- Joined
- Sep 7, 2020
- Messages
- 2,879
FYI
OPEN LETTER TO MAMDANI: SKIP 9/11 CEREMONY
Catholic League
@CatholicLeague
·
Aug 3
·
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip the 9/11 ceremony. He explains why in his letter to him.
August 3, 2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani
City Hall
New York, New York 10007
Dear Mayor Mamdani:
I respectfully request that you not attend the 9/11 ceremony scheduled for next month. I am writing to you in my capacity as president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, and as a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. You have set the precedent for not attending.
As Mayor-elect, you did not attend the Veteran’s Day Parade, and as Mayor you did not attend the Israeli Day Parade. 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.
Those who are organizing the ceremony say that no public officials in attendance will be allowed to speak: it is an act of witness, not a public forum. Nonetheless, if you attend, the proceedings will be awkward, to say the least, for the surviving family members of the first responders. Catholics, in particular, will be incensed.
Following 9/11, for weeks on end, all we saw on TV in the New York area were ceremonies and funerals for the first responders. Most were at a Catholic church. A year later, I asked the staff to contact the FDNY and the NYPD to see if there were any statistics on how many of the first responders were Catholic. No official data were available, but it was estimated that 85-90 percent were Catholic.
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.
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.
“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”? 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.
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.”
When asked about 9/11 last year, you said—fighting back tears—that “Islamophobia” was so bad in the aftermath that your aunt was afraid to wear her hijab in public. False. 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.
Members of your family, work associates and supporters have not been shy about their political convictions. To say they are disturbing is a gross understatement. That their sentiments mirror your own is uncontested.
Mahmood Mamdani
Your father, a Columbia University professor of anthropology, has spoken on the subject of Islamic terrorism and 9/11, often in defense of those who perpetrated the attacks.
In his 2004 book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, he said that suicide bombers, who kill innocent persons, should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” The term “political violence” is a sanitized way of describing mass murder. He also compared the U.S. decision to invade Afghanistan to the 9/11 attacks, saying there was a moral equivalence between the U.S. and al-Qaeda.
Incredibly, he blames the U.S. for creating a model that has inspired Nazi Germany, and has also pleaded for a “Third Intifada,” a call to arms against Israel.
Mira Nair
Your mother, a filmmaker, has long complained about “Islamophobia” after 9/11, but there is no record of her condemning Islamists.
“People like me, who never felt out of place, suddenly were made to feel like the ‘other.’” She did not cite one instance of harassment, never mind violence, directed at her. What bothered her was the “one-sided demonization.”
Rama Duwaji
Your wife has a history of sharing social media posts that are anti-Semitic. After the Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023, she “liked” several Instagram posts that celebrated what happened. In 2026, she drew an illustration for use in an essay by Susan Abulhawa. Her activist friend called the barbarism of October 7 “spectacular.”
Ramzi Kassem
Ramzi Kassem is your chief counsel. When asked about 9/11, his biggest concern was, “What’s going to be the legal response, the political response, the military response?” He added, “I also wondered what would be the response towards people like me, towards Arabs, Muslims, Arab Muslim males of a certain age.” He has also argued that in the aftermath of 9/11, “the war on terror was a blunderbuss reaction” and “an indiscriminate overreaction.”
Hassaan Chaudhary
Chaudhary served as a Muslim-engagement staffer for your campaign. In 2025, old social media posts resurfaced in which he praised former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a mastermind of terrorism, after he declared that Israel was “a cancer” that “will be eliminated very soon.”
Linda Sarsour
Widely known as your friend and mentor, she is a proponent of Sharia law, a form of totalitarianism. She is livid over state bans on this oppressive legal system.
Aber Kawas
You endorsed her for a New York State Senate seat, after she dismissed the 9/11 attacks as the work that a “couple of people did.” She did not explain who they were, instead taking umbrage at the notion that “we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did.” She further says that the 9/11 attack must be seen in context, arguing that what is to blame is “U.S. capitalism, racism, White supremacy and Islamophobia.” Everyone but Islamists.
Darializa Avila Chevalier
You endorsed her as the Democratic nominee for a New York congressional seat. She is known for claiming that “Israel doesn’t exist,” and for calling the United States a “f**king disgrace.” Her goal, she said, is “the total eradication of Western civilization.” She calls American veterans “child murderers,” and brags how after eating, she once “wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Hasan Piker
Hasan Piker is one of your left-wing activist friends who campaigned for you. He believes that “America deserved 9/11,” and supports radical Muslim terrorist groups. He says he doesn’t “have an issue” with Hezbollah.
Claire Valdez
You endorsed her nomination for a New York congressional seat knowing that she regards Piker as one of the “brilliant fighters” championing a socialist revolution in the U.S. She has also accused America as a being “an empire” that is complicit in “genocide and apartheid.”
Siraj Wahhaj
You have called the head imam of the At-Taqwa Mosque in Brooklyn, “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community.” He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1995, he spoke in favor of Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel-Rahman, who was on trial for helping to plan a plot to bomb multiple New York City landmarks. Known for his sermons promoting jihad, he said, “I pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army and I’m serious about this.” His goal is to “raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
These are the people you are close to, fraternally and politically. Your own reluctance to speak positively about the American role in fostering freedom at home and abroad is well known.
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.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President
OPEN LETTER TO MAMDANI: SKIP 9/11 CEREMONY
Catholic League
@CatholicLeague
·
Aug 3
·
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip the 9/11 ceremony. He explains why in his letter to him.
August 3, 2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani
City Hall
New York, New York 10007
Dear Mayor Mamdani:
I respectfully request that you not attend the 9/11 ceremony scheduled for next month. I am writing to you in my capacity as president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, and as a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. You have set the precedent for not attending.
As Mayor-elect, you did not attend the Veteran’s Day Parade, and as Mayor you did not attend the Israeli Day Parade. 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.
Those who are organizing the ceremony say that no public officials in attendance will be allowed to speak: it is an act of witness, not a public forum. Nonetheless, if you attend, the proceedings will be awkward, to say the least, for the surviving family members of the first responders. Catholics, in particular, will be incensed.
Following 9/11, for weeks on end, all we saw on TV in the New York area were ceremonies and funerals for the first responders. Most were at a Catholic church. A year later, I asked the staff to contact the FDNY and the NYPD to see if there were any statistics on how many of the first responders were Catholic. No official data were available, but it was estimated that 85-90 percent were Catholic.
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.
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.
“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”? 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.
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.”
When asked about 9/11 last year, you said—fighting back tears—that “Islamophobia” was so bad in the aftermath that your aunt was afraid to wear her hijab in public. False. 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.
Members of your family, work associates and supporters have not been shy about their political convictions. To say they are disturbing is a gross understatement. That their sentiments mirror your own is uncontested.
Mahmood Mamdani
Your father, a Columbia University professor of anthropology, has spoken on the subject of Islamic terrorism and 9/11, often in defense of those who perpetrated the attacks.
In his 2004 book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, he said that suicide bombers, who kill innocent persons, should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” The term “political violence” is a sanitized way of describing mass murder. He also compared the U.S. decision to invade Afghanistan to the 9/11 attacks, saying there was a moral equivalence between the U.S. and al-Qaeda.
Incredibly, he blames the U.S. for creating a model that has inspired Nazi Germany, and has also pleaded for a “Third Intifada,” a call to arms against Israel.
Mira Nair
Your mother, a filmmaker, has long complained about “Islamophobia” after 9/11, but there is no record of her condemning Islamists.
“People like me, who never felt out of place, suddenly were made to feel like the ‘other.’” She did not cite one instance of harassment, never mind violence, directed at her. What bothered her was the “one-sided demonization.”
Rama Duwaji
Your wife has a history of sharing social media posts that are anti-Semitic. After the Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023, she “liked” several Instagram posts that celebrated what happened. In 2026, she drew an illustration for use in an essay by Susan Abulhawa. Her activist friend called the barbarism of October 7 “spectacular.”
Ramzi Kassem
Ramzi Kassem is your chief counsel. When asked about 9/11, his biggest concern was, “What’s going to be the legal response, the political response, the military response?” He added, “I also wondered what would be the response towards people like me, towards Arabs, Muslims, Arab Muslim males of a certain age.” He has also argued that in the aftermath of 9/11, “the war on terror was a blunderbuss reaction” and “an indiscriminate overreaction.”
Hassaan Chaudhary
Chaudhary served as a Muslim-engagement staffer for your campaign. In 2025, old social media posts resurfaced in which he praised former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a mastermind of terrorism, after he declared that Israel was “a cancer” that “will be eliminated very soon.”
Linda Sarsour
Widely known as your friend and mentor, she is a proponent of Sharia law, a form of totalitarianism. She is livid over state bans on this oppressive legal system.
Aber Kawas
You endorsed her for a New York State Senate seat, after she dismissed the 9/11 attacks as the work that a “couple of people did.” She did not explain who they were, instead taking umbrage at the notion that “we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did.” She further says that the 9/11 attack must be seen in context, arguing that what is to blame is “U.S. capitalism, racism, White supremacy and Islamophobia.” Everyone but Islamists.
Darializa Avila Chevalier
You endorsed her as the Democratic nominee for a New York congressional seat. She is known for claiming that “Israel doesn’t exist,” and for calling the United States a “f**king disgrace.” Her goal, she said, is “the total eradication of Western civilization.” She calls American veterans “child murderers,” and brags how after eating, she once “wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Hasan Piker
Hasan Piker is one of your left-wing activist friends who campaigned for you. He believes that “America deserved 9/11,” and supports radical Muslim terrorist groups. He says he doesn’t “have an issue” with Hezbollah.
Claire Valdez
You endorsed her nomination for a New York congressional seat knowing that she regards Piker as one of the “brilliant fighters” championing a socialist revolution in the U.S. She has also accused America as a being “an empire” that is complicit in “genocide and apartheid.”
Siraj Wahhaj
You have called the head imam of the At-Taqwa Mosque in Brooklyn, “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community.” He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1995, he spoke in favor of Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel-Rahman, who was on trial for helping to plan a plot to bomb multiple New York City landmarks. Known for his sermons promoting jihad, he said, “I pray one day Allah will bless us to raise an army and I’m serious about this.” His goal is to “raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
These are the people you are close to, fraternally and politically. Your own reluctance to speak positively about the American role in fostering freedom at home and abroad is well known.
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.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President