Perceived Evocation of Islamic Crescent Creates Opposition to Flight 93 Memorial Design in Pennsylvania

Today New York Times includes a report on opposition to the design selected for the memorial to the 9/11 victims of United Flight 93. The article summarizes the complaints as follows:

As envisioned by its designer, the memorial to the victims who died on Sept. 11, 2001, when United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., would follow the topography of the bowl-shaped land, creating a circular pathway ringed by trees, all focused on the “sacred ground” of the crash site near the bottom of the circle.

But almost from the moment the winning entry for the memorial was chosen in 2005 over 1,058 others it has been beset by controversy, most of it coming from critics who see Islamic symbolism in the design.

The critics complain that the shape of the memorial — designed by Paul Murdoch, an architect based in Los Angeles — is an Islamic crescent, that a wind-chime tower mirrors an Islamic minaret and that the memorial would point east toward the Islamic holy city of Mecca.

The complaints gained traction recently because Tom Burnett Sr., the father of a Flight 93 victim, has become one of the most prominent opponents.

“It’s really revolting to me, this whole thing,” said Mr. Burnett, a retired high school English teacher from Northfield, Minn. “It’s an insult to my son and all the others.”

JFB