By R. Cort Kirkwood
September 11, 2026
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were captured on video laughing during the annual memorial service for victims of the September 11 attacks in New York. The footage occurred as speakers read the names of those killed in the 2001 terrorist assaults, a moment critics described as an apparent disregard for the 3,000 Americans who perished that day.
According to data from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the Muslim population in the United States has grown by 103 percent since 2001, rising from 1.7 million to 3.4 million by 2024. Mamdani, who was a 10-year-old boy during the attacks and later became New York City’s mayor, has been linked to figures involved in past terrorist activities in the city. In October 2025, he publicly appeared with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Ocasio-Cortez, who was 12 years old on September 11, 2001, attended this year’s memorial ceremony as a member of Congress.