Republicans irrationally oppose NYC’s Muslim mayor attending 9/11 memorial, citing unsubstantiated ties to extremism.
New Yorkers overwhelmingly support the mayor’s presence, rejecting GOP’s divisive rhetoric against Muslims.
9/11 memorials should be about honoring victims, not political point-scoring, but Republicans prioritize fearmongering.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani showed up to the 9/11 memorial ceremony Friday to honor the nearly 3,000 people murdered in the 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Stonycreek Township in western Pennsylvania. Apparently, that was enough to send some Republicans into a full-blown tailspin that many would be inclined to call racist and xenophobic.
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Mamdani’s attendance had been the subject of weeks of Republican outrage, with figures including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani arguing that the city’s first Muslim mayor should stay away from Ground Zero and saying he was “offended” by Mamdani’s attendance during an appearance on Newsmax.
“This is not, ‘they want to be just another religion.’ They want to dominate us. That’s what they’re taught from the day they begin their extremist religious education. Mamdani is a clear, a clear supporter of that,” Giuliani said.
Despite all the handwringing and hateful rhetoric, Giuliani couldn’t stand on business when he came face-to-face with the NYC Mayor.
A petition seeking to exclude Mamdani reportedly gathered nearly 100,000 signatures, with critics pointing to his appointment of attorney Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented a convicted al-Qaeda member. Much of the disdain for the mayor’s attendance is his relationship with Hasan Piker, a wildly popular leftist streamer who is now infamous for saying that America “deserved 9/11”. Former New York Governor George Pataki said as a much when speaking to City and State NY.
“With respect to the mayor, I think anyone who doesn’t intentionally distance themselves from Hasan Piker, who has said that America deserved the attacks of September 11th, should not be there,” Pataki told City & State, referencing the left-wing influencer and frequent Mamdani booster. “Anyone who has refused to reject the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ which unequivocally calls for violence against Jews, not just in Israel but anywhere in the world, should not be at that site.”
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Americans are often celebrated for the way we “unified” following the historic attacks on our soil. However, somewhere along the way, the Republican outrage machine forgot that. They also conveniently forgot that this is a memorial service. Mamdani wasn’t showing up to celebrate terrorists. He was showing up as the mayor of New York City to honor the victims, survivors, first responders and families whose lives were permanently altered by the attacks. Republicans seem less interested in reverence than they do unseathing their favorite political weapon, fear of Muslims.
That would be embarrassing enough on its own. But it becomes even more ridiculous when New Yorkers themselves overwhelmingly rejected the GOP’s demand that Mamdani stay home. A Suffolk University poll found nearly 74% of New York voters believed Mamdani should attend the commemoration.
We’re actually surprised that these weirdo right-wingers didn’t try to ban President Obama from the ceremony on account of his middle name being “Hussein”.
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Twenty-five years after 9/11, you would hope the country had learned that Muslims are not synonymous with terrorists. Apparently, somebody forgot to send that memo to the Grand Old Party.
