what did zohran mamdani say about lee rigby

Zohran Mamdani did not post a long statement about Lee Rigby himself; rather, he amplified an article that questioned whether Rigby’s murder should be classed as “terrorism” or instead as an “act of war” because Rigby was a serving soldier.

What he actually said

• In 2013, Mamdani shared an article by US journalist Glenn Greenwald about the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, which argued that labeling it “terrorism” was politically selective and questioned whether, since Rigby was a soldier, the attack could be framed as an act of war.

• When he shared the article, Mamdani added a brief endorsement such as “Important!”, signalling agreement with its framing rather than offering his own detailed commentary on Rigby or the attack.

How this is being described now

• Critics and some commentators now say Mamdani “tried to justify” or “defended” the beheading of Lee Rigby, because he boosted an article that resisted calling the murder terrorism and instead treated it in a legal‑political “act of war” frame.

• Supporters of Rigby’s memory, including British media voices, argue this stance is “vile” and insulting, stressing that Rigby was off duty, unarmed, and murdered in the street by Islamist extremists, which they regard as clearly terrorism.

Political fallout and context

• The old post resurfaced prominently in 2025, after Mamdani’s rise in New York politics, with British outlets highlighting that he had once promoted an article questioning whether Rigby’s murder was terrorism.

• Social media campaigns and forum threads now frequently summarize the controversy in shorthand as Mamdani “rejecting the classification of the Lee Rigby murder as terrorism” or “trying to justify a beheading as a legal act of war,” even though the original act was a brief promotion of Greenwald’s article rather than a standalone essay by Mamdani.

TL;DR:
Zohran Mamdani is reported to have shared and endorsed a Glenn Greenwald article that questioned whether Lee Rigby’s killing was “terrorism” or an “act of war” because Rigby was a soldier, and that endorsement is now being portrayed by critics as him minimizing or justifying the terrorist murder.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.