Mamdani Draws Outrage by Signing 9/11 Order

American flags displayed outdoors at a memorial — Photo: Cody Veteto / Shutterstock

New York City’s first Muslim mayor says he will stand at Ground Zero on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, even as tens of thousands of people sign petitions begging him not to show up.

Quick Take

Zohran Mamdani says he will attend the 25th anniversary 9/11 ceremony to honor victims, survivors, and first responders.
A Change.org petition asking organizers to bar him has drawn well over 60,000 signatures, with some reports citing figures near 95,000.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum has a long-standing policy of not screening elected officials by politics.
Critics, including retired Port Authority officers and former Governor George Pataki, say his presence would cause families pain.

The Petition and the Pledge

Families who lost loved ones on September 11 started an online petition urging the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to keep Mamdani away from this year’s ceremony. The petition argues his participation clashes with the event’s purpose and the wishes of families most affected by the attacks. Signatures climbed fast, growing from around 16,000 to tens of thousands within weeks.

Mamdani has not budged. He told CBS News New York he intends to “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”. His office repeated that pledge as pressure grew, with spokesperson Jeremy Edwards confirming the mayor plans to attend and stand with those affected.

A Ceremony Built on Silence, Not Speeches

The Ground Zero ceremony has followed the same format for more than a decade. Family members read the names of the dead aloud. Elected officials attend, but they do not speak or deliver remarks from the podium. That structure exists specifically to keep politics out of a day meant for mourning, not campaigning.

The memorial has confirmed it does not screen officials by party or political stance. Every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 2001 has attended under that same rule, sitting in a designated area without addressing the crowd. That precedent is part of why no New York City mayor has ever skipped the event, a fact critics of the petition point to often.

History Says Mayors Don’t Skip This Day

Former Governor Pataki has publicly said Mamdani should sit this one out, adding his voice to a growing chorus of critics. Retired Port Authority police officers went further, telling both Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul that their attendance would cause “profound pain” to families and survivors. Those objections carry weight given who is raising them, but they run against a ceremony tradition built on universal attendance, not selective exclusion.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin pushed back hard against efforts to ban the mayor, noting the ceremony has never featured political speeches and stressing that Mamdani has made clear he will be there regardless of the petition drive. Past ceremonies back her up. Presidents, vice presidents, and rivals from opposing parties have stood shoulder to shoulder at Ground Zero for a quarter century, including moments when sitting and former presidents from both parties appeared together without incident.

Reporting has also noted Mamdani skipped a separate 1993 World Trade Center bombing memorial earlier this year, sending a deputy in his place instead. That detail fuels skeptics who question his commitment to solemn commemoration generally, even as he insists his September 11 attendance is non-negotiable. Whether that earlier absence reflects a scheduling conflict or something more deliberate remains unresolved in the public record.

What is not in dispute is the ceremony’s ironclad custom: elected officials show up, they stay quiet, and they bear witness alongside grieving families. Petitions and public pressure campaigns are new to this particular mayor, but the tradition of mayoral attendance itself is not up for debate. Twenty-five years in, Ground Zero has never turned away a sitting mayor, and this year appears headed toward no exception.