New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters on Manhattan's Upper East Side on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Deirdre Heavey)
The controversy reached the White House in the form of a post on X from Vice President JD Vance who expressed skepticism about the story.
"According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks," the vice president wrote.
New York City Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, spoke to supporters at a canvass launch event in Prospect Park on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)
"Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism," the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.
"We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier."
Zohran Mamdani has pushed back in recent days against critics of his various anti-Israel policies and statements dating back to his time in college and suggested that those criticisms are rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry.
"The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker," Mamdani posted on X on Friday with a video that was viewed at least 24 million times. "And yet, for too long, we have been told to ask for less than that, and endure hatred and bigotry in the shadows. No more."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mamdani-forced-clarify-relative-invoked-viral-islamophobia-anecdote-questions-swirl