25 years after 9/11: Mamdani's New York already speaks a different language

25 years after the 9/11 attacks, New York's first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, leads the memorial ceremonies. The article examines the profound shift in the boundaries of political discourse in the city: Mamdani, a BDS supporter, condemned the attacks but refused to condemn the call to "make the intifada global" and chose a legal advisor who represented an Al-Qaeda detainee. The article outlines the tension between the memory of the disaster and the change in perceptions.

Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, the person leading the memorial ceremonies in New York is Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim elected mayor of the city. The article examines the profound change the city has undergone since 2001, presenting Mamdani as the most distinct expression of the shift in the boundaries of political discourse. Mamdani publicly condemned the attacks as a "horrific act of terrorism" and declared September 11 a permanent city memorial day, but his past is controversial: he is a long-time supporter of the BDS movement, accused Israel of "genocide" in Gaza, refused to condemn the call to "make the intifada global," and chose Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an Al-Qaeda detainee at Guantanamo, as his chief legal advisor. The article notes that over 100,000 people signed a petition calling on Mamdani not to attend the ceremony at Ground Zero, but he announced he would come. Concurrently, it describes the viral phenomenon of Osama bin Laden's "Letter to America" on TikTok in November 2023, where young Americans rediscovered the text through the lens of the war in Gaza. The article highlights the paradox: despite Mamdani's election, a Pew Research Center poll shows that 51% of Americans believe Islam encourages violence more than other religions, compared to only 25% in 2002. The conclusion: America has not forgotten 9/11, but the question of what exactly is remembered, what lesson is drawn, and who is blamed has become far less consensual.