Zohran Mamdani is set to attend the annual remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero on Friday even as a petition from relatives of 9/11 victims urging him to stay home has grown to roughly 110,000 signatures. The invitation-only service begins at 8:30 a.m. and is hosted by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
The backlash has sharpened because the dispute is not really about whether Mamdani can walk into the ceremony. It is about what his presence means to families who see the day as a private act of mourning, not a political moment. Mamdani has said he wants this week centered on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of Sept. 11, 2001, and on the first responders who gave everything they could to the city.
The petition argues that the annual commemoration should remain focused on remembrance, unity and a rejection of the violence that defined that day. It also points to Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief legal counsel, noting that Kassem once represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty to war-crimes charges. The petition says the presence of people whose words or associations clash with the solemn purpose of the event risks causing more pain to families who already carry it.
Mamdani’s own actions have only deepened the anger. He handed a ceremonial pen used to sign 9/11-related executive orders to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and asked her to pass it to Kassem, a gesture critics on social media called a slap in the face to relatives of those who died in the attacks. For families like Giovanni Galante, who lost his wife on Sept. 11, 2001, that kind of symbolism is the part they cannot get past.
The ceremony is expected to draw victims’ families, dignitaries and other invited guests, along with other major political figures. Former New York Gov. George Pataki is mentioned in connection with the event. What remains unresolved is whether Mamdani will do anything beyond showing up at the ceremony itself, or whether he will keep to the narrow role he says he wants: to leave the day to the dead, the grieving and the first responders.
