A Muslim politician running for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State in Missouri has stated that no Jews died in the World Trade Center on 9-11 and has alleged that Jews were involved in the deadly attack.

MD Rabbi Alam, chairman of the National Democratic Party Asian American Caucus and, according to the Washington Free Beacon, an “Obama campaign ally” who has been invited to visit the White house, has, according to the newspaper, “trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”

Alam was born in Bangladesh and served as a “satellite campaign manager” for Obama and the Democratic Party during the 2008 elections, according to Tuesday’s report in the Washington Free Beacon.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In an interview with the newspaper on June 9, Alam reportedly stood his by his controversial opinions. He asserted to reporter Adam Credo his belief in the “fact” that no Jews were killed in the Worth Trade Center on 9-11and that the commercial airliners could not have been solely responsible for the collapse of the buildings.

State Department officials told the newspaper that between 200 and 400 Jews died in the World Trade Center on 9-11; five Israeli citizens also were killed.

Later on Tuesday the Vos Iz Neias News website reported that Rabbi Yair Hoffman reporting for the website contacted Alam and presented him with information that showed Jews were killed in the attack, and put him in touch with other people who personally knew other Jewish 9-11 victims.

VIN reported that Alam “offered his apologies and explained that he had been convinced by the material he had read on the internet regarding the issue.” But, the website concluded, later in the interview, Alam “still expressed some conspiracy thinking about the World Trade Center bombings.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount