Soros-Funded Group Attempts to Shield NYC’s Radical Mayor from 9/11 Families’ Fury
Over 62,000 Americans have signed a petition demanding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani stay away from Ground Zero’s 25th anniversary memorial – and now a George Soros-funded nonprofit is desperately trying to shut them down.
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, bankrolled with $525,000 from Soros’s Open Society Foundation since 2016, released a statement Tuesday that reads like a masterclass in leftist gaslighting. The group accused petition organizers of targeting Mamdani simply because he’s Muslim, conveniently ignoring the mayor’s documented history of cozying up to terrorism sympathizers.
This is the Left’s playbook in action: silence legitimate criticism by weaponizing identity politics and crying Islamophobia.
The Real Reason Families Want Mamdani Gone
Giovanni Galante, who lost his 29-year-old wife Grace on September 11, 2001, isn’t buying the manufactured outrage. As the petition’s lead organizer, he’s crystal clear about why grieving families don’t want this mayor anywhere near sacred ground.
“This has nothing to do with Islam or Mamdani being Muslim,” Galante told reporters. “It has to do with who he associates with and who he represents.”
Those associations are damning. Mamdani has embraced vile left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who infamously declared “America deserved” 9/11. Even worse, the mayor appeared arm-in-arm with Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Let that sink in. The mayor of New York City – the city that bore the brunt of America’s deadliest terrorist attack – is photographed smiling with someone connected to terrorism against that very city.
Soros’s Tentacles Run Deep
The nonprofit trying to silence these families is just one piece of Soros’s elaborate influence operation. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows operates as an affiliate of the Tides Center, a deep-pocketed radical advocacy group that serves as a money-laundering operation for leftist causes.
The organization claims 250 members worldwide and pushes an agenda that includes “strongly condemning” U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. That’s right – they’re carrying water for the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism while attacking Americans who question a mayor’s fitness to honor 9/11 victims.
Soros and his Open Society Foundation didn’t just fund this nonprofit. They poured $37 million into the Working Families Party and at least nine radical groups that engineered Mamdani’s upset victory over Andrew Cuomo in last year’s Democratic mayoral primary.
This is billionaire-backed political manipulation at its finest.
Grassroots Fury Builds Momentum
The petition has exploded since news broke last week, with thousands of signatures pouring in daily. Galante estimates thousands of those signatures come from family members of 9/11 victims themselves – the very people Soros’s nonprofit claims to represent.
“I’ve gotten so much support from people I don’t even know,” Galante said. “Emails, texts showing love and interest in keeping the mayor out of the ceremony.”
These are real Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. They’re not professional activists or paid protesters. They’re grieving family members who refuse to let their loved ones’ memory be tarnished by a mayor who fraternizes with terrorism apologists.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who represents Belle Harbor and surrounding Queens neighborhoods devastated by the attacks, didn’t mince words about Soros’s interference.
“The voices of 9/11 families should not be drowned out by billionaire-backed activists and those engulfed by their propaganda campaign,” the Republican lawmaker declared. “The mayor needs to stay home and sit this one out.”
The Left’s Cynical Identity Shield
The Soros-funded group’s statement demonstrates everything wrong with modern progressive politics. Rather than address Mamdani’s troubling associations, they immediately deployed the race and religion card, accusing concerned citizens of “anti-American accusations and Islamophobic sentiment.”
This cynical tactic insults actual victims of discrimination while shielding powerful politicians from legitimate scrutiny.
Galante demolished this argument with simple clarity: “We’re not against Muslims; we’re not against Jews; we’re not against anyone. We’re against people who are against America – who want us to suffer or be murdered.”
That’s the distinction the Left refuses to acknowledge. Questioning a public official’s judgment in embracing terrorism sympathizers has nothing to do with that official’s faith. It has everything to do with basic decency and respect for the 2,977 innocent Americans murdered by al-Qaeda terrorists.
Soros’s Track Record Speaks Volumes
Charles G. Wolf, who lost his 40-year-old wife Katherine when the Twin Towers fell, signed the petition and had harsh words for the opposition.
“Anything that is backed by George Soros is illegitimate,” Wolf stated bluntly. “This is not the people speaking. This is George Soros and his billions of dollars trying to cause public strife in America. Don’t let George Soros make a monkey out of us.”
Wolf’s assessment aligns with Soros’s well-documented pattern of funding radical prosecutors, defund-the-police movements, and anti-American organizations across the country. The Hungarian-born billionaire has made a second career of bankrolling efforts to fundamentally transform American institutions.
Now he’s attempting to silence 9/11 families who dare to speak uncomfortable truths about a mayor he helped install.
The Stakes of This Fight
This confrontation represents more than one controversial mayor and one memorial service. It’s a microcosm of the larger battle for America’s soul.
On one side stand everyday Americans – grieving families, concerned citizens, and patriots who believe public officials should be held accountable for their associations and actions. On the other side stand billionaire elites, their nonprofit front groups, and politicians willing to excuse any behavior if it advances their ideological agenda.
The petition organizers understand they’re fighting against massive financial resources and a complicit media establishment. But they’re not backing down.
Ground Zero isn’t just another photo opportunity for ambitious politicians. It’s sacred ground where thousands of Americans took their last breaths as radical Islamic terrorists murdered them in the name of jihad.
Families have every right to demand that anyone who stands at that site to honor their loved ones hasn’t embraced, enabled, or legitimized those who sympathize with such evil.
Where This Goes Next
As the 25th anniversary approaches, pressure will intensify on all sides. Mamdani must decide whether to respect the wishes of grieving families or use his position to force his presence at a ceremony where he’s clearly unwanted.
The Soros-funded nonprofit will likely double down on its identity-politics messaging, painting legitimate criticism as bigotry. That’s what they do. That’s all they have.
But the petition signatures keep climbing. Real people – not billionaire checkbooks – are driving this movement.
September 11, 2001, was the deadliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. The victims deserve better than a mayor who smiles for cameras with an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing.
They deserve better than Soros-funded groups trying to silence their families’ voices.
And they certainly deserve better than politicians and activists who reflexively scream “Islamophobia” to avoid addressing legitimate concerns about terrorism sympathizers.
The families organizing this petition aren’t asking for much. They simply want the 25th anniversary memorial to honor the dead without being turned into a political spectacle by a controversial mayor with deeply troubling associations.
That’s not bigotry. That’s basic respect for the 2,977 souls we lost that terrible day.
