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Mamdani AOC Caught Laughing at 9/11 Memorial

7 sources · updated 2026-09-13
Left 0% Center 0% Right 100%
0 left · 0 center · 3 right

What happened

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, faced calls to skip official commemorations, including from Rudolph Giuliani, who was mayor on the morning of the attacks, and from relatives of people killed that day. A petition started by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace Catherine Galante died in the attacks, gathered more than 100,000 signatures urging Mamdani not to attend the ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial, where the names of 2,983 victims are read; families later delivered the petition to City Hall. Mamdani said he would attend and that his focus would be on those families. In the weeks beforehand he visited firehouses around the city, and on the eve of the anniversary he delivered remarks at the closing stop of an interfaith Children of Abraham Peace Walk at the Islamic Center of New York City, after the group had already visited Hebrew Union College and Judson Church.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 3 articles

2 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

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On the record · names a source 2 of 3
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Sen. Ted Cruz, Inna Vernikov, Meghan McCain and Ted Cruz
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How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 11, 13:26 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source. First document 6 hours later, from Breitbart (video).
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Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Left-leaning coverage frames the memorial fight as bias against a Muslim mayor and leaves out the associations 9/11 families named. The New York Times presents Mamdani as facing Islamophobia while he visits firehouses to keep attention on victims. Right-leaning coverage is more complete on the families' stated reasons: Fox News reports a petition citing his praise of an imam linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, plus his hire of a counsel who represented an al Qaeda defendant. Left-leaning coverage leads with a Muslim victim's brother who is disappointed that Mamdani is being told to stay away. Right-leaning coverage leads with the sit-out campaign itself, including a family petition the New York Post says has over 111,000 signatures. What has Mamdani said about the imam and the lawyer named in the families' petition?
Bottom line

A New York Times reader never encounters Imam Siraj Wahhaj or Ramzi Kassem. Those are the two names Fox News uses to explain why families want Mamdani off the memorial stage.

The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • A 9/11 families petition says Mamdani has praised Imam Siraj Wahhaj, named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing contextin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Mamdani's chief counsel Ramzi Kassem previously represented a convicted al Qaeda member individual casein Fox News, New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Cheri Sparacio, who lost her husband in the South Tower, said the objection is not about Mamdani's religion individual casein New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Mamdani joined a 9/11 interfaith walk only at its final stop, the Islamic Center of New York City contextin New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Rudy Giuliani has called for Mamdani to sit out the commemorative event contextin BBC · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Mamdani posted a photo of rap group The Diplomats on Independence Day in three separate years; the group had lyrics praising 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta contextin Daily Wire · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning outlets framed the sit-out campaign as 'divisive politics' and as Islamophobia directed at a Muslim mayor on a day of mourning. The New York Times headlined that he was 'Facing Islamophobia' and described his firehouse visits as an effort to 'direct the public's attention toward the victims, and away from himself.' BBC coverage centered Zeshan Hamdani, whose brother Salman, a Muslim New York police cadet, was killed in the North Tower; Hamdani said he was 'disappointed' by the calls for Mamdani to sit out and that 'Islam is being hijacked.'
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets framed the campaign as a response to Mamdani's 'past rhetoric and links to terror sympathizers,' not his faith. Fox News quoted the families' petition saying he 'has praised Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been linked to radical Islam, was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and served as a character witness for the 'Blind Sheikh,'' and that he endorsed Aber Kawas, who described 9/11 as an attack 'a couple of people did in the context of U.S. capitalism, racism, White supremacy, and Islamophobia.' Fox also reported that Mamdani gave a ceremonial 9/11 pen to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem, who had represented Ahmed al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty to war-crime charges tied to al Qaeda plots and was the brother-in-law of a Flight 77 hijacker, and that Mamdani's circle included Hasan Piker, who had said the United States 'deserved' the attacks — a comment Mamdani condemned. The Daily Wire called his repeated Independence Day posts of rap group The Diplomats a 'dog whistle' for the hijackers, citing a lyric that once read, 'I worship the prophet, the great Mohammed Omar Atta, for his courage behind the wheel of the plane.' At City Hall, Cheri Sparacio, who lost her husband in the South Tower, told the New York Post, 'It's not about his religion or where he came from. It's about the policies he has today.'
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is that a drive to keep a Muslim mayor off the 9/11 stage politicizes grief and treats Islam itself as suspect, best supported by Hamdani — a victim's brother — calling the campaign disappointing and saying Islam is being 'hijacked,' and by the Times account of Mamdani trying to shift attention onto victims. The right's strongest argument is that families of the dead are objecting to a political record tied to 9/11-era extremism, not to religion, best supported by the petition's six-figure tally and its named associations with Wahhaj, Kawas, and Kassem, and by Sparacio's statement that it is 'not about his religion' but 'the policies he has today.' The central unresolved tension is what the sit-out demand is actually about: a religious identity that left-leaning coverage treats as the real target, or a set of associations that right-leaning coverage and some victims' families treat as inseparable from the meaning of the day.

7 sources

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