he helped police find the training compound by reporting its location to the authorities.

In 1995, prosecutors named the imam among dozens “who may be alleged to be co-conspirators” in the trial of several men convicted of planning a terrorism campaign that included the first World Trade Center attack, court records show. The 1993 bombing killed six people and injured more than a thousand others, while the other violent plans were thwarted. Al Qaeda terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers eight years later in the 9/11 attacks.

Defense lawyers used Wahhaj in the 1995 case as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric who later served a life sentence, according to media reports and court documents. Prosecutors said Abdel-Rahman, commonly known as “the Blind Sheikh,” helped orchestrate plans to murder hundreds of Americans, attack a U.S. military installation and assassinate Egypt’s then-president. Several people connected to the World Trade Center bombing attended or visited Wahhaj’s Brooklyn mosque around the time of the massacre. Abdel-Rahman died in 2017.

Wahhaj testified that he had met Abdel-Rahman on multiple occasions and called him a “respected scholar.” By that time, Abdel-Rahman had already been a founder and spiritual leader of an Egyptian militant group that the State Department later designated a terrorist organization.

“He has memorized the many statements of Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him,” Wahhaj said in court. “And he is bold, as a strong preacher of Islam.”

Those statements included such remarks by Muhammad, found In the “reliable” (sahih) collections of hadith, as “war is deceit” and “I have been made victorious through terror.”

Wahhaj has long drawn controversy by advocating for America’s form of government to end.

“In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam,” Wahhaj once said in a sermon, according to The Wall Street Journal….

Mamdani has seen widespread support from the left’s pro-Palestinian factions over his stances on Middle East conflicts. Voices on the left and the right criticized him since June for refusing to disavow the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which activists have made into a rallying cry despite it historically being tied to terrorism against Jews. Mamdani said the slogan symbolized “a desperate desire for equality.”…

As everyone, including Zohran Mamdani, well knows, the slogan “globalize the intifada” does not express a “desperate desire for equality.” The word “intifada”a refers to two campaigns of mass murdering of Israeli men, women, and children, carried out by Palestinian terrorists, that resulted in the deaths of more than one thousand Israelis. The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1990, and the much deadlier second intifada lasted from 2000 to 2005. To “globalize the intifada” means to carry out attacks on Jews not just in Israel, but around the globe. That slogan expresses not a “desire for equality,” as Mamdani absurdly maintains, but rather, urges its hearers to take part in the mass killing of Jews — that is, a “genocide.” Yet Mamdani continues to defend that call to “globalize the intifada,” and tries to mislead the public as to the phrase’s real meaning.

Would Zohran Mamdani care to explain why Siraj Wahhaj, a Muslim cleric with ties to terrorism, who has called for the downfall of the American government, a man with three of his children now serving life sentences for their terrorist-related activities, would want to support him? Will he denounce Wahhaj, and demand that his donation to the Unity and Justice Fund, a PAC that exists only to support Mamdani, be returned to Siraj Wahhaj? No, of course not.