Former New York Mayor Giuliani designated 'anti-Muslim extremist' by Muslim advocacy group

The Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair) designated Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as an anti-Muslim extremist on Wednesday, following what they called “bigoted” remarks during a TV interview he gave earlier this week.

During the Newsmax appearance, Giuliani said that Mayor Zohran Mamdani should not attend Friday's 9/11 memorial service. “It offends me that he's coming,” he told Newsmax earlier this week.

In that same interview, Giuliani, a former advisor to US President Trump during his first tenure, said that Muslims were taking over parts of America and Europe.

Giuliani continued to perpetuate racist stereotypes, saying, “They (Muslims) want to dominate us. That's what they're taught the day they begin their extremist religious education. Mamdani is a clear supporter of that. All of the Muslims he supports are murderers.”

“Mr Giuliani has a decades-long record of targeting our community simply because of our faith, and we are designating him an anti-Muslim extremist as a result of his hateful views,” Cair research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said in a statement.

When asked about Giuliani's comments on Monday, Mamdani declined to engage directly with the former mayor's criticism, saying he wanted the week to focus on “the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could”.

Giuliani joins over 100,000 people who signed a petition calling for the mayor not to attend, arguing that his past statements, political associations, and political views conflict with what the families consider the ceremony's solemn purpose.

New York City Councilwoman Vicky Paladino - who is publicising the petition along with Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola - held a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, saying that she is demanding Mayor Mamdani not come to the 9/11 memorial because “he does not belong there”.

Councilwoman Paladino is known for making Islamophobic comments. Last year on social media platform X, she called for the expulsion of Muslims from western nations. In February, Paladino compared Mayor Mamdani’s leadership to “Islamic conquest” and said, “We are being replaced”.

Executive director of Cair-New York Afaf Nasher says that “American Muslims should not have to defend our patriotism every time a deranged politician exploits that tragedy (9/11) to attack our community.”

9/11 executive orders and transparency

On Tuesday, Mayor Mamdani released 170,000 pages of records in relation to the 9/11 attacks in a portal open to the public. Mamdani held the press conference alongside comedian and The Daily Show host John Stewart, first responders, and the families of 9/11 victims.

The documents show that the city knew the air in Lower Manhattan was toxic and that inspectors found asbestos nearly everywhere they tested.

According to the 9/11 Memorial, over 140,000 people have enrolled in the World Trade Center health programme, and 49,000 have been diagnosed with certified World Trade Center-related cancers

More people have died due to 9/11 related illnesses than were killed on the day itself. Mayor Mamdani blames the leaders who were in charge. “People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. And then when they began to contend with the symptoms of the illnesses that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm's way was nowhere to be found,” Mamdani said.

Giuliani was mayor at the time of the 9/11 attacks. After the release of these documents, Mamdani was asked if Giuliani shouldn’t attend the 9/11 memorial out of respect for the 9/11 related cancer deaths, to which Mamdani responded that this day was about the victims and the families, not about any politicians.