Model of Flight 93 memorial
Posted on 09/10/2005 1:14:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
A Pennsylvania pastor is fighting the newly approved design of the Flight 93 National Memorial, contending its crescent pattern is a symbol of Islam.
Rev. Ron McRae, head of the Bible Anabaptist Church near Jerome, Pa., about 55 miles from Pittsburgh, said a private group he formed might go to court to block the "Crescent of Embrace" memorial designed by Paul Murdoch Associates of Los Angeles.
"This is a memorial to the terrorists who killed those people, not a memorial to the folks who died there innocently," McRae told the Tribune-Democrat newspaper in Johnstown, Pa.
McRae of Conemaugh Township, Pa., is director and founder of the Lancaster-based Street Preachers Fellowship.
The heart of the memorial is a mile-long semicircle of red maples surrounding the place near Shanksville, Pa, where the flight's 40 passengers and crew were killed when the hijacked plane plunged into the ground Sept. 11, 2001.
The designer maintains he used the term crescent only in the architectural sense of a curved line.
"This is not about any religion per se," Murdoch told the Tribune-Democrat. "It's a spiritual space, and a sacred place, but it's open to anyone."
But McRae vows to fight it.
"They wouldn't dare put up the Ten Commandments or the cross of Christ, but they're going to put up a red crescent," he said. "We're not going to stand idly by and allow this to happen."
Several weblogs raised similar concerns about the design.
Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs asked: "Is this a coincidence, an example of amazing cluelessness, or something more deliberate?"
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters said, "Can you imagine the outcry from the multiculturalists and the ACLU had the design incorporated a cross or a Star of David in honor of the victims? Why should we tolerate the Crescent that, inadvertently or deliberately, honors the terrorists?
Model of Flight 93 memorial
By chance, it does happen to orient to Mecca. What a coincidence... NOT!!
the infowarrior
ping
Then it's also pointing toward Albany, NY! What a coincidence... NOT!!
What we've got here is a tempest in a teapot by people who are desperately looking for something to get their panties in a bunch about
"Apples and oranges."
How so? were these people, although civilians, not fighting a
war in every sense of the word just as WWII vets? I think this is not apples and oranges, but an apt comparison. Sure, there may be other uses for the crecent symbol, but in this case it is more than bad taste, It is an Islamic symbol, and it is a slap in the face of every American. Now go eat yer croissant.
1 I don't like the thing. It says nothing about what happened there.
2 It is an Islamic symbol. So we should ban all crescent shaped object?
3 Today in history
1683 A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria. The severed head of Kara Mustapha, Turkish grand vizier, was preserved by Austria as a souvenir of the siege of Vienna.
1683 Cappuccino first made. Turks left behind sacks of coffee at Vienna which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became the croissant.
" It is an Islamic symbol. So we should ban all crescent shaped object? "
Don't be silly. You sound like a liberal. In this particular instance, you don't see anything wrong with using an Islamic symbol(or reasonable facsimile) to mark the site of an Islamic terrorist attack on this country? Do you REALLY think this is OK? Do you think this design and its orientation are mere coincidences? I don't mean to be rude, but not to see the outrage or the insult by this design is to truly be turning a blind eye. Why not put a mosque at ground zero? Same thing, religion of peace, you know. Or perhaps this display of sensitivity towards the peaceful, misunderstood muslims will quell their desire to destroy our society.
The more I read, the more I'm sure that the crescent was on purpose. @$$hole.
D@mm!t, we should send in our own proposals and sell it to the highest bidder. But remember, the most important thing is to convince the families, and dont't dwell too much on the Islam angle. Emphasize the fact that it doesn't portray and memorialize what it should.
The chapel is in reference to my proposed design. Sorry if I gave you the wrong idea.
The chapel would definitely be a Christian one. It would be the only house of worship on the memorial. Imagine the boondoggle and costs if houses of worship were created for all the major religions.
I am cool with a Christian chapel......in the state of Pennsylvania, named after a Quaker, for Heaven's sake!
I saw elsewhere on FR that it also pointed towards Mecca with an error of less than 2 degrees. This cannot be allowed.
Do you think this design and its orientation are mere coincidences?
Short answer...yes.
For the record I really don't like this design. It says nothing about what happened here.
So, where can I use this idea to make obscene amounts of cash?
Oh and to honor the memories of the victims. ;P
Heroes, not victims. Sorry about that. :e
The only reason there weren't more 93s is because of the lack of knowledge of the scumbags' intentions.
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