Washington – A proposed crescent-shaped memorial to 9/11 victims killed in Pennsylvania too closely resembles a key symbol of Islam and should be scrapped because the terrorist hijackers were “radical Islamists,” Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo said Tuesday.
In a letter to the National Park Service, Tancredo said that the plan for the memorial at the site where hijacked United Flight 93 crashed “has raised questions in some circles about whether the design, if constructed, will in fact make the memorial a tribute to the hijackers rather than the victims.”
Forty passengers and crew members died in the Sept. 11, 2001, crash after a struggle with terrorists who had commandeered the jet.
Tancredo’s criticism comes less than two months after the Littleton Republican suggested on a Florida talk radio program that the United States should consider bombing Islamic holy sites if extremist Muslims launched a nuclear attack against U.S. cities.
“Congressman Tancredo seems to have almost an allergy to Islam,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations. “If he’s so hostile to symbols that are associated with Islam, what does that say about his attitude toward the American Muslim community and Muslims in the state of Colorado?”
Tancredo’s latest comments will further hurt America’s image overseas and will be seen as an official position, Hooper added.
The winning design for the Shanksville, Pa., memorial was unveiled last week. A jury including family members of victims selected it out of more than 1,000 entrants. The plan includes a crescent of red maple trees, meant to symbolize a circle broken by the path of Flight 93.
Questions about the crescent shape were raised months ago and put aside, said D. Hamilton Peterson, spokesman for the Flight 93 families. The red crescent shape throughout history as been seen as a positive humanitarian symbol, he said.
“I see this as a very, very unfortunate distraction born of unsophistication,” said Peterson, whose father and stepmother, Donald A. and Jean Peterson, died in the crash of Flight 93. “We’re just surprised that people didn’t reach out to us directly.”
Lone Tree resident Sandy Dahl, widow of Flight 93 captain Jason Dahl, said Tancredo is entitled to his opinion but said, “I just don’t see the same thing.
“The last thing I want is for that memorial to perpetuate any kind of hate because it’s a place of healing,” she added. If any family member objected it should be changed, Dahl said, but so far none has.
Tancredo said he accepts that “there are a number of different kinds of ways that symbol can be viewed, some of them both benign and/or compassionate.
“The other impression that it leaves is one of a symbol of Islam,” Tancredo said. “Although that is also OK … the reality is that it certainly conjures up a number of images in one’s mind about the appropriateness of that kind of thing at this kind of site. It just seems to me that there was no need to create this kind of controversy.”
Tancredo said he first heard about the memorial design Monday while listening to conservative Denver radio talk show host Mike Rosen. He said he had his staff research the design and knew that the families had helped choose it.
“It has nothing to do with my personal feelings about Islam or my understanding of Islam,” Tancredo said. “We’re talking about a national monument that I believe opens more wounds than it salves.”
Tancredo’s latest statements show he is untrustworthy, Colorado Muslim Society president Rafaat Ludin said.
The lawmaker met with the group in August to hear its concerns after he made the comments about bombing Mecca. At that time, Ludin said, Tancredo said he harbored no ill feelings about Muslims. There are about 40,000 Muslims in the state.
“If you become so paranoid that you look at a broken circle and say it is a half moon and the symbol of Islam and needs to be removed, it shows a very, very anti-Islamic mentality,” Ludin said.
Tancredo said his questions about the memorial are “totally unrelated to any of those issues” discussed with Colorado Muslims.
