Mayor Zohran Mamdani held his Eid al-Fitr celebration in Gracie Mansion on Friday, with 9/11 approaching. It drew criticism, but the pen incident is what is concerning, not his office fest.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed two executive orders recognizing the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Mamdani handed the ceremonial pen to his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. He instructed her to hand it to the man to her left.
That man was Ramzi Kassem, the mayor’s chief counsel. Mr. Kassem is the lawyer who represented Ahmed al-Darbi.
According to the U.S. government, al-Darbi joined Osama bin Laden’s terror network in the late 1990s. He worked as a weapons instructor at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and plotted to launch boat-based attacks on Western ships in Middle Eastern waters.
He was arrested by U.S. forces in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey wrote in an opinion piece.
Mr. Kassem was Mr. al-Darbi’s lawyer when Mr. al-Darbi pleaded guilty in 2014 to participating in al Qaeda’s bombing of a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. One person was killed and a dozen injured in the attack, which spilled 90,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Aden.
Additionally, as if that wasn’t obvious enough, you should know the following. Al-Darbi’s brother-in-law, Khalid al-Mihdhar, was one of the hijackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
If you took that as a shot across our bow, you would likely be correct. It had to be a deliberate insult. He has a smile that looks more like a sneer, and a subtle, annoying tactic of letting us all know where he stands.
Dr. Maalouf thinks he is a monster. [pseudonym]
“I used to think Zohran Mamdani was a ‘cultural Muslim’ who didn’t really care much about religion, and was just a third-worldist using his Islamic background for identity politics and votes. I was wrong. [Caveat: This is Dr. Malouf’s opinion]
Taqiyya
It is becoming increasingly more obvious by the day that he’s actually an extremely radicalized Shia Muslim practicing taqiyya all along.
His father literally wrote a book justifying Islamic suicide bombings, and called America the source of Nazism and ‘settler-colonialism’ all over the world. That’s the environment he was brought up in, glorifying terrorism and hating America.
Remember a couple of months ago when relatives of Iranian regime officials were arrested in the US? They were all pretending to live secular lives; the women even wore provocative clothing. They were all practicing taqiyya.
While all Islamic sects allow you to lie in order to advance Islam, this is even stronger in Shia Islam. You can live a completely different life.
Well, I believe this is the same situation. Zohran Mamdani is not only a Muslim, he is a Twelver Shia Muslim. He belongs to the exact same sect as the Islamic regime in Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. His ‘progressive’ persona is all an act. The only thing he cares about is advancing Islam. This is why he pretends to care about the LGBT and other useful idiots. Taqiyya allows him to do that.
Just like during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, when the Muslims and leftists were allies, and we all know how that ended for the leftists when the Muslims got to power. I now fully believe he was groomed from a young age by his multimillionaire, American-hating family to become a politician and help destroy America from within.
This man is a monster.”
Emphasis mine.
Here he is:
Zohran Mamdani: “We came here to remake the state in the image of our people.” pic.twitter.com/42v4KQRyhC
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) October 20, 2025