New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September ۱۱ memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the ۲۰۰۱ terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony.
In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
Mamdani confirmed on Monday, while attending a breakfast celebrating New York’s J’ouvert and West Indian Day Parade celebrations in Brooklyn, that he will attend the main ceremony and multiple ۹/۱۱ events on Friday, to stand with the families of those who died and first responders – as he did last year before taking office.
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” he said. “What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them ۲۵ years ago in the horrific act of terror of September ۱۱th, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.”
The mayor and his office have declined to respond to Giuliani’s remarks.
The former mayor and close ally of Donald Trump has said he will also attend this year’s ceremony to mark the attacks by Islamist terrorists representing al-Qaida, who flew hijacked passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on September ۱۱, ۲۰۰۱.
Reflecting pools with waterfalls constructed on the footprints of the towers and a ۹/۱۱ museum now mark the site that was dubbed Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks, and where each year the names of the almost ۳,۰۰۰ people who died are read out by survivors and loved ones, in a solemn ceremony attended by national and local leaders.
In the interview with Newsmax, Giuliani was asked if Mamdani should skip the ceremony. “Well, there’s no question he should,” he said. Giuliani was mayor of New York City from ۱۹۹۴ to ۲۰۰۱. He ran unsuccessfully for president and, more recently, has been an attorney to and a staunch ally of Donald Trump.
In the convoluted tirade on air on Saturday, Giuliani threw insults and baseless comparisons. He appeared to draw parallels between Mamdani’s faith and the ۹/۱۱ hijackers acting on the extremist orders of Osama bin Laden, the jihadist militant and terrorist leader killed by US forces during the Obama administration.
He remarked that the terrorists brought their ideological opposition to the United States “in the name of the Muslim religion” and “weren’t hiding it like Mamdani is trying to hide it”. He also declared the opinion that the mayor supports a notion that Islam should be the dominant religion.
Mamdani has previously spoken about how an Islamophobic backlash built after the ۲۰۰۱ attacks and had made anti-Muslim prejudice “a fact of life” for Muslim Americans. “It was this horrific day that was also, for many New Yorkers, the moment at which they were marked an ‘other’,” he told the New York Times last year.
Last week, Mamdani issued an executive order designating ۹/۱۱ an annual official “Day of Remembrance and Service” that requires the city administration to designate a moment of silence to mourn those who were killed and affected by the attacks. A second order established a new taskforce to help the city’s emergency preparedness.
Several high-profile figures, including Giuliani and former New York governor George Pataki have voiced opposition to Mamdani’s attendance at the ceremony, and an online petition arguing the same has gathered close to ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ signatures.
Dignitaries expected to attend Friday’s commemorations include former US presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama, and some other former mayors of New York. The White House has said Donald Trump is not attending but is expected to commemorate the ۹/۱۱ attack on the Pentagon at that site close to Washington DC, a decision that also has also drawn criticism. US vice-president JD Vance is expected to represent the White House in New York.
