Largest US Catholic Advocacy Group Asks Mamdani to Skip the 9/11 Memorial
The Catholic League joins 9/11 families and 65,000 petitioners asking the mayor to skip the memorial, citing his rhetoric on 9/11, his defense of "globalize the intifada," and his inner circle.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, has asked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend the 25th anniversary 9/11 ceremony next month. In an open letter dated August 3, 2026, Catholic League president Bill Donohue — a U.S. Air Force veteran who has led the organization since 1993 — writes that after 9/11, his staff contacted the FDNY and NYPD to determine how many of the fallen first responders were Catholic. “No official data were available, but it was estimated that 85 to 90 percent were Catholic.”
Over the next six pages, Donohue names Mamdani’s father, mother, wife, chief counsel, campaign staffer, mentor, endorsed candidates, and personal friend — and quotes each of them defending, minimizing, or celebrating terrorism against the United States and Israel. He also documents Mamdani’s own record of what he calls a “reluctance to speak negatively about the role of radical Muslims in fostering oppression and warfare, including the attacks on 9/11.” The Catholic League joins a separate petition from 9/11 victims’ families, now past 65,000 signatures, that has also asked Mamdani to stay away.
The Precedent Mamdani Set Himself
Donohue’s letter opens with a point that has drawn less attention than the family petition: Mamdani has already set the precedent for skipping civic ceremonies. “As Mayor-elect, you did not attend the Veteran’s Day Parade, and as Mayor you did not attend the Israeli Day Parade,” Donohue writes. He also documented that Mamdani excluded Catholic clergy from his own inauguration — the first NYC mayor to do so since at least 1939 — and skipped the installation of the new Archbishop of New York despite being invited and being a short walk up Fifth Avenue at the time.
The organizers of the 9/11 ceremony have made clear that no official in attendance is permitted to speak. “It is an act of witness, not a public forum,” Donohue writes. Nonetheless, he argues, Mamdani’s presence “will be awkward, to say the least, for the surviving family members of the first responders. Catholics, in particular, will be incensed.”
“Something Happened That Morning”
The letter also addresses Mamdani’s own words about 9/11. Donohue quotes Mamdani’s public recollection: “My experience of 9/11 is one I share with many New Yorkers. My teacher let me know something happened that morning and I might be bullied because of it.”
“’Something happened that morning’?” Donohue writes. “You couldn’t even summon the courage to say that radical Muslims attacked the United States to advance their cause. Indeed, you appear to be more concerned about ‘Islamophobia’ than you are the bombing.”
Donohue then debunks a tearful story Mamdani told last year — that his aunt was so afraid of Islamophobia after 9/11 that she wouldn’t wear her hijab in public. “False,” Donohue writes. “Your aunt was in Tanzania on 9/11, and photos of her showed her without a hijab. The woman you referred to was your cousin.”
Donohue ties that evasion to a broader pattern. "Why can't you unequivocally condemn Islamists who want to destroy the U.S. and Israel?" he writes. "This is significant in light of your refusal to condemn many of your supporters who continue to scream, 'globalize the intifada.'"
The Family, the Staff, the Endorsees
The heart of Donohue’s letter is a cascade of specific people around Mamdani and what each has said.
Mahmood Mamdani, the mayor’s father and a chaired Columbia professor, argued in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim that suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” He drew a moral equivalence between the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 9/11 attacks. He has called for a “Third Intifada.”
Mira Nair, the mayor’s mother, complained after 9/11 that “people like me, who never felt out of place, suddenly were made to feel like the ‘other.’” Donohue notes she did not cite a single instance of harassment directed at her, but there is no public record of her condemning Islamists. Nair’s films have been funded with over $15 million from Qatar since 2009.
Rama Duwaji, the mayor’s wife, allegedly “liked” Instagram posts celebrating the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. In 2026, she drew an illustration for an essay by an activist who called the barbarism of October 7 “spectacular.”
Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani’s chief counsel at City Hall, said his primary concern after 9/11 was not the attack but “what would be the response towards people like me, towards Arabs, Muslims, Arab Muslim males of a certain age.” He has called the war on terror “a blunderbuss reaction” and “an indiscriminate overreaction.”
Hassaan Chaudhary, a Muslim-engagement staffer on Mamdani’s campaign, praised former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — the man who declared Israel “a cancer” that “will be eliminated very soon.”
Linda Sarsour, described as Mamdani’s friend and mentor, is a proponent of Sharia law. Cross Currents has previously documented that Sarsour shared a stage with convicted terrorist supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh and refused to condemn Louis Farrakhan.
Aber Kawas, whom Mamdani endorsed for a New York State Senate seat, dismissed the 9/11 attacks as the work of “a couple of people” and argued that what was really to blame was “U.S. capitalism, racism, White supremacy and Islamophobia.”
Darializa Avila Chevalier, whom Mamdani endorsed for a New York congressional seat, has said her goal is “the total eradication of Western civilization.” She calls American veterans “child murderers” and once bragged that she “wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer who campaigned for Mamdani, has stated that “America deserved 9/11” and said he doesn’t “have an issue” with Hezbollah.
Siraj Wahhaj, the Brooklyn imam Mamdani called “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders,” was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and served as a character witness for the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj has said his goal is to “raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
The Families Behind the Petition
The Catholic League’s letter reinforces a parallel effort by 9/11 families. Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace Catherine died on the 105th floor of the North Tower, launched a petition with another widow that has since crossed 65,000 signatures. According to the New York Post, Galante estimates that between 3,000 and 7,500 signers are relatives of victims. “We felt that having Mamdani there would show a disrespect to our family members because of the people he supports,” Galante told CBS New York.
Monica Iken Murphy, who lost her husband on the 84th floor of the South Tower and sits on the 9/11 Memorial’s board, signed the petition. So did John Feal, the FealGood Foundation founder who lobbied for the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act. “Until he does something proactive for the 9/11 community, he should just sit there in City Hall,” Feal said.
Mamdani Plans to Attend
Mamdani has said he will attend the ceremony. “I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration,” he told CBS New York.
Donohue closes his letter with a simple appeal. “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,” he writes. “Please do the honorable thing and skip this solemn ceremony.”