Mamdani once appeared to defend infamous al Qaeda fiend Anwar al-Awlaki — and blame FBI for radicalizing him: ‘Ridiculous assertion'
Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, became a prominent imam at mosques in San Diego and Virginia, eventually interacting with three of the heinous Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers there, US officials have said.
He was put under surveillance by the FBI after 9/11 — a probe that uncovered among other things the fact that the conservative family-values-preaching Muslim cleric was frequenting prostitutes at hotels.
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5 New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani criticized the FBI surveillance of al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki in resurfaced tweets from 2015.
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5 Mamdani's tweets in response to the New York Times article on al-Awlaki.
X/ZohranKmamdani
Al-Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2004 — where he joined al Qaeda and hatched numerous international terrorist plots while preaching jihad in videos and on CDs.
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The cleric was considered so dangerous that then-President Barack Obama approved the drone strike that killed him in 2011 — an unprecedented assassination of an American citizen who had not been charged with a crime.
'He directed the failed attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009. He directed the failed attempt to blow up US cargo planes in 2010,' Obama said at the time.
'And he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda.'
5 Mamdani suggested that the FBI surveillance of al-Awlaki could have led him into joining the terror group.
Paul Martinka for NY Post
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But Mamdani, in a series of tweets in 2015, bizarrely criticized the FBI's surveillance of al-Awlaki — and claimed the G-Men actually pushed him into terrorism — after reading a New York Times account of the snooping, which revealed the cleric's hooker fetish.
'Why no proper interrogation of what it means for FBI to have conducted extensive surv. into Awlaki's private life?,' wrote Mamdani, then 23.
'How could #Awlaki have ever trusted@FBI to not release surveillance esp. if he continued to critique [the] state? Why no further discussion of how #Awlaki's knowledge of surv. eventually led him to #alqaeda? Or what that says about [the] efficacy of surv?' Mamdani said.
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The comments have enraged 9/11 victims' families and US anti-terror officials.
'To blame the United States for al-Awlaki is like blaming the Jews for Hitler,' seethed retired Long Island Rep. Peter King, who chaired the House Homeland Security Committee and served on the Intelligence Committee that received confidential briefings on al-Awlaki.
5 Al-Awlaki was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
AP Photo/SITE Intelligence Group
Fetired FDNY Lt. Jim McCaffrey — whose brother-in-law-law, FDNY Battalion 7 Chief Orio Palmer, rushed into the World Trade Center's south tower to try to help people before the building collapsed on him and hundreds of others during the hijacked-plane strike — called Mamdani's comments 'very offensive to 9/11 victims and their families.
'It's offensive to all New Yorkers and all Americans,' he said.
'It's an absolutely ridiculous assertion on Mamdani's part. The FBI agents were doing their job,' said McCaffrey, who himself spent many days participating in search and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. 'This guy al-Awlaki had connections to al Qaeda. But [Mamdani's] blaming the FBI?'
5 Mamdani speaking at a rally with labor union leaders on July 2, 2025.
Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
McCaffrey said it was 'eye-opening' and 'frightening' that Mamandi, a 33-year-old Queens state assemblyman, is now the favorite to be elected the next mayor of New York City.
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Tom Von Essen, the city fire commissioner during 9/11, said, 'Just what NYC needs — another mayor who blames the government for creating criminals.
'We tried this with Bill de Blasio. It can not end well,' he said, referring the lefty former mayor roundly criticized for his disastrous soft-on-crime policies.
King added, 'Mamdani is making excuses and rationalizing al-Awlaki joining al Qaeda.
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'He's trying to blame the US for him becoming a terrorist. It's an absolute disgrace. It should disqualify Mamdani from being mayor of New York City.
'Al-Awlaki was an evil man. It was a great victory to eliminate him from the face of the Earth,' King said.
Intelligence sources claimed al-Awlaki's disciples had been linked to about a quarter of the Islamists convicted of terrorism-related offenses in the United States from 2007 until his death.
Mamdani's other slick, savvy and cheeky videos on social media helped power his victory over ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
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But he has also gotten blowback for some controversial postings in his digital footprint.
A Jewish advocacy group, StopAntisemitism, slammed the Democratic socialist mayoral candidate for posting a separate 'sick' video mocking Hannukah and 'cosplaying Jews.'
Mamdani shared a video on his X account last year from the Geeta Brothers Duet Group showing two men wearing wigs dancing behind a menorah, playing with dreidels and celebrating with Punjabi-style music.
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Mamdani was also shown in a video in 2021 leading 'BDS' chants in a push to boycott Israel during a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan.
The pol's camp did not respond to a Post request for comment on his 2015 tweets.
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He'll behave; he better behave; otherwise, he's going to have big problems." Trump then added that Mamdani's philosophy is something the United States is "not ready for and it never will be." Mamdani has seemingly defended the phrase "globalize Intifada" as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." He has also called antisemitism a "real issue" in New York City and said Hamas' attack of Israel on October 7 was a "war crime." Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, can be seen leaving a news conference celebrating his primary victory with leaders and members of the city's labor unions on July 2 in New York.... Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, can be seen leaving a news conference celebrating his primary victory with leaders and members of the city's labor unions on July 2 in New York. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) More What People Are Saying Political science professor at Columbia University, Robert Y. Shapiro, to Newsweek via email Monday night when asked if Trump and Mamdani could find common ground: "I think Trump would continue to use him as a foil and to associate all Democrats and the Democratic party with all of Mamdani's traits and proposed and alleged policies Trump has already been attacking." Shapiro continued: "The trait and policies that would make Democrats appear too far to the left and out of the mainstream as the 2026 midterm elections approach. It would be a way to continue to distract everyone from the less desirable and effective things Trump has been trying to do. The cynical view would be that Trump is looking for a reason to have federal troops join ICE in rounding up undocumented immigrants that Mamdani tries to protect, and to arrest local officials who get in their way. 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