A prominent socialist leader and frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race recently confessed to fabricating a story about a Muslim aunt who, he claimed, feared using the subway after the 9/11 attacks.
Zohran Mamdani disclosed on Monday that the individual he referred to was actually a distant cousin of his father, known only as Zehra, rather than an immediate family member.
During a press conference on Monday, Mamdani, 33, made this admission in an effort to manage a potential scandal that could jeopardize his prospects in the upcoming mayoral election on November 4.
“I was speaking about Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who passed away a few years ago,” Mamdani clarified. In Urdu and Hindi, “fuhi” translates to paternal aunt.
Earlier, Mamdani had emotionally recounted a story about how the tragic events of September 2001 had left a hijab-wearing aunt too frightened to use New York City’s public transport system.
“I want to honor the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she felt unsafe in her hijab,” he expressed last week.
But internet sleuths quickly discovered that Mamdani’s only living aunt, a woman called Masuma Mamdani, lived in Tanzania at the time of the September 2001 terror attacks.
An online photo further revealed that Masuma does not wear a headscarf.
Zohran Mamdani, pictured on Monday, has admitted he lied about an aunt he claimed was too scared to ride the New York City subway in the wake of the 9/11 attacks
Mamdani’s only living aunt, a woman called Masuma Mamdani (pictured), lived in Tanzania at the time of the September 2001 terror attacks
Relatives of 9/11 victims also criticized him over the comments, suggesting they were ‘insulting and insensitive’ and amounted to ‘lunacy.’
Terry Strada’s husband Tom, 41, a Cantor Fitzgerald bond broker, died after going to work on the 104th floor of the North Tower. The youngest of their three children was just four days old.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I find what he (Mamdani) had to say completely insulting to all of the people that suffered a horrible loss that day.
‘To compare an aunt being uncomfortable on the subway to all of these families that were murdered was just very insensitive and shows his true colors.
‘How dare he lie about 9/11 to invoke sympathy from Muslims. New York suffered horrible losses from a terrorist attack carried out by radical Islamists. He is a despicable liar and this should open everyone’s eyes to who he truly is.’
She said Mamdani should apologize, but didn’t think he would.
‘I don’t think he cares how the 9/11 community views his comments,’ she said. ‘It was shocking to hear because he is equating a Muslim woman wearing her hijab on the subway to nearly 3,000 people being murdered. There is no comparison.
‘So he’s just completely insensitive to the 9/11 community, completely ignorant to what happened on 9/11, who attacked us and why they did it, and that is a bit unnerving. I’m not happy that he could be the mayor of New York City. I think it’s a terrible decision.’
Brett Eagleson was 15 when his father Bruce, 53, who was on the 17th floor of the South Tower, died.
Terry Strada’s husband Tom (pictured together), 41, a Cantor Fitzgerald bond broker, died after going to work on the 104th floor of the North Tower. His widow told the Daily Mail that she found what Mamdani said ‘completely insulting’
Brett told the Daily Mail: ‘As we move toward the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks our families keep fighting for justice – including against the co-conspirators still being shielded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
‘But what we shouldn’t have to do is fight against lunacy from a candidate for mayor of New York City.’
Vice President J.D. Vance also hit out at Mamdani’s comments about 9/11.
Vance said the candidate’s remarks ignored the nearly 3,000 people who died and the thousands more who were injured when the World Trade Center collapsed.
Writing on X, Vance said: ‘According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks.’
Mamdani responded: ‘This is all the Republican Party has to offer. Cheap jokes about Islamophobia so as to not have to recognize what people are living through, attempts to pit peoples’ humanity against each other.’
In his speech outside the mosque Mamdani recounted how, when he first entered politics, an uncle gently suggested he keep his faith to himself.
Vice President J.D. Vance also hit out at Mamdani’s comments about 9/11, adding to the backlash
‘These are lessons that so many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught,’ Mamdani said. ‘And over these last few days, these lessons have become the closing messages of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams.’
At a subsequent news conference Cuomo accused Mamdani of ‘playing the victim’ for political purposes and denied that Islamophobia existed on a wide scale in New York.
Cuomo said: ‘Zohran is an actor and his entire campaign has been theatrics. Literally, his mother is a noted film director. He was a rapper, actor and he has produced great videos but it is all an act.’
He rejected Mamdani’s claim that Muslim New Yorkers had been made to feel uncomfortable in their own city.
‘Don’t tell me New Yorkers are Islamophobic. They’re not,’ Cuomo said.
