Families of September 11 victims have collected more than 1,100 signatures demanding that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani be blocked from attending the 25th anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero, citing his associations with individuals who have minimized the attacks.
Giovanni Galante lost his 29-year-old wife, Grace Catherine, when al-Qaeda terrorists killed 2,977 people at the World Trade Center. Now 55, the Brooklyn-born real estate agent, who lives in Florida, is leading a Change.org petition drive that has gathered those signatures in a little over a week, with at least 300 coming from victims' families. His demand is plain: keep the mayor away from sacred ground on the day that belongs to the dead and those who loved them.
The petition, first reported by the New York Post, does not rest on partisan grievance. It rests on a specific public record, a trail of endorsements, appointments, and associations that the families say makes Mamdani's presence at the former Twin Towers site an affront to the memory of everyone who died there.
Galante, who organized the petition alongside Staten Island resident Cheri Sparacio, whose 35-year-old husband Thomas was also killed on September 11, laid out the families' case in blunt terms.
"Our objection is based on his public record, his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America 'deserved' the attacks."
Sparacio, for her part, said there are "so many other examples" of why Mamdani's attendance would be "disrespectful" that the organizers "couldn't fit them on the list."
The petition itself asks ceremony organizers to weigh whether Mamdani's participation "would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy." It calls for the anniversary to "remain centered on remembrance, unity, and an unambiguous rejection of the violence and extremism that defined that day."
Those are measured words. The record behind them is anything but.
The petition catalogs a series of connections that, taken together, form the core of the families' objection. Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, who took office in January, appeared during his mayoral campaign with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam described as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who once urged followers to participate in "gun-free jihad" and march through the city.
After taking office, Mamdani appointed Ramzi Kassem as the city's chief counsel. Kassem has defended Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty in a 2002 plot to bomb a French oil tanker, and Mahmoud Khalil, the lead organizer of the 2024 anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.
Mamdani also endorsed fellow Democratic Socialists of America member Aber Kawas for a state Senate seat. Kawas once described 9/11 as a terror attack that "a couple of people did" and expressed sympathy for Ahmed Ferhani, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue. Mamdani endorsed another DSA candidate, Darializa Avila Chevalier, for Congress, calling her the "perfect candidate", despite her having called the United States "a f---ing disgrace" and reportedly boasting about desecrating the American flag.
The petition also flags alleged 2015 social media posts in which Mamdani appeared to defend Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam at mosques in San Diego and Virginia who, according to U.S. officials, interacted with three of the September 11 hijackers. Those posts reportedly resurfaced during the mayoral campaign. And Mamdani's father, Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University professor, has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers, according to the petition's account.
The families further cite Mamdani's longtime association with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said "America deserved" the September 11 attacks. Mamdani has also been criticized for refusing to condemn the rallying cry "globalize the intifada" and for claiming that Muslims were also victims of 9/11 due to "Islamophobia." This latest controversy fits a broader pattern: Jewish leaders have previously demanded Mamdani stop inflaming tensions after violent incidents in the city.
Among the petition's signers is Monica Iken-Murphy, a founding trustee of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum's board and a leading advocate in the memorial's creation. Her husband, Michael Iken, was 37 when he was killed.
Iken-Murphy framed her position as something beyond politics. She named former mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, and NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin, described as a longtime 9/11 family advocate, as officials who should attend. Her concern, she said, is simpler than ideology.
"I don't want families to feel uncomfortable. Others can come a different day, but let the families have their time."
That distinction matters. The families are not arguing that no politician should set foot at Ground Zero. They are arguing that this particular politician, given this particular record, does not belong at this particular ceremony. It is a judgment rooted in the specific, not in blanket hostility toward elected officials.
Menin, for her part, did not return a message seeking comment. Mamdani's administration has faced friction from multiple directions since he took office, including a State Department intervention to shut down a planned meeting between a Mamdani official and Iran's UN ambassador.
Jeremy Edwards, a spokesperson for the mayor, made clear that Mamdani has no intention of staying away.
"Mayor Mamdani will proudly honor the families, survivors and first responders forever impacted by these devastating attacks 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 call this city home."
The statement does not address any of the specific associations cited in the petition. It does not mention Wahhaj, Kassem, Kawas, Chevalier, Piker, or al-Awlaki. It treats the controversy as settled by the mayor's willingness to show up, as though presence alone answers the families' objections.
That evasiveness is consistent with how Mamdani's office has handled previous controversies. The mayor backed away from his campaign pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a UN visit, asking federal authorities to do what he had promised voters he would do himself. And he has stood by a scandal-linked political strategist even as the association drew sustained criticism.
Julie Wood, a spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, told the Post that the organization has "intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue." She noted that government officials "from across the political spectrum, including every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 9/11, have attended the ceremony simply to bear witness." Those officials do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area.
Wood's statement threads a needle. It defends the tradition of mayoral attendance without directly addressing whether any prior mayor arrived at the ceremony carrying the specific baggage the families have outlined. Every sitting mayor since 2001 has attended. None of them campaigned alongside an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center attack.
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola offered a sharper assessment and said she is ready to help the petition organizers contact the NYC Council.
"This is a mayor who has endorsed candidates and has been endorsed by individuals who openly said that 'America deserved 9/11,' so I completely understand why families of those who lost loved ones would not want him there."
Galante and Sparacio plan to bring their petition to the Council as the signature count grows. The organizers have not disclosed a specific target number, but the pace, more than 1,100 names in just over a week, suggests the effort has struck a nerve well beyond the immediate circle of victims' families.
The petition does not call Mamdani a terrorist sympathizer. It does not demand his resignation. It asks a single, narrow question: whether a man with his specific record of associations belongs at a ceremony meant to honor the dead and comfort the living.
Galante put it in terms that need no political translation.
"This day is sacred to us. It is not political, and it is not a platform for those connected to such views. His presence would be deeply hurtful and inappropriate, like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony."
The 25th anniversary of September 11 will arrive whether Mamdani attends or not. The names of the 2,977 will be read aloud whether he stands in the designated area or stays at City Hall. But for the families who buried husbands and wives and children, the question is whether the city's chief executive has earned the right to stand on that ground, or whether his own record has disqualified him.
When the people who lost the most ask you not to come, a leader with any sense of the moment listens.