To the enormous magnitude of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, followed the next day, the 12th on the calendar, which was considered the date of hope in the United States. Despite all the political, social, and economic disagreements, the separation by races or religions, the nation unified in pain and hope for reconstruction and resilience to deny the success of the terrorists.
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There were countless speeches praising that spirit of starting over, as if it were a light among the darkness left by the destruction (ash, dust, scrap), symbolized by the fall of the monument to capitalism represented by the Twin Towers of lower Manhattan.
That awareness of unity lasted little, as Dashiell Hammett would say. It disappeared like a fist opening into a hand. There was a very deep wound from the nearly 3,000 dead, many of them still not found or not identified among the debris recovered from the World Trade Center in New York, and a finger of blame pointing at Muslims, whether Arab or South Asian. If you scratch the surface a little, that wound still festers, as these days before the 25th anniversary commemorated this Friday certify.
Despite all that is said about reconstruction, Islamophobia remains present, as Mamdani has experienced
A boy named Zohran Kwame Mamdani (his full name and as he introduces himself) was nine years old on that gloomy day and had been a city resident for almost three years, where his parents (his father a professor and his mother a filmmaker) moved after being born in Uganda and having lived in Cape Town (South Africa).
That boy, now grown and having turned 34, won the local elections last November and in January was sworn in as the first Muslim mayor of New York. Mamdani has previously spoken about how an Islamophobic reaction occurred after the 9/11 attacks and how prejudices against Muslims had become a daily reality for American Muslims. “It was a terrible day that also meant, for many New Yorkers, the moment they were singled out as the other,” he told The New York Times in 2025.
And despite all that is said about reconstruction, that “life has proven stronger than death,” as conservative columnists like to theorize, Islamophobia remains present, as Mamdani himself is experiencing firsthand at the cost of those attacks.
Rudy Giuliani, the so-called mayor of America for his supposed prominence on September 11, whose prestige has fallen into the abyss as mayor (due to his questioned reaction to the attacks or the racist persecution of New Yorkers during his terms between 1994 and 2001) and as a politician who galvanized Donald Trump’s false election theft claims, has taken it upon himself to be the public voice against the socialist Democrat who obtained the leadership thanks to the majority support of the citizens.
In an interview with Newsmax, Giuliani was asked if Mamdani should refrain from attending this Friday’s ceremony. “Well, there is no doubt that he should not attend,” he replied.
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In his diatribe, full of confusing arguments, the veteran ultraconservative uttered insults and made baseless comparisons. He seemed to draw parallels between Mamdani’s faith and the 9/11 hijackers, who acted following the extremist orders of Osama bin Laden, the jihadist and terrorist leader who died at the hands of U.S. forces during Barack Obama’s presidency, ten years later.
There are organizations and authorities that have come out in defense of the mayor, who has announced he will attend the commemoration
Giuliani claimed that Mamdani was part of “a global Islamic plot to dominate the Western world.” He added that “too many Americans fall for that Islamic propaganda, and that is why they are taking over certain parts of the United States and certain parts of Europe.”
“The reality is that this ceremony is for the families and for the United States to historically remember what happened,” Giuliani added. “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families makes me offended that he goes,” he finally added.
The invective, which has received support from other Republican politicians (such as George Pataki, governor of New York state in 2001), does not come from the mind of an 82-year-old man who sometimes seems to have partly lost lucidity. No. The origin lies in a petition campaign started this summer among relatives and victims that theoretically had surpassed 102,000 signatures this Wednesday to request that Mamdani not attend the 9/11 tribute.
The initiative is supported by the organization September Mission, founded by Monica Iken, whose husband died in the attacks while working on the 84th floor of the south twin tower. Disregarding an elected official like the mayor, she states that “I don’t know why he is so inflexible about this when all we ask is that he respect us from 7 to 11 in the morning.” Iken asks him not to go to “a sacred and revered place.”
Like other leaders of this initiative, Iken points out that the opposition is not political, nor the result of pressure from the city’s more conservative Jewish lobbies. Simply, she says, the families want to feel comfortable and have no protests. It should be noted that there are also organizations and authorities that have come out in defense of Mamdani’s presence, since he is the mayor. And he has already announced that he will attend the commemoration.
The controversy also includes some families criticizing Mamdani for hiring lawyer Ramzi Kassem, who represented an Al Qaeda terrorist detained in Guantánamo in 2014, as his chief legal advisor. “It is now that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem… That is what we oppose,” said Cheri Sparacio, another promoter of the opposition to the mayor who lost her husband in the attack.
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