Mamdani-Backed Candidate Who Blamed 9/11 on American 'Capitalism and Racism' Wins Democratic Primary
All of the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani-endorsed Democratic socialist candidates won their primary elections Tuesday night, including Aber Kawas, who has blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on “capitalism and racism, and white supremacy.”
Kawas, a Palestinian American, won the nomination for a state senate seat in New York City with 60 percent of the vote against Assemblyman Steven Raga to replace outgoing Sen. Mike Gianaris, the New York Post reported.
Kawas, who has a degree in “Islamic Liberation Theology” and who desribes herself as a “Muslim civil right advocate,” appeared to blame the policies of the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Finding that the system of capitalism and racism, and white supremacy, etc, have all, and Islamophobia, have all been used, you know, to colonize lands, right, to take resources from other people, and so this is, like, a long trajectory. And we’re just seeing the manifestations of that continuation, right, with 9/11,” she said in 2017 at an Asian American Writers’ Workshop, according to The Daily Wire.
“A lot of times people are asking us to respond about, you know, an attack” because “historically, right, you know, a lot of us come from lands that were colonized, lands where wars are being waged, right, and a lot of times because of U.S. policy or the policies in Europe,” she added.
Mamdani-endorsed Aber Kwas won the Democrat Primary tonight for a State Senate seat in New York.
Here she is saying that 9-11 was America’s fault because of our “system of capitalism, racism, white supremacy and islamophobia.” pic.twitter.com/ouSUB44nz3
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 24, 2026
“The idea that we have to apologize for, like, a terror attack that, like, a couple people did, and then there is no apologies or reparations for genocides and for slavery, etc., is something that I kind of find, like, reprehensible,” Kawas said.
The United States has never colonized lands in the Middle East, enslaved its people, or committed genocide against them.
In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. led a coalition of nations to oust Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait after he invaded the country.
The major members of the coalition for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm included Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Great Britain, and France.
I am proud to endorse a slate of candidates who will champion our affordability agenda in Albany. These leaders represent the very best of public service: a commitment to tackling challenges both large and small and a belief that government should work for everyone—not just the… pic.twitter.com/uen8mDSVmH
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) May 30, 2026
In 2019, Ohio State University history professor Peter Hahn said Islamic extremist hatred toward the U.S. was stirred by the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and America’s support for Israel and secular Arab rulers, culminating in the 9/11 attacks.
Regarding Osama bin Laden’s specific role, Hahn stated, “After contesting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Saudi nationalist Osama bin Laden organized a network of unconventional combatants known as Al-Qaida. Bin Laden believed that the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990-91 violated the sacred spaces around Mecca and Medina, and in 1996, he essentially declared war on the United States.”
“From sanctuaries in Sudan and then Afghanistan, bin Laden and his allies orchestrated a series of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, an American military barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and a U.S. Navy ship in Aden Harbor in 2000,” the professor added.
The FBI described bin Laden as a “violent terrorist and mass murderer who used bombings and bloodshed to advance his extremist goals.”
In announcing the successful operation to kill the terrorist leader in 2011, then-President Barack Obama said, “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and dignity.”
Kawas is expected to easily win in November in her deep-blue district.
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