Fact Check — Why Some 9/11 Families Sought to Bar Mayor Zohran Mamdani From the 25th‑Anniversary Memorial

Claim: In July 2026, some relatives of 9/11 victims signed a petition asking that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not attend the 25th‑anniversary commemoration ceremony.

Verdict: True — a petition asking organizers to consider excluding Mamdani existed and collected tens of thousands of signatures. However, there is no evidence the petition represented the views of all families of the 2,976 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

The petition, started by Giovanni Galante (whose wife died on 9/11), asked organizers of the 25th‑anniversary commemoration to “carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani's participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy.” At the time of reporting the petition had more than 60,000 signatures on the hosting platform; Galante later estimated—without publishing a verified list—that as many as 7,500 relatives had signed.

Other relatives, including Meryl Mayo‑Marshall, publicly acknowledged signing the petition. Fact‑checkers attempted to confirm exact signatory counts and organizer roles by contacting petition founders and reported helpers but did not receive responses to all inquiries before publication.

Why Family Signatories Objected

Signers cited several concerns about Mamdani’s public statements, associations and staffing decisions that they said made his presence at the memorial inappropriate for some families:

• The petition noted Mamdani’s response when asked in a June 29, 2025 NBC "Meet the Press" interview to condemn the phrase "Globalize the intifada." Mamdani said the phrase was not "language I use" and argued a mayor's role is not to "police speech." Some critics treated that response as insufficiently forceful.
• Signers pointed to Mamdani’s October 2025 meeting with Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has denied ties to terrorism. Wahhaj’s name has historically appeared on a court‑ordered list of unindicted persons related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but prosecutors later said that list was overly inclusive and that Wahhaj was not alleged to be a co‑conspirator.
• The petition objected to Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief counsel; Kassem had represented Ahmed Muhammed Haza al‑Darbi, a defendant who pleaded guilty to terrorism‑related charges and who was later transferred from Guantánamo Bay during the Trump administration.
• Critics also referenced the academic work of Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, which examines the historical roots and impacts of political violence—an association some family members found troubling in this context.

Organizers, Museum And Mamdani

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which coordinated the 25th‑anniversary commemoration, said it works to keep the event nonpartisan: government officials have attended past ceremonies to bear witness but typically do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area. The museum did not publicly confirm whether Mamdani had been formally invited or whether any invitation would be rescinded.

Mamdani’s Response (July 27, 2026): "I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders...by standing alongside them at this year's 9/11 commemoration, reaffirming that we will never forget."

What This Does — And Doesn’t — Show

The available evidence supports the core claim that some 9/11 relatives backed a petition seeking to exclude Mayor Mamdani from the 25th‑anniversary ceremony. It does not support more sweeping claims that all families or even a majority of the families signed or endorsed the petition. Media reports, public statements from individual signers, the petition text and the museum’s nonpartisan position form the factual basis for this assessment.

Sources: Change.org petition; reporting by the New York Post and other outlets; NBC "Meet the Press" interview (June 29, 2025); statements from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; public comments from petition organizers and signers.