\n It\u2019s another point of pressure after years of pain for the mothers, fathers, spouses, sons and daughters who lost so much so publicly, many of whom say they still have had no justice.\n <\/p>\n
\n Survivors and families who have spoken to CNN this week said emotions were already running high as the quarter-century mark approaches of the day four planes were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.\n <\/p>\n
\n And with the spotlight again about to focus on Lower Manhattan, they said it\u2019s an awful time to have the extra stress, whatever they thought of the issue.\n <\/p>\n
\n Robert and Elaine Hughes lost their youngest child, Kris, a securities trader at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of 2 World Trade Center, the south tower. He would have turned 55 last month.\n <\/p>\n
\n They\u2019ve attended the annual ceremony, where a bell is tolled to mark the times when the planes crashed and when the twin towers fell and where the names of the 2,977 people killed that day are read out. There were Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths and no faith. Along with so many Americans, citizens of dozens of other countries were killed too. Politicians have always been at the ceremonies, but Mamdani is making the Hugheses think again.\n <\/p>\n
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\n \u201cThis guy, I think, is just an in-your-face type of guy that \u2014 for lack of a better word \u2014 enjoys this kind of controversy. I\u2019m just not in favor of him being around, so if he didn\u2019t come, I\u2019d say great, we would go. But if he\u2019s going to come, I would venture to say a lot of people might not go,\u201d said Hughes, who is now retired and lives on Long Island.\n <\/p>\n
\n The grieving father said he disagrees with Mamdani\u2019s politics and expressed anger toward the mayor. \u201cJust the thought of him there rubs me the wrong way,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n His wife, Elaine, said the controversy stirred up by an online petition calling for Mamdani to stay away \u2013 which the couple has signed \u2013 may keep them away instead.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cBetween Mamdani going and the possible protesting that will ensue, I am not sure the additional stress is a good thing for us or any other 9\/11 family,\u201d she told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n Liz Miller\u2019s father Douglas was one of the 343 firefighters who died after rushing to try to save people in the burning buildings. She was just 6 years old when he died.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many of us that there\u2019s never going to be a unanimous thought amongst the community, which I think is a gift,\u201d Miller said. \u201cBut I do think that it is 25 years later, it is time that there is some unity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n She said she\u2019s frustrated the ceremony to honor the dead \u2014 an event that has always tried to stay clear of partisanship \u2014 is now caught up with the attendance of the mayor. There are larger unresolved issues for the families, including the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the architect of the attack, and four co-defendants that still has not gone to trial.\n <\/p>\n
\n Cracks became public last month, when an online petition started by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace Galante was killed, asked the 9\/11 Memorial and Museum to consider barring Mamdani from the ceremony. \u201cThe presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain,\u201d he wrote on the petition, which now has nearly 80,000 signatures. CNN cannot independently verify how many 9\/11 families have signed the petition.\n <\/p>\n
\n Galante told CNN, \u201cThe mayor affiliates himself on a personal, professional, and political basis with those who have minimized and justified the September 11 terrorist attacks.\u201d His petition<\/a> also lists as objectionable some of Mamdani\u2019s associations and the academic writings of his father, as well as the mayor\u2019s initial refusal to condemn the phrase \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d which is interpreted by some as a call for Palestinian rights and by others as a threat to Israel and Jews. Mamdani has since said he would discourage use of the phrase, noting an understanding of the deep concerns surrounding antisemitism.\n <\/p>\n \n Miller has long been concerned with some of the actions taken after 9\/11, putatively in her name, against Muslims in general. She is a member of September 11 Families For Peaceful Tomorrows, which opposes violence in the pursuit of justice. And she has a simple view on the mayor: \u201cMayor Mamdani is not a terrorist.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m not a naive person, but it\u2019s naive of me to say I just wish people would be kinder to one another, and that could be done across the board in this whole situation,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n \n Diqui LaPenta\u2019s boyfriend Rich Guadagno was aboard Flight 93, the plane passengers managed to crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, before it could be used to hit Washington, DC. She said Guadagno, a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, had spent his life protecting wildlife and the environment, and it was disappointing to her more good had not come of the losses.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhatever it is, there\u2019s always a scapegoat that gets picked, and right now America just cannot seem to let go of this blindered view of Islam and the Muslim people who practice that faith,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani himself was a schoolboy the day of the attacks. He has spoken about how the events of that day and afterward shaped his life, including the ensuing Islamophobia and the fear and sometimes illegal surveillance that targeted Arab American communities.\n <\/p>\n \n As he countered criticism during his campaign for mayor last year, he gave an emotional speech<\/a> outside of a mosque in the Bronx, saying \u201cto be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He became the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor after an overwhelming election win<\/a>, with enthusiastic support from younger voters.\n <\/p>\n \n He said last month, \u201cI will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year\u2019s 9\/11 commemoration, reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day felt by all of us who call this city home and, frankly, by all of us who call this country home.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Spokesperson Dora Pekec added in a statement to CNN, \u201cThe mayor \u2014 a New Yorker who was 9 years old on the day of the attack and grieved alongside this city in its aftermath \u2014 is focused on bringing New Yorkers together to honor this solemn anniversary. He will not engage in the kind of division that this city rejects.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani has been making trips to firehouses most impacted by losses on 9\/11, a spokesperson told CNN, visiting eight on Staten Island as well as FDNY Rescue 1 in Manhattan, which lost nearly half its company at the Twin Towers. The mayor was expected to make more stops in the coming days.\n <\/p>\n \n Chris Coffey, who served as deputy commissioner of the mayor\u2019s office of community affairs under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and worked with 9\/11 families, said he was certain if Mamdani opted to skip the ceremony, there would be equal amounts of outrage.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI am someone who does not often agree or align with the mayor,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cThe politics have to be kept out, it\u2019s the 25th anniversary of this bloody, terrible wound for the city of New York and it would be very bad if he\u2019s not there as the current representative of the city.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Every leader of the city since Mayor Rudy Giuliani became the unifying \u201cAmerica\u2019s Mayor\u201d \u2014 long before his descent<\/a> into conspiracy theories and election denialism \u2014 has attended the ceremony, along with every sitting president, at least one king and many other politicians. Mamdani himself was there last year as a state assemblyman.\n <\/p>\n \n For the 10th anniversary of the attacks, elected officials including President Barack Obama read selected historical texts, scriptural passages, and poems, but organizers barred them from delivering speeches. A year later, some families protested after politicians were not allowed to speak during that year\u2019s ceremony.\n <\/p>\n![\"Rich](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786260316_911_guadagno-3.JPEG\")
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