The families of the victims of the September 11 attack requested that the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, be banned from the 25th anniversary ceremony of the attacks due to his connections with Islamic extremism, stating that it would be an insult to the memory of the nearly 3,000 murdered individuals for him to attend such a tribute.
"Our objection is based on his public record: his inability to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day and his employment, support, or association with individuals who have downplayed 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested that the United States 'deserved' the attacks", declared Giovanni Galante, one of the organizers of the request, to the New York Post.
Galante's wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was one of the 2,977 innocent victims killed by al-Qaeda terrorists when she was 29 years old. The initiative has garnered over 1,110 signatures, with at least 300 family members of the victims presenting themselves as signatories.
Galante and other family members hope to gather enough signatures to convince local lawmakers and the organizers of the ceremony to keep Mamdani away from the event. They mentioned his connection with Siraj Wahhaj, a famous imam from Brooklyn who years ago incited his followers to wage jihad in New York, as one of the reasons to exclude the Muslim mayor.
Mamdani: links to terrorism and anti-American statements
Another reason justifying the rejection of the Ugandan politician is that he previously refused to condemn the slogan of violence against the Jewish people "let's globalize the intifada". Additionally, Mamdani appointed Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who defended Ahmed al-Darbi —an al-Qaeda terrorist who pleaded guilty in a 2002 plot to bomb a French oil tanker— as an official in his government, along with the well-known anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil.
