A coalition of family members who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks urged New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the 25th anniversary event at ground zero, citing his past comments and ties to people linked to radical Islam.
The families, along with several city lawmakers, gathered on the steps of New York’s City Hall on Tuesday and pleaded with the mayor to steer clear of Friday’s ceremony.
The al Qaeda attacks killed 2,753 in the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on 9/11. An additional 224 were killed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon.
Family members cited Mr. Mamdani’s ties to Hasan Piker, a leftist political commentator and vocal supporter of the mayor. Mr. Piker is openly pro-Palestinian and anti-police and said: “America deserved 9/11.”
They also pointed to Mr. Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief legal counsel. Mr. Kassem once represented an al Qaeda operative and convicted terrorist, whose sister was married to one of the 9/11 hijackers.
Last week, Mr. Mamdani handed Mr. Kassem a ceremonial pen that he used to sign executive orders to honor victims, first responders and survivors of the terror attacks, sparking outrage from victims’ families.
One family member noted Mr. Mamdani’s connection to Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a longtime Brooklyn cleric whom federal prosecutors identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six people. Mr. Wahhaj was never charged in the case and testified as a character witness for the cleric convicted of masterminding the plot.
Mr. Wahhaj has denied any connection to terrorism. During his mayoral campaign, Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim, visited Mr. Wahhaj’s mosque to pray with him and posted a photo of him and the imam, calling Mr. Wahhaj “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders.”
“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 Monica Iken, whose husband, Michael Iken, died in the South Tower on 9/11.
She said about Mr. Mamdani, “Yes, he was a 9-year-old boy when 9/11 happened, but it is today that he stands with people like Hassan Piker. It is today that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem. It is today that he stands with an imam who was a co-conspirator of the [1993 World Trade Center] bombing,” she said.
Giovanni Galante, whose wife, Grace Galante, was killed while working in the North Tower, made it clear that he doesn’t want the mayor to attend the ceremony.
“We don’t believe in what he believes in and we really want to be left alone,” he said. “The 25th anniversary is for victims and us survivors to pray that day for all the families, not have a circus around us.”
A petition launched by relatives of 9/11 victims urging Mr. Mamdani not to attend has gathered nearly 100,000 signatures and gained support from former New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, both Republicans.
Mr. Mamdani has said he plans to attend the ceremony and has defended his commitment to honoring the attack’s victims. He signed an order last week establishing Sept. 11 as an annual Citywide Day of Remembrance and Service and another order aimed at modernizing the city’s emergency preparedness procedures.
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country. And what I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers,” Mr. Mamdani told reporters Monday when asked about the petition to keep him away from the ceremony.
He will be the first Muslim mayor to attend the city’s official 9/11 remembrance ceremony.
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