American actress Patricia Heaton joins campaign against Zohran Mamdani's 9/11 ceremony participation
American actress Patricia Heaton, who witnessed the September 11 attacks in New York, has joined families of victims calling for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be barred from the 25th-anniversary memorial ceremony. The 'Everybody Loves Raymond' star shared the petition, which has garnered nearly 45,000 signatures, urging organizers to exclude the mayor.
American actress Patricia Heaton, who was in New York during the September 11 terrorist attacks, has joined the families of the victims calling to ban New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from participating in the ceremony marking 25 years since the attacks. The star of the series "Everybody Loves Raymond" expressed her support for the petition, which had gathered almost 45,000 signatures by yesterday, by sharing the link to it with her more than 500,000 followers on the X network and writing: "Keep it up, New Yorkers."
Although born in Ohio, Heaton lived in New York for a period in the 80s and was in the city on September 11, 2001, by pure coincidence. "I was with the cast of 'Everybody Loves Raymond', it was a scary experience," she wrote on X about two years ago alongside a video she posted to mark the annual memorial day. Later, against the backdrop of the October 7 massacre, she expressed support for the State of Israel: "It's hard to believe that Israel is now experiencing the same horrors, this must end."
In a two-minute video, Heaton compared the terrorist organization Hamas to Al-Qaeda terrorists:
"September 11 again, the same terrorists are back in full force. This time they are attacking Israel, but in fact they are attacking all of us. Anyone who calls on Israel to lay down its arms is supporting the same people who brought down the Twin Towers."
As mentioned, the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks are demanding to ban New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, from participating in the ceremony marking 25 years since the attack. According to them, Mamdani has shown a lenient attitude over the years towards elements associated with Islamic terrorism, and therefore his presence at the ceremony would be an insult to the memory of the nearly 3,000 murdered.
"Our opposition stems from the fact that he did not meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day and was even associated with people who minimized the significance of the attacks, defended terrorists, and claimed that the US 'brought it on itself'," said Giovanni Galante, whose wife was murdered in the attacks, to the 'New York Post'.
Petition organizers hope to collect enough signatures to convince local legislators and organizers to prevent the mayor from participating in the ceremony that will be held at the memorial site in Lower Manhattan. The petition, which was published on the Change.org website, lists a series of allegations against the first Muslim mayor of New York, who frequently and incessantly spreads his pro-Palestinian opinion.
