By: Nick Carraway

Democratic socialist mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is facing fierce backlash after resurfaced tweets show him appearing to excuse the radicalization of infamous al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki — even going so far as to suggest that U.S. surveillance policies may have driven the American-born cleric into terrorism, The New York Post reports.

The controversial tweets, posted by Mamdani in 2015 when he was 23 years old, were in response to a New York Times article about the FBI’s post-9/11 surveillance of al-Awlaki. In them, Mamdani questioned why there wasn’t “proper interrogation” of what it meant for the FBI to investigate the extremist preacher’s private life — including exposing his use of prostitutes despite his puritanical public image.

“Why no further discussion of how #Awlaki’s knowledge of surveillance eventually led him to #alqaeda?” Mamdani wrote at the time. In another post, he questioned the effectiveness of FBI tactics, suggesting that the cleric’s awareness of the investigation contributed to his decision to join a terrorist organization.

The tweets are now drawing swift condemnation, especially from 9/11 victims’ families and national security officials, who accuse Mamdani of defending a dangerous extremist and shifting the blame away from a man who openly encouraged jihad and the killing of innocent civilians.

“To blame the United States for al-Awlaki is like blaming the Jews for Hitler,” said retired Long Island Congressman Peter King, former chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, in comments to the New York Post. “Mamdani is making excuses and rationalizing al-Awlaki joining al Qaeda. It’s an absolute disgrace. It should disqualify Mamdani from being mayor of New York City.”

Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, rose to prominence as a U.S.-based imam in the late 1990s and early 2000s before moving to Yemen in 2004. There, he became a senior al Qaeda operative, inciting terror in videos, coordinating attacks, and becoming a key recruiter. He was linked to the 2009 attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner and the 2010 cargo plane plot. President Obama authorized a drone strike that killed him in 2011 — the first such strike against a U.S. citizen accused of terrorism.

Former FDNY Lt. Jim McCaffrey, who lost his brother-in-law, FDNY Chief Orio Palmer, in the Twin Towers collapse, called Mamdani’s tweets “deeply offensive to 9/11 families and survivors.”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” McCaffrey told the Post. “The FBI was doing its job. Al-Awlaki was already in deep. Mamdani’s blaming law enforcement is just wrong — and dangerous. And now this guy could be the next mayor of New York City?”

The controversy comes as Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman and outspoken critic of Israel, leads a hard-left campaign that recently toppled ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. As The Post has reported, recent polling shows Mamdani with a significant lead in the race, with Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa trailing behind — making Mamdani the frontrunner for City Hall.

Yet this isn’t the first time Mamdani’s online past has raised red flags. Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism blasted him earlier this year for posting what it called a “sick” video mocking Hanukkah, showing men in wigs dancing behind a menorah in a stylized Bollywood spoof. Mamdani has also been filmed chanting pro-BDS slogans outside the Israeli Consulate and has repeatedly faced criticism for targeting Jewish institutions with his “Not on Our Dime” bill.