Mayor Mamdani Has No Place at the September 11 Memorial This Year or Any Other

If Zohran Mamdani wishes to honor September 11, he should begin by acknowledging the profound pain his own conduct has caused.

The 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks is not a political rally, a campaign opportunity, or a stage upon which ambitious public officials can rehabilitate their reputations. It is a sacred day of remembrance dedicated to the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans murdered by Islamic terrorists, the first responders who ran toward the flames while others fled, the military men and women who answered the nation’s call in the wars that followed, and the families whose lives were forever shattered. It belongs to them. It does not belong to politicians whose public record demonstrates repeated sympathy for those connected to the very ideology that produced the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

Yesterday Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood firm at a press conference and announced he would attend the official commemorations. That decision is an act of extreme cruelty toward the city he governs and toward every family still carrying the weight of that clear September morning. Even entertaining the idea of his presence at the Memorial or among the survivors and the bereaved shows a complete absence of basic human decency. The growing petition urging organizers to exclude him from the 25th anniversary ceremony is not motivated by religious prejudice, political partisanship, or personal animosity. It reflects something far more profound. Survivors of the attacks, relatives of those who never came home, retired police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and ordinary New Yorkers understand that September 11 is about remembering those who suffered unimaginable loss. It is not compatible with elevating a public official whose own record repeatedly displays astonishing indifference toward that suffering while extending understanding, admiration, or political solidarity toward those associated with radical causes.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of Mamdani’s moral blindness comes from his own public recollections of September 11. When discussing the attacks, he has focused not on the thousands who were murdered, the firefighters climbing burning stairwells, the police officers searching the collapsing towers, the office workers trapped above the impact zones, or the children who would grow up without parents. Instead, the principal story he has publicly chosen to emphasize concerns an extended female family member who, because she wore a hijab, reportedly received uncomfortable looks from strangers in New York following the attacks. No decent person condones harassment or discrimination against innocent people because of their religion or appearance. Americans rightly rejected such conduct after September 11, just as they reject it today. But the extraordinary imbalance in Mamdani’s public emphasis speaks volumes. Faced with reflecting upon the worst terrorist attack in American history, his first instinct was not to mourn nearly 3,000 murdered Americans or celebrate the extraordinary heroism displayed that day. His central concern became the social discomfort experienced by a member of his extended family. That inversion of priorities has become a defining feature of Mamdani’s public life.

New Yorkers have every right to demand an explanation for his disturbing and unmistakable pattern of embracing convicted supporters of terrorism and publicly celebrating figures whose records have long troubled victims of Islamist extremism. This is no longer about one reckless lyric recorded during his career as an obscure rapper. It is about a public official who has repeatedly chosen to praise, honor, and associate himself with individuals connected to some of the darkest chapters in New York City’s history.

In his 2017 song “Salaam” Mamdani declared, “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up.” Americans who haven’t already done so should do exactly that. The Holy Land Five were senior officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development which federal prosecutors described as a financial support operation for Hamas. A federal jury convicted the defendants in 2008 of offenses related to providing material support to Hamas, an organization legally designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Two of the defendants received 65 year federal prison sentences, while the others received terms ranging from 15 to 20 years. Mamdani did not simply question the prosecution or argue about legal procedure. He voluntarily sent them his “love.” That statement may enjoy constitutional protection, but the Constitution certainly does not require New Yorkers to ignore what it reveals about the political instincts and moral judgment of the man who now governs America’s largest city.

His record did not end there. Mamdani also publicly embraced Imam Siraj Wahhaj, posing proudly beside him and praising him as one of America’s leading Muslim figures. Wahhaj was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted coconspirator during the investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist bombing. He was never charged and has denied wrongdoing. Nevertheless, his long history of defending convicted extremists and criticizing American counterterrorism efforts was widely known long before Mamdani sought his endorsement. Mamdani wanted New Yorkers to see that photograph. He distributed it himself. Only after public outrage erupted did his supporters attempt to dismiss it as routine community outreach.

Survivors of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing immediately understood what Mamdani apparently did not care to acknowledge. On February 26, 1993 terrorists detonated a massive truck bomb on the B2 level of the World Trade Center garage beneath the North Tower, murdering seven people, including an expectant mother named Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child while injuring more than a thousand others. Their objective was to topple one tower into the other and slaughter tens of thousands. Although that attempt failed, the bombing was a terrible warning of the jihadist threat that would return eight years later with almost unimaginable consequences. A candidate seeking to govern New York City should have understood the sensitivity of embracing a figure whom prosecutors had named in connection with that investigation. Mamdani either knew Wahhaj’s history and did not care, or he failed to conduct the most elementary examination of a prominent supporter he publicly celebrated. Neither explanation is acceptable.

These episodes cannot be dismissed in isolation. Viewed together, they reveal a consistent pattern. Mamdani has repeatedly extended sympathy toward convicted Hamas supporters, embraced controversial figures closely associated with the ideological defense of Islamist extremism, associated himself with terror supporters who chant “From the River to the Sea” and regularly condemns the institutions responsible for defending the United States and its allies while showing remarkably little urgency in condemning those who deliberately target innocent civilians. He has promoted sanctuary policies designed to impede federal immigration enforcement and has repeatedly aligned himself with a radical political movement that reserves its greatest hostility not for terrorists, murderers, or hostage takers, but for Israel, law enforcement, and the United States government. His ridiculous claim that he was going to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu during The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was just another recent example of his hateful behavior towards America and Israel.

Mamdani is no longer an obscure performer hiding behind the stage names Young Cardamom or Mr. Cardamom. He is the 112th mayor of New York City, responsible for a municipal government of enormous size and consequence. He receives sensitive intelligence and public safety briefings, influences the leadership and priorities of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and governs a city that remains an international symbol and a premier target for terrorist organizations. New Yorkers are therefore entitled to judge his associations according to the responsibilities of his office.

Many were understandably disturbed when Mamdani was sworn into oath office on the Quran. And while The Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, and an American’s choice of scripture does not establish sympathy for terrorism, the decision was revealing and the evidence is Mamdani’s own public commentary and conduct. By focusing on his religion rather than his record, careless critics provide him with a convenient opportunity to evade responsibility and portray every legitimate objection as anti-Muslim prejudice. The case against Mamdani does not require speculation about his private faith because his own words and associations are sufficiently damning. Millions of patriotic Muslim Americans love this country, serve in uniform, wear police badges, work as firefighters, and honor the victims of September 11 alongside every other American. They deserve respect and gratitude. The issue is not Mamdani’s faith. The issue is Mamdani’s own words, associations, and repeated political choices.

The establishment media has worked relentlessly to isolate each episode and drain it of significance. The Holy Land Five lyric is portrayed as artistic expression from his youth. The Wahhaj photograph is dismissed as ordinary community outreach. His hostility toward Israel is characterized as principled human rights advocacy, while his resistance to federal enforcement is presented as compassion for immigrants. Each excuse is carefully constructed to prevent the public from examining the cumulative record. Yet when these episodes are viewed together, they demonstrate a consistent willingness to legitimize extremists, excuse their defenders, and reserve his condemnation for the institutions that confront them.

New York City has paid an incalculable price for political leaders who refuse to recognize threats until bodies are being removed from the rubble. The families of those victims should not now be lectured about tolerance by politicians who extend affection toward convicted Hamas supporters and embrace controversial figures connected to the earlier attack on the World Trade Center. Mamdani has demonstrated a chronic inability and unwillingness to draw the most basic moral distinction between those who defend the United States against terrorism and those convicted of assisting terrorist organizations. He treats the supporters and defenders of extremists and terrorists as members of a persecuted political community deserving admiration, while regularly portraying American and Israeli authorities as the true aggressors.

September 11 commemorations are not intended to sanitize or erase that record. For the families who lost husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers, sisters, friends, and colleagues, these ceremonies represent one of the few days each year when the nation pauses to remember the people stolen from them.

Survivors still carry the physical scars, the respiratory illnesses, the emotional trauma, and the memories of that horrific morning. Firefighters and police officers still remember recovering human remains from the smoking ruins. Those families should not be forced to stand beside a mayor whose public conduct has repeatedly demonstrated greater concern for those who defend or rationalize extremists than for those who were murdered by them.

A mayor who truly understands what September 11 means would instinctively center the victims. He would speak first about the murdered office workers, the firefighters climbing into the inferno, the police officers who never returned home, the passengers aboard Flight 93 who sacrificed themselves to save others, and the generations of children forced to grow up without parents. He would leave no ambiguity whatsoever about the evil of Hamas, al-Qaeda, and every organization that glorifies or finances terrorism. Instead, Mamdani has spent years creating ambiguity where none should exist.

The only person Mamdani has ever publicly expressed any concern for in connection with the aftermath of the attacks was that extended female family member who received some odd looks because of her hijab. That is the sum total of his public empathy. Not the nearly 3,000 murdered, those now suffering from various illnesses as a result of the rescue and recovery efforts, those whose lives were lost during The Global War on Terror (GWOT). Not the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who ran toward the burning towers. Not the widows, the orphans, the parents who never recovered the remains of their children. An extended relative who got stares for her headscarf. This is who he worries about. Not the victims.

His “From the River to the Sea” terrorist pals who celebrate Hamas attacks and treat October 7 as resistance rather than massacre, along with his regular and reflexive condemnation of American values, should be more than enough to keep him away.

September 11 is about memory. It is about truth. It is about honoring courage and condemning evil without qualification or hesitation. Those who have repeatedly blurred those moral lines should not expect to occupy a place of honor at ceremonies dedicated to the innocent dead.

The 25 anniversary belongs to the victims, the survivors, the rescue workers, and the families who continue to carry unimaginable grief. Their voices deserve far greater respect than the political ambitions of a mayor whose own record has convinced so many New Yorkers that he simply does not understand what that day means.

If Zohran Mamdani wishes to honor September 11, he should begin by acknowledging the profound pain his own conduct has caused. Until then, the most respectful place for him on that solemn anniversary is somewhere other than the official memorial ceremony. He should stay away this year and every year.