Author: rb809rb

Claim:

In 2026, some families of 9/11 victims signed a petition aimed at excluding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the 25th-anniversary commemoration ceremony of the attacks.

Rating:

Context

Some social media posts sharing the claim suggested that the petition represented the views of all of the families of the 2,976 people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There was no evidence that’s true.

In September 2026, as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks neared, a claim (archived) circulated online that some families of 9/11 victims had signed a petition aimed at excluding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the 25th-anniversary ceremony commemorating the attacks.

For example, an X user shared a video of people gathering at New York City Hall and wrote:

A growing coalition of 9/11 victims’ families, first responders, and elected officials are calling on Mamdani to skip the Memorial Ceremony this Friday

An online petition urging organizers to block or reconsider Mamdani’s attendance has garnered over 100,000 signatures

Despite this Mamdani has reaffirmed his commitment to attend

Similar claims about people signing the petition also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived).

Claims circulated after the New York Post reported (archived) on a petition it said sought to “ban” Mamdani from the 9/11 anniversary commemoration.

That petition was real and had more than 100,000 signatures at the time of this writing. Giovanni Galante, whose wife died in the 9/11 attacks, started the petition, which asked organizers of the 25th-anniversary commemoration ceremony to “carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy.” Meryl Mayo-Marshall, whose husband died on 9/11, also told local media she had signed the petition and shared her comments in a Facebook post.

On Sept. 8, New York City councilmember Joann Ariola posted photos (archived) of a group of 9/11 victims’ families handing the petition in at city hall.

Given the above, we’ve rated the claim that some families of 9/11 victims signed a petition aimed at excluding Mamdani from the ceremony as true. 

Contrary to what some posts suggested, there was no evidence that the petition and its request to consider excluding Mamdani from the 9/11 commemoration ceremony represented the views of all of the families of the 2,976 people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In July, Galante reportedly estimated that up to 7,500 relatives of victims had signed the petition, but he told the self-described progressive Substack newsletter Popular Information that his estimate was not based on the actual list of signatories.

Snopes contacted Galante to request confirmation of the information he gave to the New York Post and Popular Information but did not receive a response by the time of publication. We also contacted Cheri Sparacio, a 9/11 victim’s wife who reportedly helped organize the petition, to ask about her involvement and await a reply.

When asked about the petition, a spokesperson from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum that was organizing the 25th- anniversary commemoration ceremony told Snopes in an emailed statement: 

We have intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue. Government officials from across the political spectrum, including every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 9/11, have attended the ceremony simply to bear witness — they do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area.

The spokesperson did not reply to questions about whether the museum invited Mamdani to the ceremony and, if so, whether it would consider rescinding that invitation or asking him not to participate.

At the time of this writing, Mamdani had told reporters he expected to attend the ceremony. He told (archived) WCBS on Sept. 7:

What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th, and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers. And so, in the days to come, my focus will be on attending events that memorializes that incredible courage. And I will be there on Friday at the memorial just as I was last year.

Petition objects to Mamdani’s opinions, associations

According to the petition, family members of 9/11 victims were concerned about Mamdani’s “public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric” that they perceived as not respectful of the victims, not recognizing the gravity of the 9/11 attacks and said failed to reject the “ideologies that contributed to such violence.”

The petition said that Mamdani had not condemned the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” which it said “many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence.”

In a June 29, 2025, interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” then-Democratic candidate Mamdani repeatedly sidestepped requests to condemn the phrase, instead saying that it was not “language I use” but that the role of a mayor was not “to police speech.”

The petition noted other examples of Mamdani’s alleged lack of respect for 9/11 and its victims, including alleged political influence from his father, whose academic work has analyzed the rise and impact of suicide bombers and terrorism.

The petition also said Mamdani had “praised” the Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj. Mamdani faced criticism from Republicans after meeting with Wahhaj in October 2025 (archived, archived, archived).

Wahhaj, who has denied any terrorism links, once appeared on a court-ordered list of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as coconspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, according to Andrew C. McCarthy, the lead prosecutor in the case. McCarthy wrote in October 2025 that prosecutors never alleged that Wahhaj was “a co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing or the overarching terrorism conspiracy.” He described the kind of list in which Wahhaj was included as “overly inclusive.”

Mamdani defended his meeting with Wahhaj to journalists, saying Wahhaj had previously met with other New York City mayors. Mamdani appeared to suggest that critics were placing undue emphasis on the fact that he and Wahhaj are both Muslims.

The petition also objected to Mamdani’s appointment (archived) of Ramzi Kassem as New York City’s chief counsel. Kassem represented Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses involving a 2002 al-Qaida attack on a French-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Al-Darbi later became the only prisoner released from the Guantánamo Bay detention camp during the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

For further reading, Snopes has investigated a number of claims about the 9/11 attacks.

Sources

Claim:

An image collage of six police booking photos circulating online in September 2026 authentically shows Vermont faith leaders who were arrested after protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rating:

Context

The faiths represented among the protesters include a Quaker, two Protestant pastors, one Unitarian Universalist minister, one Methodist pastor, an Episcopalian priest and an Episcopalian archdeacon.

In September 2026, social media users shared an image collage of six mug shots and claimed the people depicted were among seven Vermont faith leaders who were arrested after protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The collage circulated on Threads and Facebook (screenshotted). 

These six mug shots are authentic and legitimately show faith leaders who were arrested after protesting ICE. Their mug shots are available on the Vermont State Police’s official news releases page and several of the faith leaders provided Snopes with comments that corroborated the version of events circulating online.

As such, we have rated this claim as true.

A seventh faith leader, a Quaker named Catherine Bock, was also among those arrested. Her mug shot was not included in the collage.

Faith leaders attempt to stop work at ICE center 

In an email, Rev. Rebecca Girrell, one of the protesters and a Methodist pastor, said the faith leaders were arrested on charges of trespassing after entering the ICE National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, which is located in a private business park. 

According to ICE, the surveillance center is where the agency “analyzes data in numerous law enforcement and immigration databases to develop leads on removable noncitizens” that are then provided to field offices. 

Vermont State Police’s news release (archived) also notes that the arrestees were protesting ICE (emphasis ours):

These individuals were among a group of people who entered the building to protest federal agencies — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that occupy space there alongside private businesses and a medical office. The building owner said the individuals were trespassing, refused to leave when asked, and requested that police remove them from the property.

State police, working in conjunction with the Williston Police Department, responded and spoke with protest leaders. That discussion led to several people leaving the inside of the building, while the others indicated they’d need to be arrested.

Girrell said the protesters were attempting to prevent ICE from being able to surveil and target their neighbors, “at least for a few hours,” in an act of civil disobedience, or a form of protest involving the nonviolent refusal to obey certain laws. By blocking the entrances to the ICE portion of the building, Girrell said they prevented employees from entering for their morning shift, shutting down the office temporarily. 

While a team of protesters on public property outside the building were not arrested, the faith leaders were blocking doors to the ICE office from inside the building, according to Girrell. 

“We sang, prayed, held silence, and read names of people killed in interactions with ICE,” she wrote. “At the time of the arrest, we knelt in silence. Five of us complied with arrest, and two clergy ‘went limp’ and were carried out by police.” 

Who are the arrested faith leaders? 

The names listed in the Vermont State Police news release match the names attached to the police booking photos circulating online, as shown below: 

The individuals arrested are:

• Catherine Bock, 78, of Burlington, VT
• Jessica Derise, 54, of Williston, VT
• Rebecca Girrell, 47, of South Burlington, VT
• Elizabeth Gleich, 36, of Middlebury, VT
• Karen Johnston, 58, of Colchester, VT
• Earl Kooperkamp, 69, of Bradford, VT
• Susan McMillan, 65, of Colchester, VT

Girrell confirmed that each of the seven arrested were faith leaders. They all also have public affiliations to religious orders, allowing the independent verification of their identities. The six mug shots circulating online all show ordained clergy. The remaining person, Bock — whose mug shot was omitted from the collage circulating online — is a Quaker and thus from a religious affiliation that does not ordain clergy.

Bock said in a phone call that her Quaker community knew she planned to protest and were in full support, but that she was acting from her “own conscience.”

She added that this was her fourth time protesting at the ICE facility and that she plans to attend future events, including actions scheduled from Oct. 4 to 9. She then said she saw parallels between ICE detention and her parents’ experiences escaping Nazi Germany. 

“I think that most people don’t want to see their brothers and sisters treated the way that ICE has treated people,” Bock added.

Revs. Derise and Gleich are Christian Protestant pastors. 

“As clergy, my faith does not allow me to remain silent while neighbors are dehumanized, detained, or separated from those they love,” Derise said in an emailed statement. “I protest peacefully because every person bears sacred worth, no government agency is beyond moral accountability, and solidarity must be practiced – not merely preached.”

Johnston is a Unitarian Universalist, a liberal religious tradition that unites people based on shared values, rather than a single creed. In an emailed statement, Johnston, a minister, said her faith’s values “call me and all people of conscience and faith to actively not cooperate with the system of cruelty that is fueled by this ICE spy center.” 

Kooperkamp is an Episcopalian priest and McMillan is an archdeacon from the same faith. In an email to the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont congregation, the diocese’s bishop, Shannon MacVean-Brown, expressed support for their protest. MacVean-Brown said the protest was planned “as a nonviolent action by a broad grassroots coalition of Vermont faith leaders.” 

“As Christians, we are called not only to bear witness to injustice but to act. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, that is not a passive action. It is constant, immediate, and proactive,” MacVean-Brown’s statement reads. “Civil disobedience, which has a long history in our country and in the Episcopal Church, is one way we actively love our neighbors.” 

The email also includes a statement from McMillan, which says America’s “national leaders” claim to be Christian while authorizing “heinous and immoral policies.” 

“Every day, from this building, ICE surveils, determining which man, woman or child should be targeted. And then that person, or someone mistaken for that person, or a brown skinned person who happens to be nearby, is kidnapped, incarcerated without due process, and their life destroyed,” McMillan’s statement says. “If Jesus were here in the US today, he could easily be caught in this trap and deported. This is not Christianity and I have to fight this cruelty in every way I can.” 

ICE did not immediately return a request to respond to the faith leaders’ criticisms of the agency. Snopes also reached out to Gleich for her thoughts on the protest. We await a response.