It was business as usual until it wasn’t business as usual. On Friday, New York’s Marxist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed to be behaving the way an ordinary American mayor should: he signed an executive order establishing September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and another one stepping security so as to forestall future attacks of that kind. So far, so good. Acting to commemorate an attack on the United States and to prevent more such attacks gave Mamdani the appearance of being a normal, patriotic municipal official.
And then, without warning, the mayor of America’s largest city gave a strong signal that he is actually on the other side, as many have suspected ever since Mamdani burst upon the political scene.
The New York Post reported Saturday that “after Mamdani signed the last of the documents, Hizzoner gave Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch the ceremonial pen, and whispered, ‘Can you pass this?’” Tisch then “awkwardly handed it to Mamdani’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who just snuck into the press conference, before she hurried out of the Blue Room — the first official to exit the press conference.”
Kassem, according to the Post, is “a lawyer who famously represented al-Qaeda operative Ahmed al-Darbi, is seen on video smirking as he receives the symbolic pen.” You’d smirk, too, if you had represented a leading figure in the organization that was responsible for a major terror attack, and now the mayor of the city where the principal part of that attack took place is giving you the pen with which he signed an executive order establishing a Day of Remembrance for that very same terror attack.
The Post explains that Al-Darbi “was sent to Guantánamo Bay after he was convicted of terrorism in the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker in the Middle East — part of an al Qaeda plot to attack the global oil trade after 9/11. His sister married Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the 9/11 hijackers of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.”
Now, everyone has a right to fair trial, and to counsel to help him get through that trial. But in our age, men of principle are at a premium, and in high-profile cases such as those involving 9/11, the defense attorneys have all too often been people who are sympathetic to their clients and share much, if not all, of their point of view.
Further evidence of Ramzi Kassem’s point of view was the fact that he “founded a legal clinic at CUNY that offers free legal representation to Muslims, also defended Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia who was detained by ICE.” At Columbia, the pro-Hamas group with which Khalil worked has proclaimed “Death to America.”
Thus the passing of the pen to Ramzi Kassem could even be seen as a quiet victory lap for the 9/11 jihadis, and that is exactly how many New Yorkers saw it. Dennis Warchola, whose brother was a firefighter who was killed trying to rescue people in one of the Twin Towers on that fateful day, put it succinctly: “It’s bulls**t.” He added: “How can you defend a guy like that who wants to do Americans or any innocent person harm?” Exactly.
Related: Fitting: Prospective Vendors for Mamdani's Low-Cost Grocery Get Tour of Vacant Lot
Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens) was likewise right on the money when she said that Mamdani’s passing of the pen to Kassem was “breathtakingly tone-deaf and disrespectful.” Of the signing of the executive orders, she said: “This proves that this was nothing but a performance to get headlines, and it shows exactly where his loyalties truly lie. The families who lost loved ones on 9/11 have every right to be outraged. On the 25th anniversary, City Hall should be honoring their sacrifice with dignity, not forcing those families to endure yet another insult.”
Another Councilmember Vicki Paladino (R-Queens), a vociferous critic of Mamdani, said: “Ramzi Kassem said he was inspired by 9/11 — not to join the fight against terrorism, but to defend the terrorists themselves. He doesn’t even belong in this country, much less in our government.”
Even a Democrat, former political consultant David Sivella, stated: “His participation in anything related to 9/11 is an insult to every New Yorker who survived that day, and indeed all Americans. But I suspect that’s the point. Was it deliberate on your part to give your Muslim base a hint that this is all BS to pacify other New Yorkers?”
It’s an excellent question. Will Mamdani answer it?
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