NEW YORK: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Wednesday that he never witnessed Muslim Americans revelling over the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“I was, as you know, deeply involved in it,” he said on MSNBC about the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

In TV interviews Giuliani, a Republican who was praised for handling the aftermath of World Trade Centre towers, said there were no demonstrations anywhere in New York or New Jersey. There were reports of five or ten people revelling but they were beaten up and they stopped, he said on CNN.

“The reality is, the night of Sept 11, I said to the people of New York, ‘you should not assign blame here,”, he said.

“Otherwise we’re going to be like them and I want us to be a model”. “But I didn’t just rest on that,” Giuliani continued. “Thank God we didn’t have a serious incident.”

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump claimed last weekend that he recalls thousands of Muslim Americans in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the World Trade Centre.

His remarks have since drawn scepticism from media and several of his rivals for the Republican nomination next year.

New Jersey’s former attorney general also disputed the outspoken billionaire’s claims in a statement on Tuesday.

“We followed up on that report instantly, because of its implications,” said John J. Farmer Jr., according to The New York Times.

“The word came back quickly from Jersey City, later from Paterson — false report, never happened,” said Farmer, New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer in 2001.

“Whatever the message, it is just plain wrong to cite thousands of Muslims dancing in Jersey City or Paterson on 9/11 as support,” Farmer added. “It never happened.”

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015