Trump ally Rudy Giuliani says Mamdani must skip 9/11 events as former NYC mayor embarks on rant against Islam
The New York Mayor said he would attend the main ceremony and multiple 9/11 events on Friday
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has confirmed he will attend the main September 11 memorial service, as he did last year before taking office.
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His announcement comes just days after former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, said he should not attend the ceremony and decried his Muslim religion.
In an interview with 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.”
But Mr Mamdani said he would attend the main ceremony and multiple 9/11 events on Friday to stand with the families of those who died and first responders.
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“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 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.”
The mayor and his office have not responded to Mr Giuliani’s remarks, reports The Guardian.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists representing al-Qaeda flew hijacked passenger planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
Last week, Mr Mamdani issued an executive order designating 9/11 an annual official “Day of Remembrance and Service”.
Mr Giuliani, a close ally of Donald Trump, said he will also attend this year’s ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
In the interview with Newsmax, Mr Giuliani said: "There’s no question" that Mr Mamdani should skip the ceremony.
In a TV interview on Newsmax on Saturday, Mr GiulianiMr appeared to draw parallels between Mamdani’s faith and the 9/11 hijackers acting on the extremist orders of Osama bin Laden.
He claimed 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”.
Last year, Mr Mamdani told the New York Times last year that since the 2001 attacks, anti-Muslim prejudice had become “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’.
Several other high-profile figures, including former New York governor George Pataki, have said they are opposed to Mr Mamdani’s attendance, and an online petition with close to 100,000 signatures has argued the same.