Twenty-five years after the September 11th attacks, New York City's first Muslim mayor prepares to attend the official memorial, even as prominent voices call for his absence. The controversy has surfaced an enduring question in American civic life: whether belonging can be conditional, and whether grief itself can be politicized. In speaking out, Zeshan Hamdani — whose Muslim brother died in the North Tower as a police cadet — reminds the city that the dead did not sort themselves by faith, and neither should the living who mourn them.
Muslim first responder's brother defends mayor's 9/11 memorial attendance
Salman Hamdani, a Muslim American New York police cadet, was killed in the North Tower on September 11, 2001.