Giuliani: Muslims Celebrated 9/11 in Brooklyn, Queens

UPDATE: Giuliani, a Republican, also appears to have re-tweeted Trump’s “evidence” that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11. (Here’s a pretty solid unpacking of said “evidence.”)

Donald Trump’s supporters and opponents are at war this week over his recent claims that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks against New York City.

Naturally, CNN turned to Rudy Giuliani, who served as NYC mayor during the attacks, to confirm or deny.

Giuliani’s answer was a tad shiftier than his interviewer seemed to expect.

“I think what he’s doing is exaggerating,” the ex-mayor said of Trump. “People were celebrating — he’s right about that. I didn’t see any evidence, nor I have I seen it since then, of thousands of people.”

Giuliani went on to claim that up to 40 people in the boroughs were spotted celebrating the attacks.

“We did have some celebrating,” he said. “That is true. We had pockets of celebration — some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.”

His example of choice, below.

“We had one situation in which a candy store owned by a Muslim family was celebrating that day, right near a housing development. And the kids in the housing development came and beat them up.

I think both facts were corroborated to be true. They were celebrating that the towers had come down, and some of the kids in the housing development got really upset about it, and they came in and did a pretty good job of beating them up.”

Various media outlets have thrown shade at Giuliani’s example. MSNBC, Mediaite and Gawker assumed he was talking about an incident on Sept. 12 at “the American Muslim Community of East Harlem site — a closet-sized candy store with a make-shift mosque in a back room.”

In that incident, witnessed by New York Daily News reporter J.K. Dineen, there was no recorded evidence of Muslims celebrating 9/11. Instead, Dineen said he watched as the store’s owner, Muhammad Chaudhry, was beaten bloody by a group of teenage boys.

The Daily News reporter wrote:

“Store owner Muhammad Chaudhry stood in the doorway. One of the teenage boys asked him, ’Do you feel sorry for America?’ The kid then gave Chaudhry a knock-out punch in the face that sent him reeling backwards and onto the floor. Blood spurted all over his plaid shirt, the linoleum floor and a pair of sneakers left by a man who was praying. Chaudhry’s dentures cracked in two. As bystanders helped Chaudhry to a chair and got him some paper towels, the kids took off north across 116th Street. Despite an all-out effort to track down the puncher, cops and witnesses couldn’t find him. Chaudhry, who works seven days a week, has raised seven kids — one a doctor in Brooklyn treating this week’s wounded. The attack was just one of many yesterday.”

When MSNBC pressed Giuliani to explain himself, his “people” reportedly told the news station that Giuliani was, in fact, referring to a different incident.

“We got a vague response from them that basically said he must have been told something orally,” MSNBC reporter Steve Kornacki told Rachel Maddow.

Patch has reached out to Giuliani’s office for further information about the incident he was referencing.

There have been countless reports on hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims throughout NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 — in Brooklyn in particular. Below are just a few, via Alternet.

At the Dawood Mosque on Atlantic Avenue, people spat and cursed at members. The Brooklyn Islamic Center was the target of a firebombing attempt. Someone hurled a Molotov cocktail at a mosque in Bensonhurst, while pork chops were flung over the back fence of the Al-Noor Muslim School in Sunset Park. In Park Slope, a motorist blocked the path of a cab driver, yelling “Get out of the car, Arab,” pounding on the hood as he shouted, “You are going to die, you Muslim.”

And a Bangladeshi mail sorter coming home to Brooklyn on the subway was knocked to the train floor and kicked and punched repeatedly by anonymous men.

On the other hand, an extensive online search for any other 2001 reports of celebrations and/or hate crimes at NYC candy stores — aside from the hate crime in Harlem — was unsuccessful. One Medaite commenter, though, has claimed he “saw some celebrating” on Sept. 12 at a “candy/optimo store” in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We’ve reached out to him, too, and will update if we hear back.