New York City’s front-runner for mayor, Democrat nominee Zohran Mamdani, said Monday that the woman he cited last week in a tearful campaign speech about Islamophobia was not his aunt, as he had claimed, but a deceased, distant cousin.
Mr. Mamdani was called out for falsely saying his aunt had been afraid to wear a hijab on the subway following the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. Critics pointed out that his only Muslim aunt, Masuma Mamdani, lived in Tanzania at the time.
The self-declared socialist — who leads the mayoral race over his top challenger, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by a double-digit margin — said the actual subject of the emotionally charged anecdote was no longer around to vouch for it.
“I was speaking about my ’aunt’ — I was speaking about Zehra Fuhi, my father’s cousin who sadly passed away a few years ago,” Mr. Mamdani said in response to a question about the discredited story.
“And for the takeaway from my more than 10-minute address about Islamophobia in this race and in this city, to be the question of my aunt, tells you everything about Andrew Cuomo and his inability to reckon with a crisis of his own making,” he added.
He delivered the speech Friday outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx in response to Mr. Cuomo’s allegedly chuckling at the idea that Mr. Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack.
Mr. Mamdani’s emotional speech, including long pauses and tears, made the anecdote an especially poignant moment. However, he was widely criticized for victim-blaming over its central thesis: that Muslims were unfairly discriminated against following the deadly al Qaeda attack on U.S. soil.
Despite lamenting the effects of terrorism-induced xenophobia, Mr. Mamdani, a Ugandan native, has refused to repudiate acts of Islamic violence. That includes the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist rampage in Israel, in which some 1,200 Jews were brutally slaughtered, setting off the war in Gaza.
Mr. Mamdani also has deflected on his cordial relationship with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a radical Islamic cleric who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Mr. Cuomo suggested during a press conference on Friday that Mr. Mamdani was more focused on politics than on the heartfelt suffering of his cousin.
“It is all an act,” said Mr. Cuomo. “Today, he’s playing the victim, but in reality, he is the offender. What he has done has so offended the Jewish community in this city, I have never seen anything like it.”
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is running as an independent after losing to Mr. Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
Mr. Cuomo has pointed to his opponent’s poor record as a New York assemblyman, which included passing only three bills and having the worst attendance record.
Moreover, he has slammed Mr. Mamdani’s privileged upbringing, which stands in stark contrast to his socialist message.
Some survivors of those killed in the plane hijacking attacks on the Twin Towers expressed outrage over Mr. Mamdani’s exploitation of their suffering for political gain.
“I find what he had to say completely insulting to all of the people that suffered a horrible loss that day,” 9/11 widow Terry Strada told the Daily Mail.
“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,” she said. “He is a despicable liar, and this should open everyone’s eyes to who he truly is.”
