Families of the victims of 9/11 gathered on Tuesday in Manhattan to send a clear message to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, telling him to stay away from their 9/11 memorial service.
As Mamdani plans to defy the families’ wishes, Giovanni Galante, the organizer of a petition to bar Mamdani from the event, said they just want “to be left alone” to mourn the 25th anniversary of their losses.
“He just wants to be there because he wants to be there,” said Charles Wolf, noting that “This mayor is not serving us; he’s serving himself.”
The petition, launched by families of the victims and signed by over 100,000 people, describes the event as “not simply a public ceremony,” but “a deeply personal day of mourning.”
“The presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain,” it reads, giving examples of why terrorist sympathizer Mamdani is not welcome.
Concerns have been raised about Mr. Mamdani’s public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values. These include:
- A perceived reluctance to clearly and unequivocally condemn phrases such as “globalize the intifada,” which many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence.
- Support for, or associations with, individuals whose public statements or records are viewed by concerned family members as dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies.
- Mr. Mamdani’s own father, whom he has acknowledged as having shaped his views, penned a book shortly after 9/11 in which he argued that suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” He also argued that there was a moral equivalence between the United States and al-Qaeda.
- Mr. Mamdani has praised Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been linked to radical Islam, was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and served as a character witness for the “Blind Sheikh,” who was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks against the United States.
- Mr. Mamdani has blamed the United States for radicalizing Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda propagandist linked to the 9/11 hijackers. Critics have likened this to blaming victims rather than perpetrators.
- Mr. Mamdani appointed Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi (convicted in an al-Qaeda tanker bombing plot), as New York City’s chief counsel.
- Mr. Mamdani has endorsed candidates such as Aber Kawas, who described 9/11 as an attack “a couple of people did in the context of U.S. capitalism, racism, white supremacy, and Islamophobia,” and who also expressed sympathy for Ahmed Ferhani, who pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue.
- Mr. Mamdani recently stood with DSA primary winner Darializa Aria Chevalier, who once tweeted, “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Still, Mamdani declared that he will “proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders, forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration,” the Gateway Pundit reported.
On Tuesday, family members, first responders, and elected officials made their final pleas for the mayor not to attend.
Giovanni Galante, who lost his wife Grace in the terrorist attack and organized the petition, said at the press conference, “I’m here to honor my beautiful wife and to have this man not attend our service. The main purpose is just that we don’t believe in what he believes in, and we really want us to be left alone.”
“The purpose of this whole thing, this 25th anniversary, is for our, you know, victims and us survivors to blend in and pray that day for all the families, not have a circus around us,” he said.
Monica Iken, who lost her husband, Michael, stated, “It’s a blessing that we can go to this memorial and honor our loved ones and not just their death. So that’s a very important thing.”
“I support the families. I feel like if the families really feel, if we feel, that we don’t want someone at our world-class memorial museum that’s sacred and hallowed, we feel that that person should respect our wishes,” Iken said.
She further noted that Mamdani “wasn’t even here” during 9/11/2001. “He was 10, he wasn’t in this country, and I think he should really respect us,” she added. “Just let us have our peace, our memorial, to really understand why we’re here. We’re honoring our loved ones.”
“I want to make clear that our petition is not about Mayor Mamdani’s religion or where he came from. It is strictly about the policies that he has today,” said Cheri Sparacio, the wife of 9/11 victim Tom Sparacio. She then pointed to Mamdani’s support for Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11, and his hiring of Ramzi Kassem, who once represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative convicted in the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and the brother-in-law of 9/11 Pentagon hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar.
“Yes, he was a nine-year-old boy when 9/11 happened, but it is today that he stands with people like Hasan Piker. It is today that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem. It is today that he stands with an imam that was a co-conspirator of the 93 bombing. That is what we object to,” she said.
Jeannette Puccio-Pick, whose father was killed in the attack when she was nine years old, put it simply, saying, “My message to Mayor Mamdani is: Dude, we don’t want you to come.”
“We don’t want a mayor who only wants to be there for the publicity. This mayor is not serving us; he’s serving himself. We are asking, respectfully, that he not show up,” said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed while working in the North Tower on 9/11.
“Even though there is going to be other politicians there, these are the politicians that helped us, pushed beneficial laws through, and literally held our hand during that time. Mayor Mamdani has not shown any of that, none of it. He just wants to be there because he wants to be there. So, we are asking him to respect the fact that trauma is revived during the ceremony. It is a private ceremony. It is not a public ceremony. Mayor Mamdani, please do not come.”
WATCH:
After the speeches, the reporters present had no questions for the families. There was no way for them to defend Mamdani.
Fox’s Harris Faulkner was in disbelief at the press’s refusal.
WATCH:
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