Republicans Hurl Islamophobia at Mamdani, El-Sayed Ahead of 9/11 Anniversary

Republicans and influential right-wing voices are using the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack to cynically escalate their campaign of Islamophobia against progressive figures — while outright ignoring President Donald Trump’s lies about that day.

In recent days, right-wing news outlets have run numerous news segments attempting to drum up supposed controversy over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned appearance at the 9/11 memorial ceremony on Friday, seemingly simply because he is Muslim.

On NewsMax, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that it is offensive that Mamdani is slated to attend the ceremony, and repeated the far right conspiracy theory that Muslims are “taking over” parts of the U.S. and Europe. “They have every desire to take us over. This is not, they just want to be another religion. They want to dominate us,” he said.

“That’s what they’re taught from the day they begin their extremist religious education. Mamdani is a clear — a clear — supporter of that. All of the Muslims he supports are murderers,” Giuliani said. He said that the people responsible for 9/11 “weren’t hiding it like Mamdani is trying to hide it,” referring to their Muslim faith.

Fox News has hosted Republican New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino for multiple interviews on Mamdani. In one, she said that Mamdani, by attending the 9/11 ceremony, is sending “a message to Osama bin Laden that, ‘look, we conquered New York.’”

In a separate segment, Fox hosted another Republican city councilwoman, Joann Ariola, to speak about her backing of a dubious petition calling for Mamdani to be barred from attending the ceremony.

The petition, which was first elevated by right-wing outlets in July, was originally marketed as being signed by family members of 9/11 victims, but those claims were later debunked. Regardless, some family members of victims who are opposed to Mamdani held a press conference before delivering the petition to City Hall on Tuesday.

Ariola said that any condolences that Mamdani may have for victims of 9/11 and their families aren’t genuine. “Anything that [Mamdani] does, anything that he says, is performative,” she said.

She also brought in criticism of Mamdani for hiring Ramzi Kassem as his chief counsel. Kassem once represented Guantanamo prisoner Ahmed al-Darbi, who was released under the first Trump administration. This week, Fox tried to drum up controversy after Kassem was handed a pen that Mamdani used to sign 9/11-related executive orders during the signing ceremony last week.

The right is also directing anti-Muslim vitriol against progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, of Michigan. An ad released by a PAC supporting El-Sayed’s opponent this week tried to tie El-Sayed to 9/11, saying that El-Sayed allies himself with the “hatred that caused 9/11.” It says that he “accepts money” from that ideology, while flashing, across the screen, a headline from pro-Israel publication Jewish Insider about El-Sayed receiving $7,000 in campaign funding from the head of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

Key White House ally Laura Loomer shared the ad on X, parading it as proof that the U.S. must “Ban Muslims from elected office.”

“How can anyone watch this ad and then say, ‘I’m going to vote for the Muslim’. It’s a mental defect,” she said.

The attack came after CBS and its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, came under fire recently for other attempts to tie El-Sayed to 9/11.

Meanwhile, the right has stayed silent about Trump’s self-aggrandizing stories about 9/11. At an event on Tuesday, Trump claimed that he was lifted out by firefighters near Ground Zero “right after” 9/11.

He said that he was with a construction crew working on a building and that firefighters helped to pull him up after the attack. “Two firemen, big strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arm, said: ‘Got to get out of here.’ And they literally lifted me up,” Trump said. Fact checkers have debunked and raised questions regarding numerous parts of his story about that day, and there is no evidence of his claims.