Every democratic socialist candidate endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won a Democratic primary on Tuesday night, including Aber Kawas, a Palestinian American activist whose past comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have drawn renewed scrutiny.
Kawas won the Democratic nomination for a New York state Senate seat with 60 percent of the vote, defeating Assemblyman Steven Raga in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mike Gianaris, according to the New York Post.
Kawas describes herself as a Muslim civil rights advocate and holds a degree in Islamic Liberation Theology. In a 2017 appearance at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, she discussed 9/11 in the context of U.S. foreign policy, colonialism, racism, capitalism, white supremacy, and Islamophobia.
“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,” Kawas said, according to The Daily Wire.
She also argued that Muslims are often expected to apologize for terror attacks carried out by a small number of people, while broader historical injustices such as slavery, genocide, and colonialism are not met with the same demands for accountability.
“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 said.
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 added.
Critics of Kawas’ remarks have argued that the comments wrongly shifted blame for the Sept. 11 attacks away from al Qaeda and toward broader political systems and Western governments.
The Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden. The FBI has described bin Laden as a violent terrorist and mass murderer who used bombings and bloodshed to advance extremist aims.
The roots of al Qaeda’s hostility toward the United States have been widely examined by historians and terrorism experts. In 2019, Ohio State University history professor Peter Hahn wrote that Islamic extremist opposition to the U.S. was fueled by several factors, including the Iranian Revolution, American support for Israel, support for secular Arab rulers, and the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.
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
The Gulf War began after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. The U.S. led an international coalition, which included Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Great Britain, and France, to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
Hahn noted that bin Laden viewed the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia as a violation of sacred land near Mecca and Medina. By 1996, bin Laden had effectively declared war on the United States.
Before the 2001 attacks, al Qaeda was linked to multiple acts of terrorism, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
When U.S. forces killed bin Laden in 2011, then-President Barack Obama said the al Qaeda leader was “not a Muslim leader” but “a mass murderer of Muslims,” adding that his death should be welcomed by people who believe in peace and dignity.
