Mahmood Mamdani, whose son Zohran Mamdani is currently running for mayor of New York City, has come under renewed scrutiny for controversial remarks made after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Washington Free Beacon reports, in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Mahmood Mamdani wrote that there is a “moral equivalence” between al Qaeda’s attack on the United States and the subsequent U.S. military responses in Afghanistan and Iraq. He asserted that both actions reflect a disregard for the rest of the world, treating them as “collateral” in larger power struggles.
Mahmood Mamdani elaborated further, arguing that there is a “growing common ground between the perpetrators of 9/11 and the official response to it called ‘the war on terror,’” emphasizing that both sides are motivated by ideological worldviews expressed through “self-righteous” religious and political language. According to him, both the U.S. government and al Qaeda “demonize the other as evil” and require uncompromising political loyalty, drawing a direct comparison between the rhetoric and approaches of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.
These views, previously reported and now resurfacing during Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, raise questions about the candidate’s relationship to his father’s work and ideas. Zohran has stated that he remains “engaged” with his father’s scholarship, at times helping to edit his father’s speeches and writings to make them more “accessible” to a broader audience. He has also said that he stands by “the idea” of the “globalize the intifada” slogan after it drew criticism from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and others.
Zohran Mamdani, in the past, appeared to echo aspects of his father’s thinking. In a 2015 social media post, he criticized the FBI’s handling of surveillance on Anwar al-Awlaki, suggesting that intrusive government actions contributed to al-Awlaki’s radicalization and eventual allegiance to al Qaeda.
“Why no proper interrogation of what it means for @FBI to have conducted extensive [surveillance] into #al-Awlaki’s private life?” Zohran wrote, the Dispatch reported. “Why no further discussion of how #al-Awlaki’s knowledge of [surveillance] eventually led to him to #alqaeda?”
This line of thinking mirrors his father’s writings, where Mahmood Mamdani asserted that the CIA was instrumental in the creation and rise of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and others.
“The best-known CIA-trained terrorist was, of course, Osama bin Laden,” the elder Mamdani wrote.
In addition, Mahmood Mamdani has argued that the Global War on Terror was influenced by powerful lobbying in Washington, specifically citing the “extraordinary power of the Israel lobby” and referring to it as “an ethnic donor machine.”
Since Zohran has confirmed his close engagement with his father’s controversial speeches and writings, particularly those of interest by New Yorkers, concerns about the younger Mamdani’s mayoral campaign seem to only be mounting.
Thank you for visiting