A California district attorney reposted on social media 9\/11 images along with comments blasting the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City\u2019s first Muslim mayor. Despite the gory images and strong denunciation of Mamdani, Dan Dow insists that he has no issues with the Muslim community in San Luis Obispo County, where he is the top prosecutor.<\/p>\n
He has \u201cstrong ties\u201d with the community, Dow said in an emailed statement Thursday to The Times.<\/p>\n
But his posts have drawn backlash, and a Muslim advocacy organization is demanding an apology and an investigation.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Dow retweeted a post<\/a> on X from a popular right-wing account that appeared to show a snapshot moments after flames jutted from the South Tower, the second of the twin towers struck by a plane on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n A second visual tweet,<\/a> more graphic than the first, displayed footage from two angles of a plane barreling into one of the towers. That was posted by the leader of an activist organization, described as a hate group by some, that claims to \u201ccombat the threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies.\u201d<\/p>\n Each was posted in the aftermath of the New York City mayoral election won by 34-year-old democratic socialist Mamdani.<\/p>\n The posts were retweeted and subtweeted days later and 3,000 miles away by Dow, drawing rebuke from some locals, in a story first broken by the San Luis Obispo Tribune.<\/a><\/p>\n Dow responded to a Times email for comment saying his issue was not with the county\u2019s Muslim population, which numbers around 500, according to the Assn. of Religion Data Archives.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI shared the posts because, in my opinion, Mamdani is going to destroy New York being a self-proclaimed socialist,\u201d Dow responded. \u201cI support the Muslim community and have strong ties to our Muslim community in San Luis Obispo.\u201d<\/p>\n The first post Dow retweeted came from the account @EndWokeness, which vows to its nearly 4 million followers that it\u2019s \u201cfighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n The second post came from Amy Mekelburg, founder of Rise, Align, Ignite and Reclaim (RAIR) Foundation, which is listed as a hate organization by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.<\/a><\/p>\n