Survivors of the 1993 World Commerce Middle bombing slammed mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for his smiley pic with a controversial imam federal prosecutors thought of an “indicted co-conspirator” within the assault.
Mamdani, 34, posted a photograph of himself smiling with 75-year-old Imam Siraj Wahhaj on Friday, calling him a “chief and pillar” of the Muslim group in Brooklyn and throughout the nation.
However critics have been fast to lift Wahhaj’s controversial previous — together with individuals who survived the phobia assault he was accused of serving to orchestrate.
“No one ought to reduce what occurred,” mentioned former Port Authority government director Stan Brezenoff, whose places of work have been within the World Commerce Middle when Islamic extremists detonated an enormous automobile bomb within the North Tower’s parking storage in an try to topple each towers. Six folks have been killed and greater than a thousand injured.
“It was a hellish expertise dwarfed by the unimaginable atrocity on 9/11,” he advised The Put up, explaining that the 2001 assault that succeeded in destroying the towers eight years later erased the unique assault from many individuals’s reminiscences — however not for New Yorkers who have been there.
“The hospitals have been overwhelmed,” Brezenoff mentioned, recalling how the towers have been closed “for months” and that staff have been terrified to return after they re-opened.
“Folks didn’t wish to return to work,” he mentioned. “There was trepidation.”
Wahhaj was by no means charged within the assault, however he got here below scrutiny from federal investigators after it was discovered a few of the males behind it had attended his mosque.
Prosecutors believed he was one way or the other concerned, however by no means had the proof to convey expenses. Some later criticized the investigation, saying its scope of suspects was too broad, the New York Instances reported.
Wahhaj himself vehemently denied any involvement — however later defended a few of the attackers, and referred to as the FBI and CIA the “actual terrorists.”
Allegations of involvement within the 1993 assault apart, Wahhaj has a protracted historical past of demonizing American society, and supporting folks thought of terrorists by many.
Mamdani didn’t reply to requests for touch upon his affiliation with Wahhaj, however for some who have been on the WTC in 1993 — or had family and friends there — any relationship is unacceptable.
“These incidents are very private to folks in New York. They’re our members of the family, our associates, our neighbors, folks we care about,” mentioned Maria Danzilo, 69, whose sister was within the North Tower the day of the ’93 assault and needed to flee by way of a smoke-filled stairwell.
“Why set off folks like this? It appears pointless. Don’t you wish to heal the previous? Do we actually wish to make folks so upset? It simply looks like it’s not good for town after so many horrible issues have occurred,” mentioned Danzilo, who additionally took to X to precise her anger.
“My sister was within the 1993 WTC bombing — trapped on a excessive ground, compelled to climb down smoke-filled stairs. She suffered critical smoke inhalation and lasting trauma,” she wrote within the put up, explaining that her sister fled NYC for DC in concern, solely to finish up a block from the Pentagon when it was attacked on 9/11.
“These weren’t summary ‘occasions’ for thus many New Yorkers. They have been life altering occasions,” mentioned Danzil, who works for the pro-Andrew Cuomo PAC Repair the Metropolis, however mentioned her anger at Mamdani’s put up with Wahhaj had nothing to do with supporting his opponent.
And Port Authority’s present Police Benevolent Affiliation president Frank Conti can’t think about how anyone would take into account Mamdani a viable candidate after displaying his personal assist for Wahhaj.
“Anybody who votes, helps or endorses Mamdani should endure from a essential reminiscence lapse of the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Commerce Middle,” mentioned Conti. “What occurred to the New York Metropolis mantra, ‘By no means Neglect’?”
