New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at the New York City Office of Emergency Management, as a major winter storm spreads across a large swath of the United States, in Brooklyn, New York City, US, Jan. 25, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Bing Guan

The nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization has asked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, arguing that “your presence would clearly be divisive” and citing his absence from the Israel Day on Fifth and Veterans Day parades.

In an open letter, Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who is also a U.S. Air Force veteran, said Mamdani has “set the precedent for not attending” after skipping the 2025 Veterans Day Parade as mayor-elect and the 2026 Israel Day on Fifth parade as mayor. Mamdani instead marked Veterans Day by serving meals to veterans at a supportive-housing residence in the Bronx.

“Given that this is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and that your presence would clearly be divisive—that is why there is a petition seeking to stop you from going—it would be best for everyone involved if you skipped this event,” Donohue said.

He added that if Mamdani attends the annual commemoration at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the proceedings “will be awkward, to say the least,” for surviving relatives of first responders. Catholics in particular “will be incensed,” Donohue wrote, citing an unofficial estimate that 85–90 percent of the first responders were Catholic. His letter acknowledged that no official data were available.

“There are many reasons why so many New Yorkers, and Americans around the country, don’t want you at the 9/11 ceremony in New York City,” he wrote. “You have made it very clear that you are infinitely more upset about prejudice against Muslims following 9/11 than the deadly events of that day. … Indeed, you appear to be more concerned about ‘Islamophobia’ than you are the bombing. Why can’t you unequivocally condemn Islamists who want to destroy the U.S. and Israel? This is significant in light of your refusal to condemn many of your supporters who continue to scream, ‘globalize the intifada.’”

Donohue faulted Mamdani for focusing in previous remarks on anti-Muslim prejudice following 9/11, accusing him of failing to adequately condemn the attack itself. However, Mamdani has elsewhere described 9/11 as a “horrific terror attack” and said he intends to attend the commemoration to honor the families, survivors, and first responders affected by it.

Donohue also cited remarks and writings by members of Mamdani’s family and political circle.

“To say they are disturbing is a gross understatement. That their sentiments mirror your own is uncontested,” Donohue wrote.

Among those named was Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University professor of anthropology whom Donohue accused of defending Islamic terrorism and the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.

In his 2004 book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Mahmood Mamdani wrote that suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” Donohue accused him of drawing a moral equivalence between the United States and al-Qaeda and cited his call for a “Third Intifada,” which Donohue characterized as “a call to arms against Israel.”

Donohue’s letter also cited social media posts by the mayor’s wife, Rama Duwaji, that he characterized as antisemitic; Mamdani’s relationship with Palestinian-American activist and prominent Israel critic Linda Sarsour; and comments by Ramzi Kassem, chief counsel to the mayor and City Hall, who said the post-9/11 “war on terror” was a “blunderbuss reaction” and “an indiscriminate overreaction.”

Donohue also listed political figures and activists whom he described as allies or associates of Mamdani and accused of minimizing Islamist terrorism, supporting terrorist organizations, or expressing hostility toward Israel or the United States. They included Hasan Piker; Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District Darializa Avila Chevalier; state Senate candidate Aber Kawas; Democratic nominee for New York’s 7th Congressional District Claire Valdez; and Siraj Wahhaj, imam of Masjid At-Taqwa in Brooklyn.

“Your own reluctance to speak positively about the American role in fostering freedom at home and abroad is well known,” Donohue concluded. “More to the point, your reluctance to speak negatively about the role of radical Muslims in fostering oppression and warfare, including the attacks on 9/11, makes you unsuitable to preside over the ceremony honoring these innocent Americans next month. Please do the honorable thing and skip this solemn ceremony.”

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum has said that elected officials attending the ceremony do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area. Officials from across the political spectrum attend simply to “bear witness,” according to the museum.

Two people who lost their spouses in the 9/11 attacks launched an online petition calling on organizers to exclude Mamdani from the annual commemoration. The petition cites concerns about his public positions, associations, and statements, which its organizers believe conflict with efforts to demonstrate “respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence.”

The petition had received more than 77,800 verified signatures as of Thursday.

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee in New York’s gubernatorial election, said those attending the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony should “turn their backs” on Mamdani if he attends, citing in particular the mayor’s refusal to unequivocally condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”