Should Mayor Mamdani Attend the 9/11 Ceremony?

[August 3, 2026]  A recent question being asked that strikes hard at American values is whether NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani should attend the city’s upcoming 9/11 ceremony.  The answer is easy.  Yes, he should attend, and perhaps not for the more obvious reasons.

Relatives of 9/11 victims are rightly “pissed” that he wants to attend, and yet he has said that he would be there.  They see him as a quisling who has refused to condemn Islamic terrorism, and his very public stance has been soft on extremism.  For an elected New York City politician, this is unacceptable.  Not surprisingly, the gut reaction of the New Yorkers that I know say the same thing; that Mamdani has no place at the 9/11 memorial.

Should he attend?  Traditionally speaking, he should because his institutional role as the elected mayor is to attend the annual Ground Zero remembrance.  That duty is closely tied to the office, not a personal endorsement of any political ideology.  This upcoming 25th anniversary of 9/11 is especially significant, and as the city’s elected leader, he is expected to stand with survivors, families, first responders, and the public in marking the day.

But the families and their supporters are not taking this lightly.  A Change.org petition has gathered tens of thousands of signatures asking organizers to exclude or minimize Mamdani’s presence.  Their state reasons center on his public record and associations: his reluctance to clearly condemn slogans such as “globalize the intifada,” endorsements of candidates who have made dismissive remarks about 9/11, etc.

Mamdani has responded by affirming he will attend to “proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack” and to reaffirm that “we will never forget.” That is the correct public posture for the mayor.

I still say again, as I have to my NYC friends, is that he should attend.  Doing so gives the 9/11 families and supporters the chance to make their position known; that the very Islamists that he supports are the ones who flew commercial airliners into the New York City Twin Towers.  An opportunity like this is rare, and should be taken with great care.  Condemn Islamic extremism.  And condemn those who would fail to strongly reject both the extremes of Islamic ideology that supports it and those who believe in it.

They should take great care not to publicly humiliate or insult the mayor, but still take him to task for not pushing back on extremism, and for associating with those who do support radical Islam.

Mamdani needs to feel their anger, their disgust, and their sadness.  He needs to see for himself that his on-high pontificating about NYC being a “sanctuary city” for illegals, especially for Muslim illegals, is a non-starter.  He needs to know that his “democratic socialism” is closely allied with radical Islam, and that what he says is unacceptable.  In other words, his insulation from reality must be stripped away, and with emotion.

Yes, he should attend.  If the families want to turn their backs on him, literally, then they should do so when he is speaking.  But his invitation must remain.  And he must attend.  This is one opportunity that no one should give up.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).