New York marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

AFP | New York

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New York commemorated the 25th anniversary of the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks yesterday with a ceremony marked by controversy over President Donald Trump's absence and right-wing outrage over the attendance of the city's first Muslim mayor.

In an unusual move, Trump was paying his respects at the Pentagon, rather than joining the event in New York, where hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and killed most of the 2,977 total victims on that world-altering day.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump's four living predecessors -- Republican George W. Bush, who was in office during the attacks, and Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- were gathering at the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stands at the memorial during the 25th anniversary commemoration

The ceremony, which began just after 8:40 a.m (1240 GMT), was designed to be apolitical, with no speeches.

Bereaved family members were reading out the names of all of those killed, with a bell tolling to mark major moments of the attack, which sparked years of US involvement in Middle East wars and bitter controversy over Washington's human rights record.

"Memorials like this and discussions about those events are an important part of keeping it alive and understanding how we prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again," said Robert Kafka, a Chicagoan in his 60s visiting the 9/11 Memorial.

Alongside the former presidents was Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Big Apple's first Muslim mayor.

He faced a well organized campaign urging him to stay away spearheaded by the right-wing New York Post and former mayor and Trump-ally Rudy Giuliani.

A petition, which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, accuses Mamdani of associating with unspecified individuals who are "dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies."

"It's concerning to me that the mayor is being treated differently simply because he is Muslim," city council member Shahana Hanif told CNN.