New York City marked the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history.

The mayor of the city that lost nearly 3,000 souls enraged millions of Americans

And that’s because Zohran Mamdani insulted 9/11 victims’ families with this unspeakable insult.

The Pen, the Lawyer, and the al-Qaeda Connection

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani handed the ceremonial pen from a 9/11 remembrance ceremony to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem — a lawyer who once represented a convicted al-Qaeda operative whose brother-in-law hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and flew it into the Pentagon. Mamdani had signed two executive orders at City Hall ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, one designating the date a citywide day of remembrance and service, the other strengthening the city’s defenses against future terror threats.

After signing the final order, Mamdani turned to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, handed her the pen, and asked her to pass it along. Tisch handed it to Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani’s chief counsel, who had arrived only minutes earlier.

Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty to war-crime charges linked to al-Qaeda maritime plots, including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen, Fox News reported.

Al-Darbi was held at Guantanamo Bay, and his sister married Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon and killed 184 people.

Al-Darbi admitted to buying boats, GPS systems and a hydraulic crane to carry out the attack and admitted to handling money from al-Qaeda to fund the attack, which killed one crew member and injured 12 sailors.

And Kassem reportedly smirked when he took the pen.

City Hall told the New York Post that Kassem attended the ceremony because he and his team drafted both executive orders as part of his duties as chief counsel. That explanation satisfied nobody.

Victims’ Families and Elected Officials Fire Back

Dennis Warchola, whose firefighter brother died in the North Tower, asked, “How can you defend a guy like that who wants to do Americans or any innocent person harm?” the Post reported.

Joyce Cohen Day, whose mother died in the South Tower, told the Washington Times that Mamdani deliberately gave a pen “to an al Qaeda lawyer.”

New York state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger called the moment “sick,” the Washington Times reported.

Republican Council Member Vicki Paladino of Queens said Kassem “doesn’t even belong in this country, much less in our government,” according to the Post.

None of that is coming from the fringe. These are the people who lost brothers and mothers and watched the towers fall from their own neighborhoods. Their anger is not a political performance.

But Mamdani’s office offered no apology and no further comment. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the criticism. Kassem also did not respond.

A Pattern That Goes Well Beyond One Pen

The pen incident did not happen in a vacuum. Mamdani came into office carrying a record that made 9/11 families uneasy long before this ceremony.

Mamdani’s own words about 9/11 had drawn scrutiny even before he took office. During an October 2025 campaign speech on Islamophobia outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, Mamdani grew emotional describing a relative’s experience after the attacks.

And the backlash to the pen handoff did not arrive without context. A coalition of 9/11 family members, first responders, and elected officials gathered on the steps of City Hall to deliver a petition to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani asking him to stay away from this year’s September 11 memorial service.

“If we feel that we don’t want someone at our world-class memorial museum that’s sacred and hallowed, we feel that that person should respect our wishes,” said Monica Iken, whose husband, Michael, was killed in the attacks.

Cheri Sparacio, whose husband, Tom, was killed in the South Tower, said the petition was not about the mayor’s background or faith, but his public actions.

That distinction matters. The objection to Mamdani at the memorial is rooted in what he has done in office and who he has chosen to surround himself with — not in any blanket hostility toward any religion or community. But Mamdani and his allies have worked hard to blur that line, and the pen handoff fits that pattern perfectly.

Kassem is not just any lawyer Mamdani happened to hire. Kassem was the lead defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, a Saudi Arabian national and al-Qaeda operative convicted by a US military commission in connection with the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. Kassem and his students have represented 15 prisoners held at Guantanamo, Bagram and other facilities.

Mamdani chose this man to be the city’s chief counsel. Then he chose to hand him the ceremonial pen at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. And then his office offered a bureaucratic shrug about paperwork drafting as the explanation.

September 11, 2001, was carried out by Islamic terrorists directed by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda — 19 hijackers who murdered nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. That is not a contested fact. What is being contested right now is whether the mayor of New York City takes the memory of those victims seriously, or whether these ceremonies are, for him, a performance to be subverted with a smirk and a pen.

The families watching that video have their answer. Whether the rest of the country is paying attention is a different question entirely.

New York has imported a political culture from the socialist Left that is increasingly comfortable with gestures like this one — gestures that would have been unthinkable in any previous mayoral administration. When a city elects a Democratic Socialist who appoints a lawyer with Kassem’s record as his top legal officer, outcomes like this one stop being surprises. They become the point.

The 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history deserved better than what New York’s mayor gave it. The families standing on the steps of City Hall with their petition knew that. The firefighter’s brother who asked how anyone defends a man who wanted to harm Americans knew that. The woman who lost her mother in the South Tower knew that.

Zohran Mamdani handed a pen to Ramzi Kassem, Kassem reportedly smirked, and then they both walked away.

Sources: The Daily Caller; New York Post; Fox News; Washington Times; Israel365 News