New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is scheduled to attend the primary September 11 memorial service, where he will confront former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who recently criticized Mamdani’s Muslim faith and urged him to forgo the ceremony.
During a weekend interview with right‑leaning Newsmax, Giuliani stated, “Having lost friends there and being close to many of the families, I find it offensive that he is attending.”
Mamdani confirmed on Monday, while participating in a breakfast honoring New York’s J’ouvert and West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, that he will attend the main ceremony and several other 9/11 events on Friday, to stand with the families of the victims and first responders, as he did the previous year before assuming office.
“I am proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city and my country,” he said. “This week should focus on the families whose loved ones were taken from them 25 years ago in the horrific September 11 terror attack, and on the first responders who did everything they could.”
The mayor and his office have declined to comment on Giuliani’s remarks.
The former mayor, a close ally of Donald Trump, said he will also attend this year’s ceremony to commemorate the attacks carried out by al‑Qaeda‑linked Islamist terrorists, who flew hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001.
Reflecting pools with waterfalls built on the footprints of the towers, together with a 9/11 museum, now mark the site known as Ground Zero, where each year the names of the nearly 3,000 victims are read aloud by survivors and loved ones during a solemn ceremony attended by national and local leaders.
In the Newsmax interview, Giuliani was asked whether Mamdani should skip the ceremony. He replied, “There’s no question he should.” Giuliani served as New York City mayor from 1994 to 2001, ran unsuccessfully for president, and has recently worked as an attorney for and a staunch ally of Donald Trump.
During a convoluted on‑air tirade on Saturday, Giuliani hurled insults and made baseless comparisons, suggesting a link between Mamdani’s faith and the 9/11 hijackers who acted on extremist orders from Osama bin Laden, the jihadist leader killed by U.S. forces under the Obama administration.
He claimed that the terrorists expressed their ideological opposition to the United States “in the name of the Muslim religion,” and that they “weren’t hiding it like Mamdani is trying to hide it.” He also asserted that the mayor endorses the notion that Islam should be the dominant religion.
Mamdani has previously noted that an Islamophobic backlash followed the 2001 attacks, making anti‑Muslim prejudice “a fact of life” for Muslim Americans. “That horrific day also marked many New Yorkers as the ‘other,’” he told the New York Times last year.
Last week, Mamdani issued an executive order designating September 11 as an annual “Day of Remembrance and Service,” requiring the city administration to observe a moment of silence for those killed and affected by the attacks. He also established a new task force to enhance the city’s emergency preparedness.
Several prominent figures, including Giuliani and former New York governor George Pataki, have voiced opposition to Mamdani’s attendance at the ceremony, and an online petition reflecting the same sentiment has amassed nearly 100,000 signatures.
Dignitaries expected at Friday’s commemorations include former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as other former New York mayors. The White House said Donald Trump will not attend but will mark the 9/11 attack at the Pentagon site near Washington, D.C., a decision that has also attracted criticism. U.S. Vice President JD Vance is slated to represent the White House in New York.
