The families of September 11 victims are drawing a line at Ground Zero.
A petition to keep New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary ceremony has exploded past 98,000 signatures.
And the families who signed it are making clear what they plan to do if he shows up anyway.
A Solemn Day Turned Contentious
Relatives of those killed in the September 11 attacks say they will turn away from Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he attends the 25th anniversary memorial at Ground Zero, according to the New York Post.
More than 98,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking the National September 11 Memorial and Museum to reconsider Mamdani’s participation in the ceremony.
The 2001 attacks killed 2,977 people, among them 658 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald alone.
Petition organizer Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace died in the attacks on the 105th floor of the North Tower, put it plainly: “I would definitely ignore him.”
Angie Pesce, whose brother Danny was killed in the North Tower, said “he’ll show up to be spiteful.”
Maureen Santora, 81, whose firefighter son Christopher died at 23 with Engine 54 in the South Tower, chose her words carefully. “I just hope that he doesn’t say a single word because most of us will be very upset,” she said.
Jeanette Puccio-Pick, who lost her father on the 94th floor of the South Tower, said her focus stays on her father, not the mayor.
Mamdani said he intends to show up regardless. “I 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, reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day felt by all of us who calls this city home and, frankly, all of us who call this country home,” he said at a press conference.
What the Petition Actually Says
The petition describes the annual ceremony as “a solemn occasion” grounded in “shared American values: respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence.”
“Concerns have been raised about Mr. Mamdani’s public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values,” the petition states.
The families cite a specific and damning list of grievances.
Mamdani has repeatedly declined to clearly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence. When pressed on NBC’s *Meet the Press* in June 2025, he said it was not “language I use” but argued that a mayor’s role was not “to police speech.” That is not a condemnation. That is a dodge.
The petition also cites his campaign appearance with Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who 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. Wahhaj hosted Mamdani at his At-Taqwa mosque during the campaign, and former FBI agents criticized Mamdani at the time for failing to condemn the cleric.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola dismissed the mayor’s recent executive orders on remembrance as hollow, citing his retention of chief counsel Ramzi Kassem and his refusal to disavow figures such as commentator Hasan Piker. Kassem has represented Al-Qaeda convict Ahmed al-Darbi and radical organizer Mahmoud Khalil.
The petition further notes that Mamdani’s father published a book shortly after September 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.” Mamdani has said his father has been influential in shaping his views.
Retired Port Authority police also weighed in. Association president John McDevitt sent letters urging Mamdani to stay home, according to Fox News.
Galante and Ariola plan to carry the petition to City Hall on September 8 and hold a press conference there.
The Bigger Picture New York’s Establishment Won’t Acknowledge
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum issued a statement saying it has “intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics” and that government officials from across the political spectrum attend the ceremony “simply to bear witness.” The museum did not address whether it would rescind any invitation to Mamdani or ask him to step back.
Not every family member agrees with the petition. Elizabeth Miller, whose father died in the attacks, defended Mamdani’s place at the ceremony in remarks to CBS New York, and her group, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, condemned what it called Islamophobic attacks on the mayor.
But the families driving the petition are not making a religious argument. They are making a factual one.
New York City now has a mayor who refused to clearly condemn a phrase widely understood as a call for violence, who campaigned alongside a cleric named as an alleged co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing, and who appointed a chief counsel whose clients have included convicted Al-Qaeda operatives. Those are not matters of religious identity. They are matters of public record.
Mamdani is a democratic socialist who rose to power on the strength of New York City’s hard-left political machinery. His election represents exactly the kind of cultural and political transformation that happens when a city stops demanding assimilation into American civic values and instead celebrates imported ideological frameworks that are openly hostile to the constitutional order. The families standing at Ground Zero on September 11 did not sign up to share that space with a man whose associations and public statements raise the questions they do.
And yet here he is, insisting he will attend, insisting he will “proudly honor” the dead, as if the objections of the people who actually lost someone that day are simply an inconvenience to be managed.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum’s instinct to stay neutral is understandable on its face. But neutrality has limits. When the sitting mayor of New York City carries a public record that directly conflicts with the ceremony’s stated purpose of honoring the victims and rejecting the ideologies that killed them, the museum’s refusal to address the question is itself a political act.
The families have been clear. More than 98,000 people have been clear. The only question left is whether anyone in a position of institutional authority in New York City has the backbone to listen to them.
Giovanni Galante started this petition. His wife Grace was 29 years old when she died on the 105th floor of the North Tower. He does not need a lecture from City Hall about what that day means.
Sources: The Daily Caller; New York Post; Fox News; CBS New York; Washington Times; Change.org petition