‘UNWELCOME GUEST’: 9/11 Families Petition to Ban Mamdani From 25th Anniversary

Families of 9/11 victims are urging organizers to keep NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero.

He should be barred. The man stands with the terrorists, for Pete’s sake. His  presence is an affront and an insult to the memory of those lost and the loved ones left behind.

NY Post: Families of 9/11 victims are demanding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani be banned from the 25th anniversary of the attacks at Ground Zero, branding him an apologist for Islamic terror whose presence would be an insult to the memories of nearly 3,000 people murdered.

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“Our objection is based on his public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” said Giovanni Galante – whose 29-year-old wife Grace Catherine Galante was among 2,977 innocents killed by al-Qaeda terrorists.

  • Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the “globalize the intifada” rallying cry for violence against Jewish people.
  • His palling around on the mayoral campaign last year with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a notorious, gay-hating Brooklyn imam who once urged followers to participate in gun-free jihad and “march through the city of New York.” Wahhaj was an unindicted co-conspirator in 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
  • His appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief counsel. Kassem has defended Ahmed al-Darbi — an al-Qaeda terrorist who pleaded guilty in a 2002 plot to bomb a French oil tanker – and Mahmoud Khalil, the radical lead organizer of the 2024 anti-Israel tentifada at Columbia University.
  • The mayor’s endorsement of fellow Democratic Socialist of America member Aber Kawas for a state Senate seat — despite her once describing 9/11 as a terror attack that “a couple of people did” and expressing sympathy for Ahmed Ferhani, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue.
  • Hizzoner’s endorsement of Darializa Avila Chevalier for Congress. Mamdani has called the DSA insurgent the “perfect candidate” despite her radical past, which includes once calling the U.S. “a f—ing disgrace” and boasting she desecrated the American flag by using it like a napkin to wipe her filthy hands.
  • Mamdani defending al-Qaeda fiend Anwar al-Awlaki — and blaming America for turning the prostitution-loving cleric into a terrorist, according to some of his 2015 social media posts that resurfaced last year. Al-Awlaki became a prominent imam at mosques in San Diego and Virginia, eventually interacting with three of the heinous 9/11 hijackers there, U.S. officials have said.
  • Mamdani’s dad, Mahmood Mamdani, a chaired professor of African history and colonialism at Columbia University, has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers.

“Given these concerns, we respectfully ask that the organizers carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy,” the petition says.

… Mamdani’s longtime association with vile left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and Mamdani’s outlandish claim that he and other fellow Muslims were also victims of 9/11 because it supposedly triggered a horrible wave of “Islamophobia,” added Sparacio, of Staten Island.

9/11 Families Petition to Bar Mamdani From 25th Anniversary

By Jim Thomas, Newsmax, 5 July 2026:

Relatives of victims killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are circulating a Change.org petition asking organizers to keep New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, calling the first-term Democrat an “unwelcome guest” whose record on Israel, Islamism, and past political associations makes his attendance inappropriate at what they describe as a sacred day.

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The petition, reported Saturday by the New York Post, is being pushed by a group that includes real estate agent Charles Galante and Cheri Sparacio, whose husband Thomas was killed in the World Trade Center.

Organizers say they intend to press lawmakers and the nonprofit 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which runs the plaza commemoration, to exclude Mamdani from the Sept. 11, 2026, program.

Signers cite Mamdani’s refusal during last year’s mayoral race to disavow the phrase “globalize the intifada,” his campaign-trail appearance alongside Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj, and his hiring of civil rights attorney Ramzi Kassem as chief counsel to City Hall, according to the Post’s account of the petition.

Kassem previously represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The petition also flags Mamdani’s endorsements of Democratic Socialists of America candidates Aber Kawas and Darializa Avila Chevalier, as well as old social media posts in which Mamdani discussed the radicalized cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

“This day is sacred to us,” Galante told the Post, adding that the ceremony “is not a platform for those connected to such views.”

The Memorial & Museum said it does not screen elected officials based on politics.

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Spokeswoman Julie Wood said every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 2001 has attended and that officials sit in a designated area without speaking.

That framework, established after earlier disputes over political speeches at the memorial, treats the ceremony as an act of witness rather than a public forum.

Continued……

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